Can you imagine a childhood without picture books? No time spent cuddled up with a parent or carer, listening to a story and exploring the images.? It certainly draws a sad picture.
National charity Booktrust posed the question, Are picture books at risk? at a seminar last month, sparked by signs that the ind'stry is suffering.
The Bookseller, the trade bible for the publishing ind'stry, reported declining sales in picture books in 2006 and a reduced range of titles available on the high street - it is un'sual for bookshops to have more than six copies of a book. It doesn't stop there; libraries are also stocking fewer picture books.
Booktrust is so concerned that it has launched a campaign called The Big Picture to promote and generate new interest in picture books. Catherine Large, head of development at Booktrust, says, We have appointed a project manager to scope the ind'stry and come up with answers on the decline for the publishers, with the aim of introducing a large public campaign in 2008 to coincide with the National Year of Reading. Speaking at the Booktrust seminar, children's publisher Helen Mackenzie Smith from Random House Children's Books raised various challenges. She said, The cost vers's the perceived value of a picture book is a challenge. Picture books are very expensive to produce and there is a high spend in marketing before they even get on to the shelf. There is also the concern that stress is put on children learning to read rather than enjoy books. Language and early years consultant Marian Whitehead says, I think the danger of all this talking about phonics and goals makes parents and some carers think that they are wasting time looking at picture books and that they need to move on to something with more skills-based training. But pictures are the most powerful introduction to literacy. Tina Bruce, honorary visiting professor at Roehampton University, wants more focus on children becoming symbol 'sers'. She says, There are layers in young children's development of understanding of symbol uses - human being's symbolic behaviour. The first is beginning to 'se language, written text is another layer of symbols, but pictures come in between.
Children engage with photos and beautiful ill'strations when they are very young. They are a powerful form of taking children into symbols. Picture books should be beautiful things and an artistic experience in their own right. We want children to be visually educated. Martin Salisbury, course director for MA Children's Book Ill'stration at Anglia R'skin University, says, Some people report that children are regarding picture books as babyish at a younger and younger age. They enjoy pictures solely as a support to reading and then they are not needed. The emphasis is on word literacy, not visual literacy. While children may be moving on from picture books at a younger age, the age of the people buying them is getting older, with those in their fifties and sixties buying more. Ms Mackenzie Smith said these consumers demonstrate a certain nostalgia-buying of children's classic picture books' rather than buying books by new authors and ill'strators.
Mr Salisbury thinks publishers show similar traits. The more exciting and original talents are passed over in favour of safer ones. There is a strong tendency to look for the next Gruffalo or Daisy Duck, but the next big thing often comes from where you least expect it, he says.
Ms Large at Booktrust explains, If there is a decline in confidence among the trade, then fewer risks will be taken, and then there are fewer new ill'strators.
Old favourites are fantastic, but I think the images may become less contemporary and less relevant to children. It is important to allow children to see new things. While Mr Salisbury acknowledges that the UK has a wonderful heritage of ill'strators, he believes it is now living in the past and not encouraging new talent. Too many mediocre picture books have been published here in recent years. I see a big difference in European countries, especially small countries with a minority language. Children's book publishing is regarded as an important national activity and an asset. It often receives government subsidies. They take great pride in picture books and regard them as part of their heritage.
Literacy skills
Of course, publishers and ill'strators are worried about the financial implications of the declining picture book market, but how might children be affected?
If picture books are at risk, it is a serious issue, says Marian Whitehead. As recent news reports have shown, constant exposure to television is not good and this time spent in front of the television could be taking children away from books.
All research suggests that sharing picture books with an adult is very powerful in helping children to understand the nature of literacy and exposing them to the power of their emotions. Opal Dunn, children's author and language consultant, agrees. If children are not introduced to picture books at a very young age then they miss out on the whole business of knowing what a book is.
Through books, young children develop visual literacy, emotional literacy and general literacy. Children can pick up new language and they think they are reading when often they're not. We need to start introducing books to children at an early age - by five it is too late and children are also too hooked on television by then. Picture books are very sophisticated things. They hold all different kinds of meanings and are very subtle, says Tina Bruce. They make a child pay a tremendous amount of attention to detail and become sensitive to expressions and situations in a way that spoken text does not. She is concerned that if children are r'shed away from picture books, then they will be held back from becoming autonomous book worms'.
Making children tackle too difficult text means that they constantly need adults to share books with them, whereas picture books do their own talking, she adds.
Guiding parents
It is felt that parents need to be educated in the importance of picture books to help reduce the decline, something that Booktrust hopes to address during the campaign.
Parents also need an awful lot of help when selecting books. Waterstone's, for example, is like a sweetshop, you just don't know what to pick up, says Opal Dunn.
Parents also need more encouragement to share books with their children.
Books can compete with television if parents know how to 'se their voice to tell the story and, of course, children get a cuddle then as well. Often parents need to have more confidence.
Books have to be properly mediated and presented, because they are in competition with the television all the time. Some libraries now do not stock novelty books because they are damaged easily. This is a pity, because novelty books are important for parents who do not know how to mediate a story. They give the children something extra when the parents does not have confidence Marian Whitehead believes that most children do get a lot of experience sharing picture books with early years practitioners who understand their importance. It is very important that early years centres allow children to take books home and also to introduce them to libraries, she says.
Helen Mackenzie Smith calls for greater communication with picture book buyers, along the lines of If you loved this, you will like this', especially those who are buying over the internet. She also calls for more innovations, such as accompanying DVDs.
But may there come a time when DVDs overshadow picture books? Ms Whitehead thinks not. Picture books are so flexible. Children can look at them backwards and forwards, return to them, hide away with them, and they do not need to be near an electrical point to enjoy them. Opal Dunn agrees. She says, Nothing can replace a picture book. Children love books if they're read properly to them. They like to cuddle them and take them to bed. You can't take a television programme to bed. NW In Japan most children's books are sold with an advice slip for parents and carers on how to share the book, which Ms Dunn thinks would be a good idea to introduce in the UK.
Further information
* For details of Booktrust's campaign, The Big Picture, go to www.bigpicture.org.uk
