Broad Genre: Picture Book: A
children’s picture book has pictures to accompany the text. It
differs from an illustrated book in the quantity and size of the
pictures in proportion to the text. Picture books generally have at
least as much graphic illustration as text. The picture book was
originally designed for readers from ages four to eight. Today
picture books for babies and older readers are in sufficient numbers
that they can be designated as sub-genres. |
Genre |
Definition |
Examples |
Books for the Very Young |
Board books |
For babies and preschoolers. These books have heavy cardboard pages
that hold up to the chewing and wild page-turning skills of babies
and little ones. Some board books are also shaped like the their
topic items: trains, spoons, cookies, etc. |
Eating. Working.
Playing. A series* of board books by Helen Oxenbury
I Want to Be Your
Personal Penguin* by Sandra Boynton
Max’s Chocolate Chicken*
by Rosemary Wells |
Toy books, Interactive
Books, Pop-up books, moveable books |
These are: books that allow the reader to interact by moving or
pulling tabs, books that pop-up when the reader opens the pages,
books that are die-cut, books made of cloth or plastic or other
unusual but child –friendly material. Books that integrate other
items into them |
The Very Hungry
Caterpillar* by Eric Carle
Pat the Bunny* by
Dorothy Kunhardt
One Red Dot by David
A. Carter
The Night before
Christmas: a Pop-Up* by Clement Moore; paper engineering by
Robert Sabuda |
Big books |
Large editions (i.e. 24” x 36”) of picture books to share
with whole classes or small groups so that all can see the pictures.
Accompanied at times by smaller books so children can read along or
read on their own later. |
The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate
The Wash* by Trinka Hakes Noble
It Looked Like Spilt Milk*
by Charles Shaw |
|
|
|
Concept Development |
Develops a particular
concept or idea for young readers and listeners such as color,
shape, size, relational words, prepositions, math and science ideas |
Concept Book |
color, shape, size,
relational words, prepositions, many more |
I Fall
Down* by Vickie Cobb (gravity)
Anno’s
Multiplying Jar by Anno (factorials)
Actual
Size * by Steve Jenkins (size
relationships)
|
Alphabet |
A type of concept book that
has enough books to generate its own genre. Of course, alphabet and
counting books came way before concept books. |
Alphabatics by Suze MacDonald
Eating
the Alphabet* by Lois Ehlert
A My Name
is Alice* by Jane Bayer |
Counting |
A type of concept book that
has enough books to generate its own genre. Of course, alphabet and
counting books came way before concept books. |
Count
and See by Tana Hoban (1-100)
26
Letters and 99 Cents* by Tana Hoban
Five
Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by
Eileen Christelow |
|
|
|
Language Development |
Provide clues to both oral
and written language, vocabulary expansion, phonemic awareness,
print awareness, how words are used in books, word recognition, etc. |
Nursery rhymes,
lullabies |
Emerging from Mother Goose rhymes and songs from the oral tradition |
Animal Crackers.
Illus. by Jane Dyer
Mary Had a Little Lamb*
by Sarah Josepha Hale
Read Aloud Rhymes for the
Very Young. Selected by Jack Prelutsky |
Pattern |
Emerging from cumulative stories in the oral tradition. Rhythmic,
rhyming, books that repeat phrases, words, events. May or may not be
a “story.”
Very young children like event based picture books. |
Brown Bear, Brown Bear
What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.; pictures by Eric Carle
Mr. Seahorse by Eric
Carle
Where’s Spot? * by
Eric Hill (also a board book) |
Stories in rhyme |
Stories that are told in rhyme. They may or may not have the
repetitive events of pattern books, but have poetic characteristics,
rhythm and rhyme. |
Madeline* by Ludwig
Bemelmans
Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom
by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault; illus. by Lois Ehlert |
Picture-Story Book |
The integration of pictures and story to such a degree that neither
words nor pictures can stand on their own. Includes the elements of
fiction: characters, plot, setting, theme, point of view, tone.
