Anthony Browne

Books are a resource used for many things such as, gathering information, fun, enhancing skills; literacy, reading, writing and creativity; allowing their imagination to grow. Rather than using the traditional book when working with children, picture books can be just as useful as it can provide other advantages such as, providing them with visual context providing visual stimulation, allowing them to use their creative skills when thinking of what the story means or the morals behind it.

Anthony Browne is one of the best authors of picture books for children. He creates these picture books, instilling morals and values and sometimes delivering hidden messages. for example, the Zoo. This book is takes us through a journey around the Zoo with a family. As we go through the book the characters start to show some animal-like characteristics. There could be many ideas behind this such as, that humans are the animals and they should be caged, or from there expressions throughout the book it could convey the sadness the caged animals feel. His stories open up conversations and discussions, encouraging children to think laterally.  His stories can help children in many ways, one of which is that it can enhance cognitive skills such as analytical thinking and  by Styles and Arizpe (2001) findings, it is believed “that some children who are not yet confident at reading print have developed impressive capacities for analysing image.” (2001, p 261).  These picture books also bring more fun and creativity to reading, giving children a positive attitude towards reading because having a negative view reading from a young age can possibly “hinder a child’s progress from picture books to chapter books.” (EBSCO Information Services, 2017).

His picture books; whilst imaginative, are also written and drawn with hidden morals, which can increase social interactions. This is because picture books enable students and teachers to analyse and discuss the images within the books allowing them to break it down and coming to the conclusion of the possible message behind the images. Children who struggle more with reading can benefit greatly from picture books.  As mention in an article by EBSCO Posts, “If children are having difficulty with the words, the illustrations can help them figure out the narrative, which can increase their comprehension.” (EBSCO Information Services, 2017).

His books can be used in many ways in the classroom. Practitioners could use his picture books within drama and reenact the story how they interpret it. This would help improve their creativity and imagination as they’re able to produce a story with their own interpretation of it. Jane Doonan (1986) has said that over the past few years, one of the biggest areas of change and growth in children’s literature has been developed largely through picture books. Supporting this, it is said that “Students who are learning English as a second language can find wordless books very beneficial for language development in many of the same ways that preschoolers do” (Wizzley.com, 2012), meaning that picture books enable students to, meaning that picture books also enable students to links the image with different terminology, expanding there vocabulary as well.  

This YouTube video tells us how we can use picture books to extend children’s learning and help further enhance their holistic skills. It also tells us how we can pick things out from the book and discuss the book in more detail. By doing this, it will allow children to think deeply about the story and with Anthony Browne’s books, they can look at the hidden meanings behind the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grUrknKdXlM

References

EBSCO Information Services, I. (2017). Seeing is Believing - The Benefits of Picture Books for Building Reading Skills. [online] EBSCOpost Blog. Available at: https://www.ebsco.com/blog/article/seeing-is-believing-the-benefits-of-picture-books-for-building-reading-skil [Accessed 18 Apr. 2019].

Styles, M. & Arizpe, E. Children's Literature in Education (2001) 32: 261. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012760422501. Accessed at: 14.02.2019.

Jane Doonan (1986) The object lesson: picture books of Anthony Browne, Word & Image, 2:2, 159-172.

Wizzley.com. (2012). The Many Benefits of Reading Wordless Picture Books. [online] Available at: https://wizzley.com/the-many-benefits-of-reading-wordless-picture-books/ [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

YouTube (2017). Make Your Child Smarter: Extending Learning with Children's Picture Books. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grUrknKdXlM [Accessed 3 May 2019].