Niland, A. (2023). Picture Books, Imagination and Play: Pathways to Positive Reading Identities for Young Children. Education Sciences 13(5), 511.
In this article, Niland puts forward an argument about the importance of positive reading identities for young literacy learners, and makes a clear statement about the place of children’s literature in quality early literacy pedagogy. Four children’s books by Australian children’s authors – My dad is a giraffe (King, 2015); Big dog (Gleeson & Greder, 1991); Patricia(King, 1997); and Clancy and Millie and the very fine house (Gleeson & Blackwood, 2009) – are used to consider messages enabled through child characters who use their imaginations. Each of the books is analysed utilising qualitative content analysis, with multimodal analysis also used to support consideration of images and formatting decisions and how these interact with words. The overarching message given is about the importance of children’s literacy in young children’s reading development.