Picture Book Research Paper

I strongly believe when some people grow up they lose interest in reading books, you can see the many people that don’t like reading in our schools, because most of us are on our phones and reading articles. I mainly read on my phone and I enjoy that more because the articles are short and to the point quicker. Phones have changed on how much I value actual books.

My experience with literature started when I was in the first grade. My first-grade teacher was named Ms. Young. Every Friday, all the teachers would come together to have story time and read the children a book. I would be so excited for story time because I would sit down with my best friends Ashley and Jordan, and we would listen to the teacher that was assigned to read to us. During story time, all the children would gather around in a big circle and the teacher would be in the center in a big brown rocking chair, and read. Over time in the school year, the children would read bigger and longer books like the Junie B. Jones series, chapter books, and the extreme level, which would be the Harry potter series. Sometimes I would fall asleep because the book that was read was very dull. I remember Ms. Young read to us the “Very Hungary Caterpillar”9 by Eric Carle. I loved that book as a child. It had great illustrations of the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. This book made me love reading for the rest of my life. Now in college, I love to read books. I only

On TV you only see what the media wants you to, but with books the possibilities are boundless leaving you to take the story for what it’s worth and run with it, all the while drawing your own conclusions. For example, in my house, I would read books and then dart to my parents telling them about what I just read and what it meant to me, or even how I saw the characters in my own mind. It’s amazing the things you can find out about yourself when you think and create on your own instead of having someone do it for you. I appreciate those who gave me books, read to me out loud, or handed me pens to doodle with because if I wasn’t given the opportunities to explore I probably wouldn’t be the same person today. Even a kindergartener deserves that type of freedom and I feel picture books are a great outlet for it.

I have made it my goal this year to read harder and older books rather than newer and easy books. I think that I have followed through quite well, though I did read a few easy books. Three years ago I purchased an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite I have found it easier to read challenging books. It makes books easier to read because, of the in-text dictionary I can look at the definition of an unknown word inside the book, it takes the words I have searched and, makes them into flashcards that I can go through later. By virtue of this technology I was able to read many challenging books such as the Three Musketeers, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, a quarterly synthetic biology journal, and many other challenging books. Fiction books I read mainly for pleasure, unless assigned or if it's a fiction wrote in an historic time period. I appreciate historic books because they offer an insight on the thinking and way of life of the people of that era. I also think that reading books written in an classical style influences your writing style. It is my opinion that some of today's literature has become more simply worded and not nearly as descriptive as previous eras. I found that in Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne there were many outdated theories that I had never heard of this gave me an insight into the ways people thought. I have two mediums by which I read first of which is my Kindle Paperwhite which has almost every

When I was a younger I don’t remember if I was read to or not, but I read a lot of books. I enjoy reading books because they allow me to reach new heights in my imagination. At my age many kids say that reading is boring and is for losers. I think it’s cool to read and will continue to read throughout my life. I have read many different types of books from fiction to biographies. The longest book I ever read was a book called Dragon Rider by Cornella Funke. It was five hundred and thirty five pages! When it comes to reading I am a superstar! When I’m reading I am able to get a moral lesson from what I read, so it ends up helping me in the long run of my life

Literature has always been a close personal friend. I've always been surrounded and engrossed with books. One of the first books I ever read was Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. I must've read that book a thousand times when I was little. When I was in preschool my friend and I comically read along to the book. I credit most of my ability to read early on to my elementary's school librarian. I remember vividly in kindergarten our librarian teacher holding a book in her hand showing off the pictures. I was completely enthralled, more so than probably other children in the class. As time went on and I passed from grade to grade, I started to read books from the school's library. Most books I read were about tornadoes. I've always been fascinated with how

Before we divulge into the topic of this essay, let me begin by stating that neither the author of the main source, Steven Johnson, nor I intend to devalue books or look down upon them. In his book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, he starts off talking about the importance of books. He says, “We should all encourage our kids to read more, to develop a comfort with and an appetite for reading” (Johnson 21). Reading provides many different benefits, some including “concentration, the ability to make sense of words, to follow narrative threads, to sculpt imagined worlds out of mere sentences on pages” (Johnson 23). As an avid reader myself, I have always had an interest in books.