Books must also be viewed with an eye toward the characteristics of
visual graphic evaluation: line, shape, color, composition. A major
source for read-aloud choices, the language is often above student
level, but it allows them to hear how the written word sounds. |
Tale of Peter Rabbit*
by Beatrix Potter
Where the Wild Things
Are* by Maurice Sendak
Caps for Sale* by
Esphyr Slobodkina
Millions of Cats by
Wanda Gag
|
Illustrated Traditional
Literature |
Folklorists in the 19th and 20th centuries
collected stories that might have been lost to us forever. The
folklorists with an ear for written language retold these stories.
Illustrators still use some of these classic retellings as a venue
for their illustrations. Reteller can be the artist, or a
collaborator. |
Little Red Riding Hood*;
retold and illus. by Trina Schart Hyman.
Little Red Riding Hood;
retold and illus. by Jerry Pinkney. |
|
|
|
Books for Beginning
Readers |
Books for
Beginning Readers: Trade beginning-to-read books start at about
LEVEL E in Guided Reading. These books are sized similarly
with large print and plenty of white space.
The
transitional novel is a short novel with large print and chapters.
Children call them "chapter books." Many of the series that
comprise these books are bare outlines of story with little
character development. Some of the characters are "over the top" to
draw the reader's attention. These are books that children can read
quickly giving them a very real sense of accomplishment. |
|
I
Can Read Books and many other series of primers for beginning
readers. |
The Foot Book by Dr.
Seuss
Hop on Pop by Dr.
Seuss
The Cat in the Hat *
by Dr. Seuss
Little Bear* by Else
Minarik; pictures by Maurice Sendak
Frog and Toad Are Friends
* by Arnold Lobel
Hi! Fly Guy* by Tedd
Arnold |
|
The transitional novel or beginning chapter book (See series books
and types of stories). |
The Littles by John
Peterson
Flat Stanley by Jeff
Brown
Captain Underpants by
Dav Pilkey
Junie B. Jones by
Barbara Parks
Clementine* by Sara
Pennypacker |
|
|
|
Nonfiction for Young
Readers |
Development of academic and
scientific subjects |
Easy to read
nonfiction is entering a new era with books for the young that have
real information in them. Subjects are subdivided; rather than one
book on bears, there is a book for each type of bear.
Publishers doing this
well are KidsPower Press, Crabtree Press, Kids Can Press, Capstone
Press, and Pebble Books. Great for research, small group and whole
class. |
Walk On! A Guide for
Babies of All Ages* by Marla Frazee
Caribou by Helen
Frost (Capstone)
Magic School Bus series by
Joanna Cole; illus. by Bruce Degan |
Biography/Autobiography
|
For
young children, biographies often contain one event that exemplifies
the personality or character of the person, rather than a life
story. Usually important dates or facts are included or appended. |
Minty; A Story of Young
Harriet Tubman* By Alan Schroeder; illus. by Jerry Pinkney.
When Marian Sang; the
True Recital of Marian Anderson, The Voice of a Century* by Pam
Munoz Ryan; illus. by Brian Selznik |
|
Picture Books for Older
Readers Becoming a
group of its own, picture books for older readers includes
picture-story books, alphabet books, and number books, stories in
rhyme, interactive books, wordless books, graphic novels,
illustrated traditional literature, nonfiction and biography. These
books also may be subdivided into types of fiction (i.e.
historical fiction, fantasy, realistic fiction, etc.) |
|
The key feature of
these books is that they develop concepts and have themes for older
readers but are in picture book format. |
Smoky Night
*by Eve Bunting and David Diaz
Golem*
by David Wisniewski
Crow Boy*
by Taro Yashima
The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins
by Barbara Kerley; illus. by Brian Selznik.
Hiroshima No Pika*
by Toshi Maruki
Rose Blanche* by Roberto Innocenti
Anno’s Multiplying Jar by
Anno (factorials) |
Graphic novels |
Emerging from the
comic books of the 20th century,
This
genre may become a legitimate literary genre if others like Brian
Selznik continue to explore its possibilities. |
The Invention of Hugo
Cabret by Brian Selznik.
Babymouse; Queen of the
World by Jennifer Holm
Bone by Jeff Smith |
Stories without words |
Books in which the
entire stories are told without benefit of words. |
Time Flies by Eric
Rohmann
Zoom* by Istvan
Banyai
Anno’s Journey* by
Anno |