An A- Z of Picture Books

A is for Analogy

Is this a story about something else? Is it a story about how to play with your friends nicely? About how to talk about difficult things? How is the

text using the picture book format to talk about these things? Can the text here be read as a comment on wider-world problems and issues?

B is for Bold

How are fonts used in this book? Is it easy to read? Hard to read? What effects and affects does it have? Do certain words LEAP out? Do others

hide away? How do you read this book? Do you SHOUT on some words or whisper others? What do the letters look like? What fonts have been

chosen? Why?

C is for Challenging

What sort of topic is this book covering? How is it covering it? What viewpoint is being put across and why?

Are there any obvious ideologies at place and if so, what do these mean? Would you be happy sharing this with your children? If not – why?

Is this book challenging society (and if it is, is it doing something good or bad with that challenge) or is it just challenging you?

D is for Diversity

What’s the world inside this picture book like? Does it reflect society? Does it challenge society? Does it show children a different sort of

society? Does it share the world with them?Do the characters all look the same or do they look different?

Who is the who of this book?

E is for Endpapers

What colour are these? Do they have a pattern? An image?Remember that they’re part of the book – are they giving you clues on

how to read the book? On what to expect?Do they make you excited? Are they part of the book or do they feel

disjointed? After reading the book, how do you see the endpapers now? Do they have

a joke? A theme? A story of their own?

Endpaper = the back of the front cover and first page, and the back

of the back cover and the last page. I like to think of them as wrapping

paper for the book inside.

F is for Front Cover

This is the first thing you see about the book – so what does it tell you?Does it feature characters? Words? Authors names? Illustrators names?

Where are people looking? What are they doing? Are they looking out at you or are they looking at the page edge of the book?

What colours are featured? What do they do? What fonts? Sizes?

G is for Gender

Who’s in this book? Are they actively gendered? What are they gendered as? Are there any gendered characters at all?

What’s the balance between genders? Do differently gendered characters do the same thing? If not, why not?

Does the book apply gender? Are you applying gender to the characters?

H is for Hard

How does the text present difficult things? Difficult concepts? Difficult languages? Does it help the reader with clues - colour, tone, language,

shapes? Is the difficult thing differently handled at the start of the book than at the

end? Is the difficult thing resolved? What’s the resolution like?

I is for Imagination

How much are you being asked to imagine? What’s the dialogue between the pictures and text? What are the gaps that you’re being asked to fill in? What sort of story are you giving those gaps? Does this book end with the last page or does it go on? Do you see play opportunities here? Teaching

opportunities?

J is for Junior

Do you see picture books as being for a specific age group? A specific level of reading ability? Why? Do you see the one you’re reading as being more

suitable for younger readers? Older readers? Why?

K is for Kissing

How does the text present love? Kissing? Sex? Does it present these or does it skirt around them? Are they suggestive? Coy? Matter-of-fact? Is it

non-fiction? Fiction?How does it make you feel? How does it make the characters feel? How do they react to the world around them? What is love like in this book?

L is for Line

Are they thick or thin? Short or long? Curved or straight? Coloured or Black and White?

Where do they go? What do they meet? What are their connections?What are they telling you about this page, this book, this character?Where are they leading your eye? Are they directing you towards a

character? A page turn? A word?

M is for Medium

What is this book made in? What’s the style? Are the illustrations black and white? Felt tips? Crayons? Chalk? Wax? Oils? Cut outs? Mixed media?

Cameos? Shadows? Puppets? What’s the impact and affect of this? How do they make you feel? What

do they add or detract from the text?

N is for Names

Who wrote this book? Who illustrated it? Who lettered it? Who designed it? Who was involved in the making of this work? How do their names

feature in the book?Do you know them? Do you have a preconceived idea of their tone, their style? Do you like what they do? Do you dislike it? Did you pick up this

book because of them or in spite of?

O is for Opening

What’s the first thing you see when you open the book? What’s the first page? The first word? The first colour? The first font? The first image? Do these tell you anything about the book? Do you read these as part of the

book?

P is for Page turn

When are you turning the pages? When you’ve finished reading the words? The images? Or when you’ve finished reading the entire page? Or

when you’ve not finished – but want to find out what happens? Do you turn a page and then come back? Does the book want you to turn the page? Do characters point to the page edge? Leap off it? Run away?

Q is for Quickness

How long does it take you to read this book? Is it one with words that roll together and demand to be read quickly? Or is it full of words that are

slow and steady and need to be breathed in and out? How does the speed of this book affect what you make of it? Do you reread? Or is that first

read it? Why?

R is for Recto (and Resources)

Recto = right hand page, when you open up a book and view it.

S is for Sibilance

Sibilance = the hissing sound supplied in this sentence. (Read it

aloud!)

What sound do the words make when you read them out loud? What’s the impact of alliteration? Of repetition? Of repetition? Of repetition?What does this book sound like? Do you read the images? The sound

effects? What’s the aural form of this book? And how does that make you feel? Does it add to the book or take away from it?

T is for Texture

What does this book feel like? What’s the paper weight? The texture of the paper? Is it all paper or is it material or board? Can you put fingers

through holes? Does it have rough edges? Bumpy bits? Smooth bits? Can you interact with the book? Can you touch the pictures? Does the book

want to be held? What’s the impact of this upon the reader? Does it bring them closer or take them away?

Uis for Upside downTurn the book upside down. Read it left to right. Right to left. Look at the pictures from a different angle. What looks best? Is it the way the book

was presented to you or is it another? How does looking at the book differently change your reading of it? Can you read things upside down?

V is for Verso

Verso = left hand page, when you open up a book and view it. Use this term alongside recto. Both terms help clarify the pages you’re referring to

when you’re talking about them.

W is for White space

What does this colour say to you?Is it a colour?

What does it do for these words?What does it do to these words?

What does it do to this guy?What does it do to him now?

X is for X-Ray

How are the illustrations related to each other, themselves and the book? What’s the viewpoint of the reader? Are we focusing on different aspects of something? Going left to right? Right to left? On a journey? Or are we

going inside something? What’s the structure and focus of the illustrations? Do they take us further inside the book? Or do they take us

somewhere else entirely?

Y is for You

How do you feel when reading it? Trust your opinion.How do you feel when rereading it? Are there jokes or illustrations that

benefit from a reread? Do you pick up on different elements than before?Do you like this book? Do you dislike it? Why? Has that changed? Has it

changed for your children?

Z is for Zieonwdnaxwwi!

Are there any words in this that you don’t understand? Are there any words that the age group won’t understand? What are the words? Are they in a language or are they made up words? Can you work out their

meaning? Can you work this out from the pictures? From the rest of the story?