Picture Books for Use with Older Readers
The list below should not be taken as exhaustive. It is more a personal collection of picture books, some in print, some only available through libraries or online secondhand booksellers, which I have found to be engaging, interesting, challenging and fun to use with readers who are older than the traditional picturebook reader. Some themes emerge throughout this list. Picture books are a brilliant introduction to difficult, complex or personally challenging subjects, the good ones provide masterclasses in the art of writing, they can introduce more complex literary concepts, and they can provide deceptively simple texts for developing critical literacy skills. This is a starting point – I am sure you will have books of your own to add to this list!
Title / Author / Publisher / isbn / ReasonKnuffle Bunny; a cautionary tale / Mo Willems / Walker Books / 978-1-84428-059-9 / A number of reasons - the mixed media in which the book illustrated and perspective on the cover and the way this works as a multimodal text (photos are black and white, drawings are colour and very child like), the representation of family and Trixie's relationships with her mum and dad are interesting, as are the gender roles assigned to the parents, in terms of critical literacy and questioning the story, it is also a useful tool for thinking about communication - verbal and non-verbal and how language develops, and finally some though about the subtitle.
Window / Jeannie Baker / Walker books / 978-0-7445-9486-7 / Great book for visual literacy, for non-verbal storytelling for looking at how to tell a story only with pictures and how we find clues and construct narrative. Also beautifully made collage and an inspirational idea for expressive arts work, excellent for exploring our impact on our environment and the speed of development with children
The Snow Lambs / Debbie Gliori / Scholastic / 0-590-19548-4 / Excellent for shared reading - lots of discussion can be fostered between younger and older children, particularly interesting to look at for multimodal texts and the juxtaposition between narrative through text and narrative through illustration - this is a book that certainly would convey a lot less without the illustration!
Tuesday / David Wiesner / Clarion Books / 978-0-395-87082-2 / Again visual literacy - how do we make sense of what is going on in this book? The contrast between a very realistic illustration style and the fantastical events it shows. writers craft - why the title and why the text used (particularly when there is so little text) Great for visual gags particularly. Also mood. A great stimulus for creative writing.
Me and You / Anthony Browne / Random House Children's Books / 978-0-552-55910-2 / Multi modal text showing different perspectives on the same story, inverting of expectations from well-known fairytales, pictures with text and without as a means of constructing narrative, critical literacy about different types of families represented (lack of father with Goldlilocks, colour in images, clothing choices - all set up expectations - and how those representations fit with our expectations of the traditional tale
Into the forest / Anthony Browne / Walker Books / 978-1-84428-559-4 / Critical literacy - looking at the gaps in the text, what isn't being said, the story we are being invited to imagine and construct about the father's absence, expectation of genre, how stories build fear and things that we are scared of in the real world, expectation of story, particularly of fairytale, how what we read is informed by what we have read before and how we use previous reading experience to make meaning of new narrative, and how the writer can use this to subvert our expectation of genre
The Wolf's Story; what really happened to little red riding hood / toby forward and Izhar Cohen / walker Books / 978-1-4063-0162-5 / Unreliable narrator, genre expectations, contrast of text and quite traditional fairytale illustration.
Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears / Emily Gravett / Macmillan / 978-0-230-01619-4 / Multi modal text - lots of different forms of text to read here - map, newsprint, poster, etc. The idea of meta text - what the book is meant to be, Emily Gravett's big Book of Fears, and what little mouse has done with it, play with language - names for fears, making up names for fears; structure and subversion of expectations, collage storytelling and character construction
The Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales / Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith / Puffin / 978-0-140-54896-9 / Character (just see the back blurb to start with), possibly the most post-modern story book ever, plays with format, narration, expectation, character etc.
The Rabbits / John Marsden and Shaun Tan / Lothian / 978-0-7344-1136-5 / Critical literacy - looking at colonialisation, assertion of power, industrialisation - but also worth questioning the very strong and prevailing point of view put across is this book - how is the reader being guided to making a value judgement, illustration adding levels to text, looking at animal fable (which essentially is what this is) as a means of exploring complex political issues
Black and White / David Macaulay / Miffilin / 0-395-52151-3 / Multimodal text - four stories simultaneously which may or may not intersect, contrasting tones and modes.
Farther / Grahame Baker-Smith / Templar / 978-1-84877-133-8 / A really lovely way of exploring mental health, loss, grief, family and identity. A text that asks the reader to construct meaning from an apparently simple story - great for exploring allegory, writers craft and inferred meaning.
Wolves / Emily Gravett / Macmillan / 978-1-4050-5362-4 / Simply great for exploring multimodal texts - the counteraction of text and image to tell two very different aspects of a story.
Denver / David McKee / Andersen Press / 978-1-84270-963-4 / This is a book that provides a very specific moral and political take on the world - very useful for critical literacy work for developing questioning of assumptions contained within a book, to challenge the ethos presented and to identify the how the writer seeks to persuade towards a specific value system. the illustrations also provide opportunity to examine the relation of the society represented in the book with their experience of society around the them.
The Island / Armin Greder / Allen and Unwin / 978-1-74175-266-3 / For older children only - and please make sure you read it first - a challenging text examining xenophobia, isolationism, intolerance and immigration. Powerful and moving stuff, but may also be disturbing.
The Incredible Book-eating Boy / Oliver Jeffers / Harper Collins Childrens Books / 0-00-718227-9 / Great for reading together with younger children - particularly if older children have some responsibility for fostering motivation to read with their younger peers.
