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One of the greatest challenges when selecting picturebooks, is to be able to select the most suitable picturebook for a specific class. Children may have limited English-language but possess ideas, concepts, interests and aspirations relevant to their developmental age. A criticism often aimed at using picturebooks in ELT is that the language may be too complex and the content too simplistic for the target learners. Real success depends on having the right picturebook in terms of its content, linguistic, conceptual and cultural accessibility and appropriacy, aesthetic appeal as well as its educational benefits to the learners to maximise their enjoyment, involvement and learning. Furthermore, picturebooks operate on many levels satisfying learners of different ages and at different stages in their English language learning. It is, therefore, difficult to give definitive indications regarding age-level suitability for each picturebook. Success will also depend on the purpose for which a picturebook is used with a class, how it will be mediated by the teacher and how tasks will be designed to match the interests and abilities of the learners.
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There are many different types of picturebooks which come in a wide variety of genres (fiction and non-fiction, concept books, poetry, traditional tales and modern retellings, ABC books, cumulative, fantasy, rhyming, wordless, amusing or serious and so on). They also incorporate a wide variety of subject matter and topics, and illustrative styles, so the choice is vast! Every year thousands of picturebooks are published around the world, so knowing which questions to ask yourself will guide and facilitate your principled selection in terms of its suitability and interest for a particular group of learners.
First, decide for what purpose you are going to use a picturebook e.g., for storytime, as a supplement to your main teaching materials or as your main teaching resource. This will help determine how long you will spend using the picturebook. Next decide which type of picturebook with which theme will best suit your purpose. Ensure that you like the picturebook so you can convey enthusiasm for it.
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Many picturebooks address real-life themes which show a more nuanced perspective of the world we live in. Although picturebooks about real-life themes have existed for a long time, there has been an increase in this type of picturebook. This is probably due to:
- Children’s increased exposure to and awareness of political, social and environmental issues via education, TV and social media
- The increasing diversity in ELT classrooms due to global mobility, immigration, displacement, climate change
- Less reluctance from publishers to publish picturebooks in English about real-life themes and acceptance that children from all backgrounds, identities and socioeconomic groups need to see their diverse lived experiences represented
Picturebooks about real-life themes allow teachers to move away from a ‘safe and cosy’ traditional canon of picturebooks, or the conventional topics found in mainstream coursebook materials and go beyond language teaching alone and embrace their wider professional remit. Real-life themes in picturebooks are often referred to as ‘challenging, difficult, serious, controversial or taboo’ as they may not comply with our notion of childhood and what we think is suitable and appropriate for children in terms of suitability of subject matter and visual language. However, what is considered ‘challenging, difficult, serious, controversial, or taboo’ will depend on many different cultural, social and personal factors and ‘is in the eye of the beholder, and different eyes manage to be upset by different aspects of different books’ (Nodelman 2015:33).
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Picturebooks about real-life themes are inclusive as they allow more and more children’s lived experiences to be heard, valued and celebrated. They explore issues in ways that are accessible and allow learners to think and talk about what is important and relevant to them. They can help learners to cope with some of the larger and more difficult global and social issues such as illness, death, the environmental crisis, war, the refugee crisis and migration, abuse and violence, mental health and so on. Despite the seriousness of real-life issues, it is important to select picturebooks that include a strong verbal and visual message of hope and illustrate the importance of individuals and the community showing kindness and taking action.
Picturebooks about real-life themes help develop critical thinking by pushing the reader to question and probe to fully understand what the story is about. They provide learners with a wider view of the world beyond their own experiences and an understanding of differences, they broaden minds and help learners develop a critical stance towards the world they live in, or offer learners who are experiencing challenging lived experiences the opportunity to understand that they are not alone. When selecting this type of picturebook, it is important to check age suitability and to be mindful of the learners you are teaching and their own lived experiences.
