In this article, we discover Picture Books. Did you know that there are different types of Picture Books? In the true definition, a “picture book” is a book in which the pictures tell most of the story. Under this category you will find Baby Books, Toddler Books, 32 Page Picture Books for ages 4-8 and Early Picture Books that are geared toward the younger end of the 4-8 category.  
 
Picture Books 101

The Baby books are lullabies, nursery rhymes, and wordless books. These are for infants and toddlers. The length of these varies with the content. Toddler Picture books are for ages 1-3 and have no more than 300 words. For the most part, these books depict things in the child’s everyday life and also teach concepts like colors, numbers, and shapes. They can be pop-ups, lift the flaps, board books or novelty books. I recommend board books as they can withstand the handling and reuse. 32 Page Picture Books are for ages 4 – 8 and have simple plots and one main character who embodies the emotions and viewpoint for the child. These are usually 1500 words. When these are under 1000 words they are categorized as Early Picture Books and are usually re-printed in Board style for durability and handling. Next lesson, we cover Early Reader Books.

Early Readers

Early Reader books are starter books for children that can read on their own. Sometimes these are also referred to as “Easy-to-read” books.  These are geared towards children who are 6-8 years of age. They have illustrations on every page much like Picture Books but have a more mature look and feel. They have anywhere from 2 to 5 sentences on each page. These are easy to read and easy to understand for the child. Depending on the publisher, these can range from 32 pages to 64 pages.

Early reader books offer a great opportunity for you to help your little one become a better reader. Now that they are a little older, ask them to read the book to you, as you carefully help them along if they struggle. Listening to a young niece or nephew discovering new words and sentence structures can be heartwarming.  And you have an opportunity to encourage their reading by giving them books from a series that they love or subject matter they are interested in, or introducing them to new authors.

After this genre, we move onto something that transitions young readers into early chapter books, appropriately called Transition Books – and that’s the next lesson - see Part 2.