(response to Picture Books Languishing, October 7, 2010)
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
I would like to remind parents, educators and the reading public of the value of interacting with a picture book, aside from the quiet pleasure of observation, an ever fleeting phenomenon in today’s hectic world. As a child turns the pages, engaging in imagery, there are innumerable physiological reactions that occur, many of them in the brain, which are invaluable to emotional and physical development. The simple processes of light, shape, and color entering the eye sets off a cascade of neuro reactions which radiate throughout the body. The varying perspectives a picture book offers, from close-ups to wide-angle, exercise a child’s ability to expand and contract their vision of the world, contributing to their capacity to set boundaries and to cope. The very feel of a picture book–its size, the thick pages, the smoothness—provides a solidness that grounds us as we enter the world of imagination and soar through the tale within.
Picture books are the source of vision, insight—all of those wonderful words which denote an almost mystical ability. They are qualities which hearken back to the greater mysteries of our being. Nurturing the ability to visualize gives children the tools to alter their own lives and their ever-expanding world. I think anyone who has seen a young child immersed in a picture book will attest to a moment when something happens, as wondrous as life itself. This is magic, the terrain of transformation when limiting beliefs vanish, paving the way for us to realize our potential as human beings. Real achievement, personal growth, the qualities we want most for our children, are most obtainable when magic becomes the realm of ordinary life.
A favorite writer of mine, Neville, traveled the world in the 60’s elaborating on the value of imagination. His advice was to “picture yourself in the wish fulfilled.” To him, the ability to project yourself with all the accompanying feelings into the image you’ve created, was the key to obtaining your innermost desires. If parents must put lengthier books in their children’s hands, let them give them Neville’s Awakening Imagination. And I’ll bet that they’ll soon be scurrying back to the picture books corner with their toddlers to revive their own hopes and dreams along with what may soon become a lost art.
– Kate Banks