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1.  Picture books contain artwork that come in various mediums.

2.  Picture books are created to be eye-catching for young readers.

3.  Picture books facilitate a visual for what is happening in the story line.  It's a stepping stone that guides readers to formulate a mental picture for themselves as they grow into reading literature without illustrations.

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Picture Books are concept books with limited/controlled vocabulary.
Picture Storybooks combine the text and illustrations and are synchronized in a way that the pair together harmonize better than with each one standing alone.

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1.  Is something significant told to the child through the theme?
2.  Do the illustrations aide in the story?  Can the reader understand the story better with pictures?
3. Are the readers understood and respected, or does the book condescend?
4.  Do the pictures develop an enhanced character development?
5.  Do the illustrations add to the mood and tone of the story?

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Questions to keep in mind when being critical of a book BEFORE you read it:

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Questions to keep in mind when being critical of a book BEFORE you read it:

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1.  Does the book have a two page spread when you see the front and back cover together?  Or does the back cover just have a review?
2.  What does the case wrap look like when you take off the book jacket?
3.  How detailed are the end papers?
4.  What quality is the binding of the book?
5.  What do the size and spacing of the illustrations look like?
6.  Does the gutter line up properly on a two page spread of an illustration?
7.  What is the paper quality of the book?
8.  Make sure to depend on reputable book reviews to find a quality book.

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Booklist, Horn Book, School Library Journal, 100 Scope Notes, Mr. Schu Reads, Nerdy Book Club, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, VOYA and Cooperative Children's Book Center

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To attain even more of an appreciation of picture books, I'd like to delve into the actual process it takes to get a picture book published from beginning to end.

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The Brainpickings website was provided in order to better understand the evolution of a picture book starting from the mid/late 19th century to the present.  The website states even with the best designed research, it will always remain somewhat of a mystery as to what type of images are the most intriguing to children.  It's basically a guessing game for the simple fact that children, at such a young age, can't communicate what they are receiving from an image.  I was fascinated with this knowledge I acquired, so I explored a little more on this research.  I found a Frontiers in Psychology website that didn't state what images children prefer, but rather, what type of development they get out of certain types of images that are given to them.  Frontiers in Psychology states, "Particular features of picture books, such as the specific content they incorporate, or the way in which the content is presented, may influence children's tendency to learn and transfer the educational content to real-world situations."  The article speaks of developmental factors such as symbolic development and analogical reasoning, along with reasoning about fantasy and reality and the different learning domains like pictorial realism.  Since children can't articulate what they prefer in an image, I still find good reason to research the effect different types of picture books have on a child's learning (especially in the precious developmental years). This personal research leads me to believe I still need to learn what types of artwork effect certain aspects of young readers and to make sure I acquire a well rounded selection for them.

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I think it's important to share with my peers the relevance of having a diverse collection of picture books available to the learning community. When I think of "picture books", my instant visual is brightly colored cartoon images. After research, I now understand the attention needs to be on a multitude of art mediums and how each one plays an important role in a child's development.