Children's books often have captivating story lines and beautiful illustrations, and many have universal appeal and address mature themes and topics as well. Its successful use in adult ESL programs is enhanced by age-sensitive book selections, clear class presentations, and the creative development of related lesson and unit plans. The stories are contextually whole and inherently meaningful. After a book has been enjoyed and understood, numerous speaking, reading, and writing opportunities can emerge. The teacher can adjust reading materials to learners' interests, needs, and levels of L2 proficiency by carefully selecting appropriate books and by modifying the language during oral readings.
Picture books offer the advantage of illustrations to explain much of the vocabulary.
Repeated patterns provide an additional aid for language learning. However, not all are equally successful with L2 learners in a classroom setting, and those appropriate for ESL adults form an even smaller subset. Therefore, book selection is critical, and gaining knowledge of the selection process is more important than obtaining a list of books. Most of the criteria below relate to picture books, usually 28-32 pages long. These are useful for ESL classes because they provide illustrations paired with enough fairly simple text for classroom reading exposure, yet their length allows ample time for rereadings and extension activities.