Picture Books: Enjoyable at Any Age

Is it possible to find books for older learners that are easy to read, but aren't too childish? Absolutely. There has never been a better time to find picture books that can engage both young adults and more mature readers.

Your bookstore or online bookseller stocks a wide array of interesting titles that your adult learners will find appealing.In addition to fiction, you'll find biographies, history, and science in picture-book format. Many older learners prefer nonfiction, and publishers are now meeting the market for informational texts.

Why do we recommend picture books for beginning readers of all ages?

Have you ever been assigned reading that was difficult for you? Did you look ahead for pictures, and sighed with relief when you found them? Do you occasionally turn to illustrated magazines for easy reading? Our struggling readers feel the same way, and might be overwhelmed by pages filled only with text.

We want reading to be an enjoyable experience in which our students find the joy of obtaining meaning from the text.The presence of appropriate pictures gives extra clues to finding that meaning.

Think of learning to read in the same way as learning to ride a bicycle. First the parent holds the bike upright, then gradually releases control to the beginning cyclist. Pictures in books serve the same purpose--they provide support to the beginning reader, and will become less necessary as the learner becomes more proficient.

The following books represent just a fraction of the engaging titles available for older readers:

Reproducible Books:

• Beginning Reading for Older Students:
• 30 Reproducible High-Interest/Emergent Skills Stories for the Classroom and the Home
  Gloria Lapin has created an inexpensive and renewable source for easy books that are designed to appeal to older emergent readers, English language learners, and students with special needs.

Troll First-Start Biographies

• Young Frederick Douglass: Freedom Fighter
• Young Reggie Jackson: Hall of Fame Champion
• Young Martin Luther King, Jr.: 'I Have a Dream'
• Young Thurgood Marshall: Fighter for Equality
• Young Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Heroine
• Young Jackie Robinson: Baseball Hero
• Young Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter
• Young Orville and Wilbur Wright: First to Fly

Allan Fowler's Rookie Read-About Series

• Africa
• The Nile River
• It Could Still Be Water
• It Could Still Be Endangered
• It Could Still Be a Desert
• The Sun's Family of Planets
• Icebergs, Ice Caps, and Glaciers
• Let's Visit Some Islands
• When You Look Up at the Moon
• So That's How the Moon Changes Shape
• Recycle That!
• What Magnets Can Do
• Inside an Ant Colony
• Good Mushrooms and Bad Toadstools
• Flies Are Fascinating
• The Dewey Decimal System
• A Look at Teeth

Picture Biographies by David A. Adler

• A Picture Book of Louis Braille
• A Picture Book of George Washington Carver
• A Picture Book of Frederick Douglass
• A Picture Book of Thomas Alva Edison
• A Picture Book of Anne Frank
• Lou Gehrig : The Luckiest Man
• A Picture Book of Helen Keller
• A Picture Book of John F. Kennedy
• A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln
• A Picture Book of Thurgood Marshall
• A Picture Book of Jesse Owens
• A Picture Book of Rosa Parks
• A Picture Book of Paul Revere
• A Picture Book of Jackie Robinson
• A Picture Book of Eleanor Roosevelt
• The Babe & I
• A Picture Book of Sacagawea
• A Picture Book of Sojourner Truth
• A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman

DK Readers
These books are designed for early readers, but they are quite sophisticated in their design and content.

• Trojan Horse
• The Story of Pocahontas
• Shark Attack!
• Fire Fighters
• Astronaut, Living in Space
• Big Machines
• Tiger Tales
• Bermuda Triangle
• Zeppelin
• Diving Dolphin
• Jobs People Do -- A Day in a Life of a Builder
• Eruption -- The Story of Volcanoes
• Truck Trouble
• Survivors -- The Night the Titanic Sank
• Twisters!
• Astronaut, Living in Space

These colorful books honor the traditions of Native Americans.

• If You Lived With the Iroquois by Ellen Levine
• If You Lived With the Sioux Indians by Ann McGovern
• If You Lived With the Cherokee by Anne Kamma
• If You Lived With the Hopi by Anne Kamma
• Powwow by George Ancona

These picture books might actually be better appreciated by adults, particularly parents, than by children.

• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
• Just the Two of Us by Will Smith
• Ben's Trumpet by Rachel Isadora
• A Chair for my Mother by Vera B. Williams
• Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say
• Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale Retold and illustrated by John Steptoe.
• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale Retold by Verna Aardema. Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.
• The Wall by Eve Bunting

More recommended nonfiction:

• If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War by Kay Moore
• If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution by Kay Moore
• If You Lived With the Hopi by Anne Kamma
• If You Lived With the Cherokee by Anne Kamma
• If You Were at the First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma
• Celebrating a Quinceanera: A Latina's 15 Birthday Celebration by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
• Celebrating Chinese New Year by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
• Las Posadas: An Hispanic Christmas Celebration by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
• Celebrating Passover by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
• Celebrating Ramadan by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
• Celebrating Kwanzaa by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
• Migrant Worker: A Boy from the Rio Grande Valley by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
• Pueblo Storyteller by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith

Dramatic photographs and simple text about space exploration.

• Destination: Jupiter by Seymour Simon
• The Universe by Seymour Simon
• The Space Shuttle (Eye on the Universe) by Jacqueline Langille, Bobbie Kalman
• The Sun (Eye on the Universe) by Niki Walke
• The Moon (Eye on the Universe) by Niki Walker, Bobbie Kalman

American History Picture Books

• More Than Anything Elseby Marie Bradby
  A fictionalized account of Booker T. Washington's burning desire to read.
• So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George, David Small
  A chatty discourse on the variety of personalities that have occupied theWhite House.
• Hank Aaron : Brave in Every Way by Peter Golenbock
  An inspiring biography of this great baseball player