Picture Books To Get Children Talking, by Pippa Goodhart

Shouldn't children should sit and listen when a picture book is read to them?  That’s certainly how children’s books used to work.  Adults wrote, and perhaps read, them, and children received them, whole and pre-digested.  But we’ve got cleverer at the games that can be played between story book and child in more recent times.

We all know that the best picture books give opportunities for young children to join-in with the storytelling.  Think of the simple genius of Rod Campbell’s Dear Zoo in which the animals aren’t named in the text, and it’s for the child to open the flap and name the camel that’s ‘too grumpy’ and the frog that’s ‘too jumpy’ and so on.  That clever leaving of story spaces to be filled by the child is a way to give small children a taste of being a story teller, and also gives them a feeling of ownership over the story; they’ve contributed vital parts to the whole story, and that’s powerful and fun!  See Polly Dunbar’s PBD blog on the subject http://picturebookden.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/chicken-or-egg-by-polly-dunbar.html

But here I want to consider picture books which get children doing a different kind of talking; talking about themselves.

I’ve recently become involved in the wonderful charity Home-Start.  http://www.home-start.org.uk .   Home-Start works by training volunteer parents to pair-up with families with young children who are struggling for some reason.  Multiple births, post-natal depression, illness, bereavement, distance from friends ... there are multiple reasons why some struggle in that vital stage of family life.  Home-Start volunteers give whatever help the parent wants.  It may be taking the children out to give the parent a break, it might be listening to the parent and discussing things, it might be accompanying parent and child to family centre sessions, it might simply be doing the shopping or the washing up. But it will often involve talking with young children, or allowing time for the parent to have some ‘quality time’ with their child.   

When there’s a family crisis, one vital thing which can get lost or forgotten is communication with young children.  When people are preoccupied with problems, important ordinary conversations about everyday life might not happen.  A shared book can give an occasion for conversation between parents or other adult carers and children.  Even in families with no particularly pressing problems, we all know how you can ask a child what they did at school today, and the answer that comes back is often, “Nothing.”  Sometimes it simply takes too much energy, or things are too complex for a child to explain, so children don’t tell what might be bothering or exciting or puzzling them.  Of course parents might not be telling how they feel about things either.   

I don’t know how far the ‘Sally is Being Bullied’ (I’ve made that title up) sort of book does help a child who is being bullied.  It might, but my suspicion is that many children would react against something that labels their problem so bluntly.  Besides, a book of that kind often doesn’t have a story, or, if it does, it’s a story steered around an agenda rather than coming from character.  It won't be fun.

Since my ‘You Choose’ book, illustrated by Nick Sharratt, was published twelve years ago, I’ve heard again and again from parents and therapists how that book has proved a fun way to get children talking about themselves, as well as simply talking and improving their vocabularies.  With that in mind, I wrote my new book ‘What Will Danny Do Today?’, illustrated by Sam Usher. 

What Will Danny Do Today? follows a child, Danny, through a day, from getting up and deciding what to wear, off to school where lots of options offer themselves, to after school fun with Dad, and finally a choice of book for bedtime.  Each spread is busy with possibilities.  So, for example, when going to school, there are ordinary options, the child walking with Mum and a baby sibling in a pushchair, there are the more unusual options, going to school via a zip-wire from your bedroom window to the school entrance, and there is also, if you notice, the shy child, alone at the school gate and not sure about stepping through it.  Which of those does the child reader identify with?  Or wish that they were like that one?  This is a book that can be played purely for laughs.  Or it can be played straight.  Or it can prompt discussions about aliens or detectives or stealing or whether one should eat ice-cream for breakfast, or much more.    

Which other books to get children talking about themselves can you all recommend? 

'Refuge', a book for Now. Guest blog by Anne Booth

We're delighted to welcome Anne Booth as our guest blogger at a moment when her new picture book, 'Refuge', couldn't be more apt.  Written in response to the current refugee crisis, this simple re-telling of the Nativity story has clear resonance for us now.  Very beautifully illustrated by Sam Usher and published by Nosy Crow, £5 from every copy sold is going to the War Child charity to help today's child refugees.  Over to Anne ...


This is a very special year for me, as I turned 50 and had my first two picture books published, and now have been invited to write a post for the Picture Book Den!

My very first book contract was with Nosy Crow Books for two picture books : ‘The Fairiest Fairy’ and ‘The Christmas Fairy’, both illustrated by the wonderful Rosalind Beardshaw. As a new writer I was amazed at how long it normally takes to produce a picture book - the contract was in 2013 and ‘The Fairiest Fairy’ was only published in 2015, with ‘The Christmas Fairy in 2016! I learnt how it is definitely worth the wait and am bursting with pride at the result - to see Betty illustrated so beautifully by Rosalind has been one of the highlights of my life.

You can read inside here: http://nosycrow.com/product/the-fairiest-fairy/  I particularly love the spread where Betty puts on her vest - it was everything I imagined and more!

So, having got my head around how long the process is to publish a picture book, you can imagine how amazed I am at how fast my latest book ‘Refuge’ has been produced. You can read about the process here and read inside to see the actual illustrations: http://nosycrow.com/blog/the-story-behind-refuge/

For those of you who know from first hand about the process - Samuel Usher’s illustrations - his palette and his tender lines - and the sheer achievement of producing such stunning work so quickly - will seem particularly miraculous. Added to that the wonderful design of the book, and the high quality of the finished product, and the generous way all those involved in the production and distribution did it for free or at vastly reduced costs, the publishing story of this picture book seems unique.

Just as the muddled Betty has more than a little of me in her, ‘Refuge’ means a lot to me personally. One of my earliest memories is toddling into the life size crib at church and throwing my arms around the donkey. Every Christmas when I was small I would run inside the crib to hug him - so it is fitting that I have written a book from the Christmas donkey’s point of view, to be enjoyed by little children and adults sharing it with them, and which hopefully will raise empathy and money for child refugees. I may have been having a wonderful year being 50, but for so many refugees it has been hell. Childhood should be full of lovely memories, like reading picture books and hugging donkeys - real or in church cribs - not of war and dangerous journeys.

I did not expect, in the year I turned 50, to have two picture books published, and illustrated by such great artists as Rosalind Beardshaw and Samuel Usher. In this, as in so many aspects of my life, I feel very, very lucky - and I feel so happy and grateful that, thanks to Nosy Crow and Samuel Usher and all involved in the process,  ‘Refuge’ - a beautiful picture book - one of the things which gives me the most joy in life - has become the means to help refugees this Christmas.