Mirrors and Windows: Our Most Amazing World

Much is being made (justifiably) of the need to create and circulate books in which people from all backgrounds can find themselves. Of equal importance is that books depicting varied peoples, places, and points of view offer windows to a wider world for individuals whose world experience is narrow.
If this is in some way news to you, please learn more about the discussion and drive by checking into the WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS website and resources, here. 

It's not as if excellent books serving these purposes haven't available in the past. The tragedy is that the percentage of such books is vanishingly small, and has remained so for far too long. You'll find documentation of those facts and the decades-long publishing patterns in children's literature in this post from the reliable CCBC, as shared in Horn Book recently. 

In this post I'd like to share and recommend two books, one older and one very recent, that allow ALL readers to explore the world and find themselves along their reading journeys.

Candlewick Pres, 2010

Jeannie Baker is the multi-talented author/illustrator of MIRROR, published in 2010. This still feels like a "new" book to me, but it made its way onto store and library shelves nearly eight years ago. That was long before the current movement for more diverse books was underway. 
Ms. Baker's award-winning art wins praise from many quarters for it's technical and interpretive skill. More importantly, it draws young eyes magically and won't let them go until they have scoured every square inch, commenting and comparing,  turning pages forward and back, again and again.
In this case, her power is magnified by an incredible book design.


MIRROR is meant to be laid open to allow it to reveal, front to back, the English/Western life of a family in a modern urban setting. At the same time it can be read, visually, from back to front, following Arabic literacy conventions. That half of the book depicts the  life of a Middle Eastern rug-weaving family, turn by turn, until they meet the Western family at the center fold and their lives intersect. It's an intriguing and simple-but-brilliant look at the interdependence of all lives, of the many ways in which human commonalities define us even more than differences.


Compare Mirror to a very recent release by author/illustrator Matt Lamothe, THIS IS HOW WE DO IT. Rather than explore only two families and cultures, Lamothe selects seven families from around the world to portray and label the intricacies of those similarities and differences through the course of a day-in-the-life. 
He doesn't attempt to weave a storyline throughout their lives. In fact, he chose to shift the positioning of each character/culture instead of locking each in the same orientation on the page. The labeling is still effective and offers an oppportunity for kids to  eagerly challenge themselves, turning back often to remind themselves of who is who and where they live. 

Chronicle Books Canada, 2017

Endpapers do a a great job of showing just how small our world really is. Back matter provides a simple but helpful glossary (in natural, kid-friendly language) to expand on specific terminology from various scenes and cultures. The author's note explains how he was inspired to create the book and describes the complex process he used to assure authenticity for this nonfiction treasure. It's worth a read in and of itself, and the final double spread using photographs of the seven actual families should lead many young readers to explore Lamothe's final notes.

I particularly appreciate these two titles for use in presenting a balanced view of kids and families in far-flung parts of the world. I've shared  some recent  titles here and here that focus on refugees and immigrants.Presenting objective and realistic stories that  share those harsh experiences is essential, but it's all too easy for young readers to develop a false concept: that all "others" are destitute or desperate or seeking to leave their homes. These two titles provide a healthy contradiction to that misperception. They show a variety of daily life patterns in which the children and families are comfortably settled in routines and relationships that feel familiar and safe. In fact, they make the prospect of traveling and meeting people around the world quite appealing. 
We could use more with that attitude at every age, in my opinion.

How Picture Books Speak to Us: Listening with our Eyes.

What IS a picture book, anyway? 

When I was invited to speak to a workshop of experienced teachers I found the room filled with the nearly unanimously opinion that picture books meant wordless books. 

I'll get to that category in a few paragraphs, but picture books are simply books in which the visual images function as an essential part of the narrative of the book as a whole. 

Do wordless books do this?

Absolutely. 
Picture books encompass every conceivable genre-- information, nonfiction narratives, poetry, storybooks, fantasy, alphabet books, concept books, and board books (usually considered a special category), among many others. 

But the vast majority of picture books include text, in one way or another-- from speech bubbles and paneled text images to formally framed text alternating with framed illustrations... and everything in between. That text combines with the visual narrative resulting in a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Chronicle Books, 2016

So why is the quirky duck-ish character so convinced that THIS IS NOT A PICTURE BOOK! Author/illustrator Sergio Ruzzier utilizes every inch of this book to answer that question. The book jacket poses not only the clever title and key characters but subtly presents the premise of the story in gray text. On the opening end papers the conventions of text are evident (word chunks, left-to-right progression with punctuation, and recognizable letter combinations). With each page turn we discover more of the premise: a book, a many-paged, text-only book, has dropped into their lives. Only once the title question is relevant does the title page appear. 