Zoo / Anthony Browne / Red Fox / 978-0-099-21901-9 / Again great for juxtaposition between words and pictures - also great for looking at writers craft with construction of character.
Michael Rosen's Sad Book / Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake / Walker Books / 0-7445-9898-2 / The most sensitive exploration of grief, loss and the way that feeling sad can overwhelm a person. Honest, straightforward, but never simple. A great, safe way to explore these issues.
Imagine a Place / Sarah L Thomson and Rob Gonsalves / simonsayskids / 978-1-4169-6802-3 / Really useful images and text as a stimulus for creative writing.
Diary of a Wombat / Jackie French / Harper Collins Childrens Books / 978-0-00-721207-1 / Useful for exploring character and perspective - good for writers craft, particularly using diary to invent and flesh out character.
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers / Mordicai Gerstein / Macmillan / 978-0-312-36878-4 / A great example of a non-fiction book. Writers craft of making a narrative out of fact. Also a wayin to talking about the twin towers.
Mirror / Jeannie Baker / Walker Books / 978-1-4063-0914-0 / Storytelling through pictures - but this time with some text to put context around it. A book that is presented in English and Arabic, and respects the book format for both languages and uses difference to provide a mirrored narrative that shows difference but highlights similarity. Excellent for exploring different cultures, sharing cultures etc.
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick / Chris Van Allsburg / Andersen Press / 978-1-84939-279-2 / A fantastic stimulus for creative writing.
Dear Mrs LaRue; Letters from Obedience School / Mark Teague / Scholastic / 0 439 97716 9 / Unreliable narrator - exposed through juxtaposition of illustration to text.
Free to a Good Home / Colin thompson / Random House Australia / 978 1 74166 319 8 / A book about the wisdom of older people, good for exploring what makes up a family, also for questioning the relation between the text and the illustrations (which feel somewhat sinister in comparison to the rest of the story, but in a way that is not really acknowledged or resolved).
Darkness Slipped IN / ella burfoot / Macmillan / 978-0-7534-1845-1 / A great book for shared reading with younger pupils - fun to read aloud, lots to talk about and lots to do.
Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus / Mo Willems / Walker Books / 978-1-84428-513-6 / You either love this or hate this. Here to look at writer's craft and character voice - all of the text is speech.
The Arrival / Shaun Tan / Hodder Children's books / 978-0-340-96993-9 / Beautiful wordless picture book examining the full experience of the immigrant family.
Spells / Emily Gravett / Macmillan / 978-0-230-53136-9 / Writers craft, playing with words and rhyme, subversion of genre - playing with a well-known fairytale.
The Silence seeker / Ben Morley and Carl Pearce / tamarind Books / 978-1-848-53003-4 / A book which explores a child's understanding of what it is to be an asylum seeker and how we can go about welcoming strangers into our communities.
the Black Book of Colours / Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria / walker books / 978-1-4063-2218-7 / Explores colour, sense, sight and how we understand the world through text, braille and black on black illustration - which is amazing! Also useful as an inspiration piece for writers craft with descriptive language.
Voices in the Park / Anthony Browne / Random House / 978-0-552-54564-8 / Four different voices tell the story of the same walk in the park. Use to introduce different character perspectives and voices, critical literacy skills - questioning the preconceptions that characters have of one another, and to query whether the text contains inherent value judgements about any of those character perspectives.
Ernest / Catherine Rayner / Macmillan / 978-0-230-71255-3 / Writers craft - looking at how format and layout become part of the story in a picture book.
Again / Emily Gravett / Macmillan / 978-0-330-54403-0 / Writers craft - book within a book as a conceit of storytelling, fun for reading with younger peers - particularly for initiating conversations about excitement around books, routines for reading at bedtime.
The Red Tree / Shaun tan / Lothian / 978-0-734-41137-2 / A book for exploring emotions, and what how it feels when they overcome us - with a central message about where emotional resilience can come from.
Black Dog / Levi Pinfold / Templar / 978-1-84877-748-1 / A book about confronting your fears, and how we magnify each other's fears - a fantastic allegory for talking about a difficult subject.
Orange Pear Apple Bear / Emily Gravett / Macmillan / 978-0-330-51267-1 / A very simple book to use with older kids - but wonderful and included here for three reasons. It most effectively illustrates the dialogue between text and illustration and how the combination of the two can be much more than the individual parts, it is the most pared back exercise in writers craft you will find almost anywhere and it is the best way of learning about effect of using commas properly!
Press Here / Herve Tullet / Chronicle Books / 978-0-8118-7954-5 / A playful book which looks at how books can do all that touch screen technology can - just using imagination. Great to start a discussion about how we interact with books as a physical thing and as something that allows our brains to make up the narrative.
tusk tusk / David McKee / Andersen press / 978-184-270-579-7 / Older readers will find this book a masterpiece in explaining a complicated subject, in this case intolerance, very simply. Use as a source text for writers craft, particularly in thinking about writing for a particular audience.
Varmints / Helen Ward and Marc Craste / Templar / 978-1-84011-323-5 / A great companion piece to the Rabbits - similar stories about the impact of incoming colonial power - here focussing very strongly on the environment. This has a more hopeful ending but the two books could be used together to look at writer's choices, contrasting illustrations, themes and resolution.
This is Not My Hat / Jon Klassen / Walker / 978-1406343939 / A lovely example of the illustrations and text telling a different story/ presenting different character perspectives.
This Moose Belongs to Me / Oliver Jeffers / HarperCollins / 978-0007263905 / A very nice example of the narrator’s voice, character voice and illustrations all telling a different perspective on the story for comic effect.