Don't Forget: It's Picture Book Month

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I really can't praise this initiative enough and I want everyone to get on board. Picture books are important in the lives of our children... and in our own lives. Picture books are a child's first exposure to literacy, art, to life experience.. to understanding the world. That simple act that we all take for granted (and in an IT world... sometimes distain) of turning the page does more for the development of a child than we realise. One of my own enduring memories is that of sitting on the floor in the front room with my books.... MY books... and turning the page; back and forth pondering for hours the intricacies of the pictures within, studying the faces and the scenes to glean every last detail and always finding something new! (Though, of course, at the time I would not have expressed it as such. I was just "reading".)
Each day the Picture Book Month website includes a post from a different Picture Book Champion. Though I'd include a few quotes here to get you up to speed....

"The main difference between book illustration and film, TV or electronic media is the frantic pace of the one and the stillness of the other. The importance of stillness versus frantic action is of the utmost in the intellectual and emotional welfare of our young children. We already face the problems of hyperactivity and lack of focus."    Tomie dePaolo  Nov 1, 2013

"I vividly remember not only turning each consecutive page, but I remember turning the pages back and forth and back again, checking for clues of what was to come. Even at that young age, I was absolutely fascinated that time and space could be manipulated – with a simple turn of the page, I could go back in time and when I did, I’d almost always discover something I’d missed before."
Laura Vaccoro Seeger  Nov 5, 2013

"Picture books give the reader a chance to be a part of the story, controlling the pace by deciding when to turn the page, when to linger over a special word or sentence, when to leap ahead or jump back in the story, and when a book is really good, to turn back to page one and start reading all over again. In real life, we can’t do these things. That’s why books are magic!"  Daniel Kirk Nov 6, 2013

http://picturebookmonth.com/

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