Books have fueled me in all my endeavors. They are something that I wish to share with others. As I've gotten older, books have always been there opening up doors to new worlds.

Reading allows me to explore and go on a journey, and take part of myself on that journey. I can relate with characters in books whether they are fictional or real. We all read for pleasure, to explore, even to share all the same feelings we all share reading the book, and feeling the same feelings the authors of the books went through themselves. This is what makes a book fun to read. That is what I think C.S. Lewis meant when he said “We read to know we’re not alone” because books let us feel the experiences others felt, and share the same thoughts and feelings as others around us.

George R. R. Martin once proclaimed, “A reader lives a thousand lives”, which means that I have lived more than my terse eighteen years on this earth. From my parents reading me the classic Goodnight Moon every night, to my three-year-old self loving If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Chrysanthemum (which I strongly felt was written after me), I had an exemplary start when it came to the world of literature. From this introduction, I continued to immerse myself in books while other kids’ interest in books faltered once the pages were no longer filled with pretty pictures and enormous letters. My love and fascination, however, only grew stronger over time and as my skills advanced, I started to go through books so fast that I needed to buy five at a time in order to keep myself entertained by their stories. I have enjoyed my

Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was a little child. I grew up as a normal child should grow and eventually I had to start learning for me to fit in society. My literacy started many years ago, after I knew how to talk and communicate with people. Reading my alphabet was quite stressful and I had to be given a hand by my family members. I remember my parents reading with me and it was the most meaningful and memorable way to spend time with me. This is because I liked reading a lot and I was eager to learn so that I could fit in with my older siblings. My favorite books were storybooks taking about adventures and fairytales

Raymond Mar, a psychologist at Your University in Canada and Keith Oatley a professor An The University of Toronto, they both say that “individuals who often read fiction appear to be better able to understand other people, empathies with them and view the world from their perspectives.” I agree that reading certain types of books can help people further understand and see things from a different point of view. Reading helps to open people's eyes and to teach life lessons or to show there are other things to believe in and know other than what they have always been told to know. Getting different types of books, types that are not always the same as the books that you normally read can help you to view things differently. For example from personal experience a new book can help your imagination grow, readings helps me a lot when I need to come up with new ideas for an art class. The new places a book takes you the new images you see while you are reading the new stores you hear and the happy ending your book might have can change the way you are feeling it can brighten up your day.

Reading develops a person’s creativity. Unlike movies where everything is determined by the producer, writer and director, books allow students to create in their minds how a particular character looks like or imagine how a scene plays out.

As a child, my interests were more focused on reading than writing. In elementary school I fell in love with books. Initially I read simple children’s books, much like everybody else in my class, but it did not take long for my passion to drive me to read more difficult writings. Fiction books quickly became a replacement for any childhood toys. Instead of blocks or stuffed animals I would ask my parents for books. Since they were aimed at young readers, they tended to be short. I found myself going through them within days, and then soon several hours. Towards the end of elementary school I was reading series like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. I was captivated, and reading truly opened up a whole new world for me.

The beginning of my interest in reading goes way back, although I don’t have any defining “aha!” moment, where I all of a sudden enjoyed reading books. There were always books around when I was growing up, if I was at my grandparents house it was the books they kept from their youth; classics like Treasure Island or any Hemingway book, the hard covers permanently infused with dust; plenty of History books, particularly World War II history; and the children’s books I always received as presents when I visited. My mom also read a lot, but more modern books, like supernatural or light horror books, nothing too difficult (or scary). I spent a lot of time reading magazines, mostly Video Game (note: spent more time creating stories off the