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New Picture Books and Child Development

SASAKI HIROKO, Ph.D.  

 Book Start Japan, a non-profit organization, was founded in Tokyo in 2001. It was started under the slogan, “Babies need milk for the spirit as well as for the body. Picture books are like milk for the spirit.” I have been a member of Book Start Japan's board of directors since 2001.

 Book Start movements are conducted by local self-governing bodies. They make a gift of two picture books to all new babies born in each Book Start locality, and accompany it with a message to parents about the importance of parent-child interaction through reading.This takes place at the occasion of the medical examinations that are conducted at the local public health centers. As many self-governing bodies take part in this movement, there has been much discussion about why to give the babies picture books.

 Picture books, which have a long history in Japan, are one of the most important cultural resources for children. What kind of influence does a picture book have on child development? There is a great deal of academic research on picture story books that focuses on their educational benefits, such as socialization and language acquisition.

 I have been studying the way children relate to picture books psychologically from the developmental point of view for over 30 years. I have observed and researched how babies interact with picture books, and I found that different types of reading occur depending on the kind of picture book used and on the child's character. Generally speaking, many people believe that a child's ability to read picture books grows with developing memory, cognition and communication ability. The process is very easy to understand, and is based on current theories of cognitive development. It is said that children go through various stages as they gradually negotiate meaning while reading picture books.


Children enter the world of meaning by reading picture story books

 When do children have meaningful encounters with picture books? Since ten years ago, educators have agreed that children can relate meaningfully to picture books from the age of one. Picture books which are suitable for young children generally illustrate daily life and familiar objects. By pinning pictures to words, and words to ideas, picture books are like textbooks that enlarge the world of the young child. If we think from the viewpoint of cognitive psychology, the process whereby children read a picture book has the following structure.

1) The child “reads” the pictures
 When children look at a picture which is familiar in their daily life, they enjoy naming it and talking about it. The child and the reader-a parent, a teacher, an older relative, etc.-have a pleasant time chatting about it together.

2) The child “reads” the reader's expression
 Children look at the reader's expression frequently. They want to grasp the meaning of the pictures correctly. Because children have few experiences, they try to confirm through the reader's expression whether their understanding is right or not. Children often look at the reader's expression more than at the pictures.

3) The child reads the words
 Children want to read the text. They often ask the reader about words they cannot understand.

4) The child “reads” the reader's temperament.
 Writers and illustrators often depict deep humanity in their picture books. When children have a hard time understanding the meaning, they try to grasp it by recognizing the feelings and attitude of the reader. Children can't understand the contents of a picture book well unlessthe meaning is clear to the reader.

5) Children can develop their identity and self-image through reading picture story books.
 When children become able to read the contents of a picture book independently, they can interpret the character's heart. At that time, the children begin to recognize their own thoughts about the character. The children begin to have a rudimentary metacognition, or a dialog with themselves.


Children begin to understand the concept of “being” or “existence” and their place in the world through reading picture books with nursery rhymes and nonsense picture books

1) Picture books featuring nursery rhymes build an important relationship between parents and babies through the shared pleasure of language, songs, and traditional hand routines that accompany nursery rhymes.
 Picture books with nursery rhymes function fully only when they are read aloud while being looked at by young children. If children are lucky, they are infants when they first encounter and enjoy humor-filled nursery rhymes and their accompanying hand and finger play.
 Japanese traditional hand and finger-play routines accompany the simplest rhythmical songs. I think these kinds of traditional routines and rhymes are the best introduction to picture books. There are so many rich nursery rhymes and hand and finger-play routines in the world, but sorry to say, we are losing many of them. I think we will be better able to promote spontaneous interaction between babies and parents if these kinds of nursery rhymes are published more in picture books.
 A good example of this type of picture book for babies, Matsutani's Peek-a-boo! (Doshin-sha, Japan), is still widely read despite having been first published about forty years ago. This is one of the classic baby picture books in Japan. Why has this picture book been well received by babies for so long? It's because of the traditional Japanese hand-playing routines for young children.
 A baby, even as young as four months old, smiles when a reader-a parent, an older relative, a teacher, etc.-opens this picture book and plays peek-a-boo! When a reader repeats playing peek-a-boo, the baby smiles again and again. The reader laughs when the baby laughs, too. The hearts of two people-a reader and a baby-become strongly connected.
 The reader's and the baby's hearts are connected with each other through the intonation, the vocal sounds and the rhythm of the text. The baby's and the reader's relationship and understanding grow through their expressions and their gestures. These kinds of picture books require the reader and child to take turns expressing themselves through vocal sounds and rhythmical hand and finger play.
 I think the sharing of the reading experience between adults and children creates a foundation for good human relations. Traditional children's rhymes and play activities with hands and fingers shoulder the fundamental lessons of communication for young children. Picture books for babies are complete in their effect only when the baby has the benefit of a highly skilled reader. Reading a picture book with a baby requires a highly creative effort.