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Quality in picturebooks is multifaceted and comprises, for example, text and illustrations, choice of language, content and interest, but may also extend to quality of paper, binding, and awards. Generally, frameworks to aid picturebook selection in ELT tend to focus less on defining the aspect of quality and more on suggesting criteria to evaluate suitability for a particular group of learners.
Recognising ‘quality picturebooks ’ is perhaps assumed and considered an unspoken commitment to maintaining a professional teaching standard. So how do teachers interpret the aspect of quality? In 2023, a small-scale study (online survey conducted by Gruenbaum / 65 respondents ) aimed to gain some insights amongst (student-) teachers, and teacher educators involved in ELT. All respondents stressed the personal and professional importance of teaching with quality picturebooks. When it came to defining a quality picturebook, respondents’ answers were diverse and referred, amongst others, to the style of illustrations, the text (flow, rhyme, language accessibility), the interaction between words and pictures, and the engagement the characters offered.Respondents also mentioned for example, humour, inclusion of wordless spreads, font choices (non-cursive) and font size, relevance, relatability, and diversity of the characters. However, accuracy was not mentioned, which is important when working with, for example, picturebook biographies and picturebooks on historic events, neither were features referring to production such as paper weight or binding. The responses highlight that the aspect of quality is often subject to personal interpretation, which in turn raises the question of how to achieve a common standard when selecting ‘quality picturebooks’.Read More
Ellis, G. & Brewster, J. (2014). Tell it Again! The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers. British Council. Page 19.
Gruenbaum, T. (2023). What is a quality picturebook? [Unpublished survey data].
ICEPELL Consortium. (2022). A handbook for intercultural citizenship education through picturebooks in early English language learning. CETAPS, NOVA FCSH.
Nodelman, P. (2015). The Scandal of the Commonplace in Janet Evans (ed.) Challenging and Controversial Picturebooks. Routledge.
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Once you have selected your picturebook ask yourself the following questions.
Questions
- Does the picturebook read aloud well? Are the pictures large enough for the whole class to see? Will you need to set up a read-aloud space?
- Will your learners enjoy the picturebook and learn from it? Will it hold their concentration?
- What are your main teaching and learning objectives and how do these link to what the learners already know (English language and subject matter)? How will the picturebook contribute to these learning objectives and outcomes and develop multiliteracies (visual, emotional, cultural, nature, digital literacy etc.)?
- Does the peritext (front and back covers, endpapers, title pages etc.) encourage prediction of content?
- Is the language and content in the picturebook linguistically and cognitively accessible to your class? Does the picturebook contain any repetition to encourage learners to acquire and transfer useful phrases? Does it contain any cumulative content allowing for predictions and confirmations – or surprises? Does it provide opportunities for learners to participate e.g. by repeating key phrases, refrains, predicting and confirming, inferring, responding?
- Does the picturebook offer learners a broader view of the world and develop an awareness of global issues such as environmental and ecological issues; equality, diversity and inclusion; human rights; tolerance; intercultural understanding, etc? Does it include a strong verbal and visual message of hope and illustrate the importance of individuals and the community showing kindness and taking action?
- Can learners see themselves represented in the verbal and visual texts? Are they portrayed meaningfully and accurately? What is the extent of their agency and voice? Does the picturebook challenge stereotypes?
- Does the picturebook help learners become aware of and question important values? Are these acceptable to you and your class?
- Does the picturebook provide opportunities for making links to other areas of the curriculum?
- Do the illustrations provide visual support to understanding? Do they synchronise with the verbal text or do they complement, extend or take the place of the verbal text? Which will offer the most valuable learning outcomes for your class? Do they develop artistic appreciation and visual literacy? Do they provide visual representations of diversity? Does the layout and design (split page/lift the flap/cut-away pages/double-page spreads/font etc) support understanding and maximise interaction with the picturebook?
- Does the picturebook provide opportunities for meaningful discussion, follow-up and extension work and possible action taking?
