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Paperback edition coming September 16, 2025. Pre-order today! Reading Picture Books With Children How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking about What They SeeBy: Megan Dowd Lambert / Foreword by: Chris RaschkaStorytime isn't the whole story. . . What
Reading Picture Books With Children
How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking about What They See
By: Megan Dowd Lambert / Foreword by: Chris Raschka
“I wanted to reflect on and value specific moments of insight, delight, wonder, puzzlement, and pleasure that have arisen from the times when I’ve met children in the pages of picture books and have really listened to what they have to say about what they see and hear.”
from the preface, by Megan Dowd Lambert
Megan Dowd Lambert began laying the foundation for the Whole Book Approach when she was working for the education department of the Eric Carle Museum and earning her graduate degree in children’s literature from Simmons College. Several yearsand about twenty-five thousand students and three thousand professionalslater, Megan is ready to share her groundbreaking technique for reading picture books with young children.
Chapters cover subjects like trim size and orientation, jackets and covers, endpapers, typography, and more. With examples from well-known books, discover how a picture book’s design, illustrations, and words work together to tell a story and how incorporating these elements into the reading of the story enhances a child’s learning and love of reading.
Praise for Reading Picture Books with Children:
Reading Picture Books with Children isnt just necessary. Its required reading for the twenty-first century.
Elizabeth Bird, New York Public Librarys youth materials collections specialist and blogger at A Fuse #8 Production
The book belongs on the shelf of anyone who wants to understand books and the way that children respond to them.
Anita Silvey, childrens book expert and author of The Essential Guide to Childrens Books and Their Creators
“Everything one needs to know about bookmaking and book sharing is bound up here, in one well-considered, strikingly designed volume.”
Jerry Pinkney, acclaimed children’s book illustrator and Caldecott medalist
Read Megan’s piece from Shelf Awareness.
Listen to the School Library Journal Webcast with Megan Dowd Lambert, editor Yolanda Scott, and Emily Prabhaker, educator at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
Watch Megan present at Bank Street Book Fest
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Editor Yolanda Scott discusses the Whole Book Approach:
Megan Dowd Lambert, author
Megan Dowd Lambert is a senior lecturer in children’s literature at Simmons College, where she earned her master’s degree in children’s literature after completing a B.A. at Smith College. She writes for theHorn Book Magazine; served on the 2011 Caldecott committee; and worked at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art for many years, leading Whole Book Approach storytimes and training others in her methods.
Read more about Megan.
Kirkus Reviews
An in-depth exploration of the author’s Whole Book Approach: a way to slow storytime down and consider children’s responses to art, design, and other visual elements. Lambert honed her new storytime style while sharing picture books at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. She began by using traditional methods but realized that she was representing a museum; she should focus on art and the notion of a book as an art form. Taking cues from the open-ended questions used by the Carle museum’s docents, Lambert created a similar approach toward reading with children. With chapters devoted to trim size and orientation, jackets and covers, endpapers, typography, and more, there really is no better way to say it: Lambert delves into the “whole book.” Librarians may quake at the thought of inviting so much discussion while reading stories to a large group, but Lambert calms fears with repeated (and adorablesuch as the “heightful tower” of Madeline) examples from her many years of practice. She also shares tips and tricks to regain focus if a group goes awry. Traditionalists’ concerns that the integrity of the story might be compromised by many interruptions are unfounded; Lambert rightly stresses that reading both the words and the art are equally important and provides ample evidence of children’s increased engagement with the books being shared. Welcome permission to shake things up, with an important acknowledgment of the art form at the core of modern storytimes.
The Bulletin of The Center for Children’s Books
Lambert, a lecturer at Simmons College, provides a guidebook to the Whole Book Approach, a co-constructed (interactive) storytime model centered on the picture book as a visual art form, an approach developed at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Despite the title, the Whole Book Approach is really more child- centered than book-centered, focusing on the ways children interact with books and emphasizing their experiences of what they see and hear during a storytime rather than analyzing the text or pictures. Lamberts thoughtful introduction discusses her own struggles with learning to decode pictures and her subsequent education in all things picture book, including layout, medium, style, etc. Chapters include overviews of trim size, jackets and covers, endpapers, front matter, typography, page design, and perhaps most helpfully, a guide to encouraging visual intelligence among children and the benefits of her approach. Resources includes tips on creating and leading Whole Book storytimes, sample questions for Whole Book storytimes, a glossary and further reading.
School Library Journal, starred review
Lamberts Whole Book Approach challenges librarians to think differently about how they share a picture book in a group setting. It asks adult readers to value the opinions of young listeners and to engage them to become active participants as they try to make meaning of all they see and hear during a shared reading. This volume gives concrete examples and practical tips on how to do a shared reading based on the Whole Book Approach; through a conversational style and clear directions, Lambert offers support for librarians and teachers testing out new ways of engaging young listeners. The author developed this method during her graduate studies in childrens literature at Simmons College and while working in the Education Department of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. As she points out, the Whole Book Approach method of sharing picture books starts right on the title pageadults share vocabulary information about the various parts of a physical book. Lambert goes on to dedicate individual chapters to Jackets and Covers, Endpapers, Front Matter, Typography, and Page Design and spends a good deal of time on how to foster a childs visual intelligence. The authors storytime anecdotes are funny, touching, and ultimately illuminating, highlighting how this approach can open new avenues to explore with children. VERDICT An essential purchase for any educator wanting to understand and apply the Whole Book Approach in their storytimes, or for those who would like to better understand the various parts and wonders of the picture book as a unique art form.
Download the CoverDownload an ExcerptListen to the School Library Journal WebcastDownload the Webcast Book List
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-58089-662-7
Paperback
ISBN:978-1-58089-791-4
E-book
ISBN: 978-1-60734-695-1 EPUB
ISBN: 978-1-60734-563-3 PDF
7 38 x 9
Page count: 176
All-color illustrations
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