2) Nonsense picture books offer a new logic of life
 As I stated above, many people believe young children like picture books which are illustrated with bright colors and clear shapes. Children, especially young children, start to learn to read by looking at stories with pictures. Therefore, many people believe it is more suitable to give them familiar stories, or stories with plots.
 However, more attention should be given to the many nonsense picture books which have been published in the last twenty years in Japan. I have a lot of documents showing how babies and young children love and enjoy such nonsense picture books. These kinds of new nonsense picture books are characterized by bright colors, and they often have no clear stories.
 Younger children, especially babies, usually don't pay attention to the stories in picture books. Instead, they prefer to enjoy the way the images transform while the reader says the funny onomatopoeic words. There are several long-selling nonsense picture books which are loved by children of less than two years old in Japan. Mokomoko, written by Tanikawa Shuntaro, and illustrated by Motonaga Sadamasa (Bunkenn-Shuppan, Japan) is one of them. At first, many parents and teachers could not understand why babies and young children less than one year-old wanted to read it repeatedly.
 Mokomoko is a picture book which depicts changeable figures accompanied by only onomatopoeic words. There is a purple horizon in the spread of the inside cover accompanied by only one onomatopoeic word-“shiin”-which expresses “complete silence and lack of movement” in Japanese. Then a soft-edged semicircle figure appears in the next spread. The text is only the onomatopoeia “moko” which expresses a state of expansion in Japanese. The figures-a semicircle, a circle, a triangle, a little mushroom-like figure, and so on, are expanding, breaking off, getting brighter, and falling like snow from the top of the page.
 All changes in the figures are unexpected, and the interesting sounds of onomatopoeia stimulate children's curiosity. Children clap their hands, swing their arms and move in unison to the reader's rhythmical vocal sounds. They enjoy the variations in the figures and are excited by the rhythmical sounds of onomatopoeia. They become cheerful and happy. Children appreciate the feeling of nonsense.
 I want to introduce another unique nonsense picture book. Chiheisen no Mieru Tokoro (What Appeared on the Horizon), written and illustrated by Cho Shinta, is enthusiastically received by young children. Mr. Cho is one of the best authors of nonsense picture books in Japan. There is only one word of text written in this picture book-“Demashita”-which means, roughly, “It appeared” or “There it was.” Every time we turn the page, we read the same word all the way to the end. But the pictures are different on every page. We can see the face of a boy, the face of an elephant, a wrecked ship, a volcanic explosion, a penguin on the ice, and so on.
 The pictures have no logical connection and there is no consistent story in this picture book. The pictures are illustrated with the colors blue, yellow and green. Many parents say they can't understand why their children are so enthusiastic about this picture book. One child, a one-year, two-month old boy, wanted his mother to read it every day. He got excited to hear the text, “Demashita” and laughed every time.
 As opposed to nonsense books, parents tend to choose story books for young children. They are easy for parents to understand and read to their children. Picture story books are very useful when young children are learning to read and write. They educate literacy.
 Recently, we have various types of picture books besides picture story books. There are nonsense picture books, fine art picture books, wordless picture books, pop-up picture books, and so on. Children should know not only the logic of their construction, but also their deconstruction. I hope children learn how to change their point of view and how to create a new standard of value through nonsense and humor.



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