The potential of picturebooks
Subtitle: from visual literacy to aesthetic understanding
By: Barbara Z. Kiefer.
Publisher: Merrill
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Englewood Cliffs, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 247
Subjects: Picture books for children -- Educational aspects.; School children -- Books and reading.
Description: As a child when my head wasn't bent over a paint box it was usually buried in a book, and it seems fitting that some of my clearest memories of childhood involve are and books. I remember our district art teacher, Miss Trapann, who came each Friday with special materials and an art lesson! I recall the images in several favorite picture books that I would pore over in awed fascination. When I began reading novels, I loved the white space at the beginning of each chapter, an invitation to visualize the words of the author with my own un-accomplished drawings. (Librarians will be happy to know that I only drew in the books I owned and not those I borrowed.) There was never any doubt in my mind that I wanted to be an artist, so I obtained a BA in Art Education. I loved every minute of my studio courses but was less enthusiastic about my education requirements. When I married an Air Force pilot just after graduation, however, I learned one of the first lessons of life in the arts. There weren't many jobs teaching art. Therefore I began substituting in elementary schools and found I loved teaching the elementary curriculum allowed me plenty of opportunities to explore art with children and also explore the wider world of history and science and other areas of interest. I knew I needed to read to children and share my love of books if I expected them to become readers. Therefore, I went back to school to pick up courses necessary for certification I taught transitional first/second grade glass in Japan a second grade class in Ohio and Fourth and fifth in California. Substituting in grades K through 12 when I wasn't teaching full time gave me a wide range of experience and helped me make corrections across grade levels. When my husband was killed in an aircraft accident I had to make some serious decisions about my future instead of our future. I thought about going back to school to study interior design, I seriously considered buying an art gallery, I took more lessons in watercolor painting and sustained myself with my paint box once again. But I realized that teaching was the most exciting and fulfilling things I had ever done, so I prepared myself to teach again, first with a master's degree and certification as a reading specialist, Then I looked for a place where I could find answers to all the questions I still had about how children learn to read and where I might combine my love for children's literature with studies in art. I wrote to Charlotte Huck, the author of my well-thumbed children's literature text, asking wether such a place existed. She wrote back and invited me to apply to the doctoral program at Ohio State. There, with the help of Ken Marantz, then chair of the Art Education Department, and Charlotte, I was able to put together a program of studies that centered on literature, the arts, and language and literacy. My studies and my dissertation on children's responses to picturebooks grew out of my passion for art and books and my interests in children and learning, Since that time I have continued to study children and their picture books and to read, listen to, and explore ideas about making art and viewing art, particularly the art of the picture book. This book then, offers a variety of avenues for exploring the potential of the picture book. It is not limited to any single audience, Although many of the ideas presented will interest teachers and librarians, it is hoped that art educators and parents may find the theories and practices useful as well. The book's content should be accessible to those trained in art as well as those with very little formal training. Finally, the implications of research and the suggestions for practice that I discuss here are not limited to younger children. They are meant to embrace an audience of middle and secondary students as well as adults , Although the format of the printed verbal text requires a linear progression from the first page to the last, as shown in the table of content there is spatial quality to the book's organization that is in keeping with its subject matter Therefore just as the eye can enter a picture at any point, I invite my readers to choose their own point of entry into this book to look , for example, through the pictures first or to read the practical suggestions in the last part of the book before digging into chapters on children's responses or style in picturebooks. To this end I have included a visual map of the books contents for those who are more spatially inclined.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-237) and index.