Read a picture and a story to your child

Written by: Päivi Heikkilä-Halttunen
Illustrated by: Jenni Erkintalo
Release date: April 2025
ISBN: 9789527581094
Number of pages: 252 pages
Size: 13.5 x 20.5 cm

Read a picture and a story to your child encourages them to read picture books with curiosity and without prejudice. The guidebook is aimed at supporting early childhood education, pre-school and primary education, and primary and secondary school teaching. The book also provides
for parents of children and all adults interested in picture books, ideas for using picture books with children of different ages. Picture books are often thought of only as literature for the youngest, pre-school children. The guidebook presents picture books made for different age stages and needs and highlights how many different ways a picture book can support a child's growth and development. Even a child who has already learned to read will benefit from picture books for a long time to come, as they make it easy to illustrate the emotional skills, multiple reading skills and language awareness that are also emphasized in the curriculum. Some of the picture books are suitable for interactive, pedagogical picture book discussions, in which the same book is read with a small group many times. Such repeated moments of reading a picture book deepen the nuances of both the illustration and the story for the child.

KEYWORDS:
literature education, children's literature, picture book, early childhood education, guide

PhD Päivi Heikkilä-Halttunen is a researcher, critic and educator specializing in children's literature. Read to Your Child with Pictures and Stories is an independent sequel to the 2015 book Read to Your Child! A Guide to Children's Literature Education, focusing exclusively on picture literature.

Jenni Erkintalo is a graphic designer, illustrator and children's author born in Rauma. She has studied at the Helsinki and Stockholm universities of applied arts, TaiK and Konstfack. Erkintalo's adventure story The Worm and the Sea (Etana Editons, 2019) received the prestigious White Ravens label. Her children's books have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Catalan and Korean. Jenni Erkintalo founded Etana Editions together with Réka Király in 2014. In 2024, her picture book Who's Cute? was a Finlandia Junior nominee.