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October 19, 2004 From Chewing to Choosing: Bonding Books and Children Elizabeth Hearne
Professor, Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contents

Introduction to the Topic

Literacy begins with literature, and sharing literature with your child begins almost at birth. You can share the pleasures of reading as soon as you can hold a baby and a book in your lap without dropping either one. The songs that parents or caregivers sing, the nursery rhymes they chant, and the interactive stories they read aloud are all deeply embedded literature. The sights and sounds surrounding a child may not always be understood, but they will be absorbed. It's important, then, to saturate the child's world with good books, to combine delight with durability.

Fortunately, the ability to say a lot with simple language and artful illustration has always characterized the best of children's literature. The selection formula is simple: the key to choosing the right book is your own enjoyment of it. Any child from birth on will respond to books that you enjoy. It's also important to remember that for preschool children, the "physical" and the "mental" are interwoven-they explore their world through taste, sound, touch, sight, smell, association, emotion, and connection. What goes into the mouth goes into the mind. Let it be literature as well as plastic. Songs and sucking; cardboard, cloth, and chewing; paper, pictures, and pointing; language and listening-it's such a natural progression of events.

While you and the baby are regularly relishing lap-sitting sessions of sharing a book, singing a song, or chanting nursery rhymes and perusing a book's illustrations, the baby will, some bright and unexpected day, try to grab the book and eat it. Well, why not? How often have you chewed on a thought? Give a child the same chance. There is nothing wrong with familiarity, with the book as a physical companion. The things dearest to us always get the most wear, whether they are teddy bears or blue jeans. I have seen children hug books they love. They are getting comfortable with the book as part of living. Soon they'll be ready to yell "DOG" when they see one in a book. Language will become a magical bridge from the physical to the conceptual.

Finally, children will be ready to hear that word magically transformed into a dog story with a beginning, middle, and end. "Once upon a time, there was a dog that loved to chase rabbits...." You will have expanded their imaginations as well as their vocabularies, their cultural as well as visual literacies, and their confidence as well as the skills that will bond them with lifetime reading.

Online Resources

ERIC Database: Selected Records

To search the ERIC database for resources on this topic, use this search strategy: infants or toddlers or preschool children. Combine with reading material selection or annotated bibliographies.

How to Obtain ERIC Documents and Journal Articles:

References identified with an ED (ERIC document)or EJ (ERIC journal) are cited in the ERIC database. ERIC Documents (citations identified by an ED number) may be available in full text from ERIC at no cost at the ERIC Web site: http://www.eric.ed.gov. Journal articles are available from the original journal, interlibrary loan services, or article reproduction clearinghouses.

If you would like to conduct your own free ERIC database searches via the Internet, go directly to http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/basic.jsp

NOTE: There may be publications on this page that are available as PDF (portable document format) files. To be able to read these files, download the free Adobe Reader. Illinois State Board of Education
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