Picturebooks and Young Children: Potential, Power, and Practices

Picturebooks hold a special pride of place in the learning, literacy, and lives of young children. While all forms of children’s literature have the potential to impact young readers, picturebooks offer a multimodal format that includes both print and visual texts and which offer readers opportunities to construct meaning based on each of these modalities, as well as from the dynamic interplay between these modes (Arizpe, 2021; Kachorsky, Moses, Serafini & Hoeltling, 2017; Nodelman, 2017; Salisbury & Styles, 2020; Wolfenbarger & Sipe, 2007). Reading picturebooks involves navigating an “intricate dance” of words and images with a meaning that is more complex than a sum of its parts (Sipe, 2011, p. 232).

Though enjoyed by many, picturebooks are typically aimed at an audience of young children. As resources, they are compact, aesthetically appealing, literature-rich, and reasonably available, and hold an appeal for a broad range of developmental levels and interests. These texts can serve as an introduction to the worlds of literature and art, as springboards for rich talk and interactions, as the focus of important social bonding experiences, and as effective pedagogical tools for life and learning (Acer & Gözen, 2020; Jalongo, 2004; Sipe, 2008; Wanless & Crawford 2016). Picturebooks, like the broader expanse of children’s literature, can invite reflection and provide illumination. Powerful books can function as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors (Sims Bishop, 1990); that is, picturebooks can offer stories that reflect a child’s own life, that give them glimpses into the worlds of others; and in some cases, allow readers to slip through a portal that will transport them to new places and experiences. Many picturebooks offer children invitations to explore complex and challenging topics (Arizpe, 2021; Crawford, Roberts & Zygouris-Coe, 2019; Wiseman, Vehabovic, & Jones, 2019). Educators and other caring adults can support children’s transactions with picturebooks in supportive, developmentally appropriate, and impactful ways.

For this special issue of Early Childhood Education Journal, we invite manuscripts that focus on the theme, Picturebooks and Young Children: Potential, Power, and Practices. We seek a broad range of manuscripts that highlight the important aspects of picturebooks and the readings and pedagogy that surround them in the lives of young children, birth through age 8. We invite authors to provide overviews of the ways picturebooks are being used in state of the art practices around the world.