Despite his/her protests about text being too hard, together they attempt to make sense of a senseless letter scramble, gradually discovering recognizable words, concepts, scenes, and emotions. The journey a (new kind of) reader takes within its pages eventually returns them home, satisfied and pleased. 
The charming final chirp, "READ IT AGAIN!" confirms that those who really read text, finding within it powerful visual narratives, will come to love those "not-a-picture-books" every bit as much as they do actual picture books. The final endpapers reprise the story in words, this time clearly readable.

Here's what I had to say about it on Goodreads:

Lovable on so many levels, with questions of word-reading, meaning-reading, visualization, book concepts, and concepts of the book. Author/illustrator Ruzzier explores this and more in his minimalist, humorous, and re-readable-to-the-Nth degree picture book. (And it IS a picture book, regardless of the title or endpapers!)

As my post title indicates, this little critter personifies a reader learning to listen with his reading eyes, converting that content into the visual narratives s/he seeks. 

Candlewick Press, 2016

Many illustrators have built wildly successful, award-filled careers creating wordless books. Among them is Jeannie Baker, whose creations include many wordless picture books. Her latest picture book, CIRCLE, depicts the incredible-but-true story of the global-migrating godwit (shorebird). She incorporates minimal but lyrical text and a story-within-the-story of a boy, his community, and the interconnectedness of communities around the globe. 

The illustrations are themselves as all-absorbing as the godwits' migration patterns. 
Children and adults alike will seek out subtle visual details, speculate on artistic creation techniques, and imagine how the art compares to actual birds-eye-views and topography. 

It's books like these that build readers/listeners who expect that every time a cover is lifted or a page turned there will follow multi-layered and engaging content far beyond lifeless images and robotic text. That's the expectation that allows learners to take that scary step into books without physical images to actively create them as they read.

So What IS the Power in Picture Books?

Picture books have the power to produce good readers.

I want every reader to be a “good” reader, don't you?  Don't confuse that with labels on test results, such as “proficient” or “accomplished".  Real readers think, feel, react, and connect with literature.

Because fluency rate and word accuracy are easily measured and reported, does it mean we should use those measures to define success in reading?

Here’s an analogy I use in workshops comparing "learning to read" to "learning to drive".

Would you prefer drivers to learn, through example and practice, that the “best” drivers can move from point A to point B as fast as possible without having on accident? Or do the best drivers display good judgment and control across changing terrain, weather, and road conditions? Shouldn’t drivers move from point A to point B in the safest, most efficient way, staying fully engaged and alert? In addition, shouldn’t drivers know when the vehicle, the route, or the conditions dictate that they should stay off the road or stop and ask for help?

So what does this have to do with reading and picture books?

In the ever-accelerating pace of our lives, should we be teaching, directly and through the values our approach implies, that the “best” readers race through reading, skim rapidly over the surface, cover as much distance as possible, and get “right” answers to simplistic questions? Or should we help them discover how rich their world will become as engaged readers?

The power unique to picture books is that they are, by definition:

Compact

Complete

Compelling

I think the time will come when the common term used to refer to “kids” will morph to “vids”. Visuals reach them, hold them, hook them at a gut level. Picture books have an  innate magnetism: the complex visual media, powerful language, accessible and informative text. Quality picture books offer readers a rich terrain and an irresistible hook to read deeply, to reread, to connect, and to appreciate. Picture books foster intense, satisfying engagement with books- the original hand-held app.

Let’s get over the mistaken assumption that picture books are only for babies.

As LeVar Burton  said on Reading Rainbow, “but don’t take my word for it…” Check out just a few of the invaluable online links about children’s books, beginning with Anita Silvey’s -Children’s-Book-A-Day Almanac,   and Alyson Beecher’s Kid Lit Frenzy.  If you’re an educator, don’t miss Keith Schoch’s Teach With Picture Books. 

 I’m always searching for new/undiscovered resources, so if you know some you want to recommend (or write a blog you’d like to share) include the link in your comments. Today's book recommendations link to reviews at some blogs you might enjoy.

And when it comes to Reading Rainbow, if you mourned its passing as I did, check out LeVar’s bold new plans for an iPad launch for the Next Generation of Reading Rainbow kids.

Picture books are dead? Disappearing? Irrelevant?

Never!
Check out these examples. Each title links to a recent blog review. All are among my personal favorites.


Drawing from Memory, by Allen Say, Published by Scholastic Press, 2011. Review at School LIbrary Journal.


The House that Baba Built, by Ed Young, published by LIttle Brown Books for Young Readers. 2011. Review at Picture Book Depot.


Mirror, by Jeannie Baker, published by Walker Books, 2010 Review at The Book Chook .


Peaceful Pieces: Poems and Quilts about Peace, by Anna Grossnickle Hines. Henry Holt and Co. 2011. Review at Waking Brain Cells.