Performance of Children's Literature Spring 2025

Learning to Read

When we think of children’s literature, our minds naturally go to the picture book. You may have fond memories of beautiful illustrations, the textures of the physical book, or the interplay of words and images. You may recall the experience of being in a classroom and waiting to get a clear view of the picture when a teacher read aloud. Maybe you’ve read a particular story repeatedly to a child in your life, and you have every image memorized in addition to the text.

Picture books come in many varieties and for ages from 0-100. They can have text or no text. They can be created in any artistic medium. Whenever we read a picture book, we are reading the images just as much as any text. Just as we learn to read words, we also learn to read images.

In this module, we will first look at materials used with children in the past and today to teach literacy. Then you’ll explore how we also read illustrations and more of the evolution of the picture book.

Watch: The Parts of a Picture Book

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Go on to learn the A-B-Cs

22 responses to “Learning to Read”

  1. Denise Warren Avatar
    Denise Warren

    This is great information about pictures books. Anoosha’s explanation about the differences in book design, page-count, etc., was precise and clear. There were certain things about picture books that I was not aware of. For instance, that the page-count should be counted by 8s, and that the standard picture book, according to type should be 32 pages or that the paper covering I see on some hardcover books are called dust jacket. This video provides welcome information for anyone wanting to get into the picture book industry.

    Reply
  2. Danielle Avatar
    Danielle

    Anoosha’s breakdown of picture book design was incredibly helpful. She explained key differences in format, page count, and structure with great clarity. This video is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the world of picture book publishing. This is a great example of how a children’s book should be.

    Reply
  3. Crystal Ebanks Avatar
    Crystal Ebanks

    This video is a great visual breakdown of what picture books should consist of. I think most people believe ideating and publishing picture books are simple but rather, they also require the same amount of structure that a word book would need.

    Reply
  4. Jada Williams Avatar
    Jada Williams

    I find this video helpful with understanding the terms and parts of the books. I like that she also includes differentiation between books we encounter like the hard copy or soft. I think it is true that the dust jacket helps engage or capture the audience and readers because I always love books with that. I love certain textures and smells of books as well. I love how the case wrap can be different from the jacket and can build on illustration and creativity. I never realized that the first few pages in books can be different and they have terms for them. What I also found interesting was the terms “ spine and gutter”. Other terms like “ proof and book demy” were familiar to me.

    Reply
    1. Kajol Victoria Singh Avatar
      Kajol Victoria Singh

      Jada, I also love when books have certain smells! This video was very informative about book jackets and the terms for the beginning and ending pages as you mentioned.

      Reply
  5. Kajol Victoria Singh Avatar
    Kajol Victoria Singh

    This video is very informative and fun. If I was a book author or illustrator and needed information like this, I would definitely note down a lot from her video!

    Reply
  6. Layla Ettu Avatar
    Layla Ettu

    I found this video to be very informative. Anoosha really gave a great breakdown of the different parts of picture books. I am an individual that assumes it’s pretty easy to create a picture book since it’s mostly pictures and very few words but after seeing this video it has definitely changed my perspective.

    Reply
  7. Aleksandra A Grala Avatar
    Aleksandra A Grala

    Anoosha’s video breaks down essential picture book components, from covers to endpapers. It educates aspiring authors and illustrators on various aspects of picture book creation.

    Reply
  8. cindy ambrosio Avatar
    cindy ambrosio

    This video was very informative in such an easy way to comprehend. I learned things about books that I didn’t know about, for example the term, dust jacket. Something I had not realized is that there is a specific way of counting pages in a book. I never noticed that it is counted by 8’s and the amount of pages comes in multiples of 8. Overall, this video taught me things that I did not learn in school and some of these things I will be able to share with my future students.

    Reply
  9. Synphanie Mojica Avatar
    Synphanie Mojica

    I thought this video was very helpful. I didn’t know there are two forms of hard cover (self- ended vs. separate end). I also never thought or analyzed about the different textures that books can have. I think that it is sometimes easy to take picture books for granted, without really understanding all of the structures and details that go into making them, because we are just used to looking at the books as a whole.

    Reply
  10. Sophia Awad Avatar
    Sophia Awad

    This video is incredibly helpful, as so many of these terms I had no idea existed. One fact I thought was truly fascinating to know was that the endpapers/endpages are used to hold the interior pages to the cover. It was also interesting that the number of pages a publisher gives you may not be the number of pages you have to tell the story. This urges the authors to be crucial with their words and keep in mind that they may be limited for space.

    Reply
  11. Shania Smith Avatar
    Shania Smith

    I thought this video was cool because I never thought about how much actually goes into making a good children’s book.I learned some new terms

    Reply
  12. Isabel Belasoto Avatar
    Isabel Belasoto

    Finding ways to make small details stand out is always amazing, it can set your books very differently from others

    Reply
  13. Salma Avatar
    Salma

    This video gave me a really interesting look into picture books. Anoosha explained things like book design and page count in such a clear way.

    Reply
  14. Calista Spezio Avatar
    Calista Spezio

    I think this was a great representation of how children’s books are broken down. Specifically, the way she explains everything in detail was helpful to someone who wants to write children’s books, or just learn about them. It was interesting to see that everything truly has a name.

    Reply
  15. Aliviya Iskhakova Avatar
    Aliviya Iskhakova

    Picture books seem like such a straightforward and the easiest form of media so I was not expecting so many elements to be present in them. I never really thought about the elements that make up a picture book and am fascinated to learn that picture book page counts come in multiples of 8. I guess this is because I mostly read these books as a child and never revisit them so I was more focused on the material in them vs how they were constructed.

    Reply
  16. Zoe Davis Avatar
    Zoe Davis

    I absolutely love this breakdown of picture books! It really helped me appreciate the art and science behind designing books for children.

    Reply
  17. Leslie Talavera Avatar
    Leslie Talavera

    I was really surprised on how the picture books can be broken down in sections and what to be aware of what they all have such as the ending or “back matter” which can have useful information for both parents and teachers which i feel like not that many people read after finishing a book.

    Reply
  18. Jacklyn Serrano Avatar
    Jacklyn Serrano

    This is a great guide to learn what is important when creating a picture book. The number of pages was interesting to me because that could definitely make things hard if you have a longer story to tell but can help the reader stay captivated

    Reply
  19. Malissa Solon Avatar
    Malissa Solon

    This video informs you of all the work that goes into picture books, and now when we are reading a picture book, I think with this information we will keep these in mind pay more attention to the lillte details.

    Reply
  20. chadeary park Avatar
    chadeary park

    This section reminds me how important picture books were when we first started reading. We didn’t just follow the words, we learned to understand stories through the images too. That connection helped us feel more engaged and made reading exciting. The visuals stuck with us, sometimes even more than the text. It shows how reading starts with more than just letters on a page.\

    Reply
  21. Jairy Arana Avatar
    Jairy Arana

    The video also explains how each piece of the book, even the spine and title page, helps tell the story in its own way. Many people don’t realize how much thought goes into the design of picture books beyond just the words and illustrations.

    Reply

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