(Part 2 is here.) My two children learnt to read in different ways and at different ages. I hope that sharing their stories will serve as a reminder about what really matters when teaching a child to read, and perhaps dispel some myths about how difficult it is. Susan Wise Bauer insists that ‘reading is simple’. I think that for the majority of children she is right, and that a lot of the perceived difficulty comes from the anxiety we dedicate to it as parents, and our idea that there is a timetable our child should follow.
You mentioned the difficulty children sometimes have in bridging the gap between reading picture books, and chapter books. I have become, somewhat accidentally, an expert in this transition, so, if you are interested, I will share what I've learned with you and your readers.
Picture books usually have 32 illustrated colour pages, with very few words on each page, because that format, historically, allowed the publisher to print the whole book in full colour on one very large sheet of expensive, high-quality, often glossy, paper (and then cut it up – 2, 4, 8, 16 – and assemble the book). More pages would have made the book much more expensive.
Chapter books, however, have always been printed in the normal way, on normal, cheap, matt, wood-pulp paper. As a result, they usually have only a small number of black and white pictures, and often none at all. And they are much longer, often over 100 pages.
But this divide, between picture books of 500 or so words, and chapter books of at least 20,000 or so words, is purely an artefact of technology, and the limitations of early full-colour printing presses (Nowadays, with modern presses, it should be easier, and somewhat cheaper, to print longer, fully illustrated books.)
However, over the years, this divide became deeply embedded inside publishing companies. Children's publishing was internally subdivided into picture books (32 pages, full colour, very few words), and an entirely separate publishing section, with different editors, that published longer and less illustrated books for older children.
It is this entirely artificial gap which causes so many of the problems children encounter when they first attempt to read for themselves.
They are expected to abruptly leap from heavily illustrated books with very few words (where the pictures give you a great deal of assistance in understanding the text), to far longer books with hardly any illustrations to help with understanding. No wonder children struggle to make that transition; they simply shouldn't have to do it all in one leap, it's absurd.
My own background is as a novelist, writing for adults, so when I wrote my first book for children, I had no idea how rigid this divide was. I wrote the book to be the length it needed to be – which was about five times longer than a standard picture book, but a couple of times shorter than a standard chapter book. The dead zone in children's publishing!
This is where I learned all the above, because the feedback, when my agent submitted it, was fascinating. Children's publishers all wanted it to be either much longer, or much shorter – not because there was anything wrong with the story, but to suit their existing formats.
I said no to their suggested changes, because I liked it just the length it was: a 500 word version would have compressed and simplified the story to death, and a 20,000 word version would have stretched and diluted it to death.
But, as a result, it took over two years to find a publisher. Finally, we found a wonderful editor called Rachel Wade at Hodder Children's Books, who loved it BECAUSE it was that in-between length. She was extremely aware of this bridge problem – that traditionally there had been no bridge between picture books and chapter books – and she'd recently had great success with a series by Alex Smith about a dog called Claude, fully illustrated, but 100 pages long, that bridged the gap.
So I signed a deal with Rachel, and Hodder; they got the magnificent Jim Field to illustrate it; and Hodder published Rabbit's Bad Habits in 2016. The story has a happy ending, because it is now published in 36 languages, has won a number of awards in various countries, and continues to sell extremely well. (And I've gone on to write four more Rabbit & Bear books with Jim: all 100 pages long, all fully illustrated.)
Which leads me to another reason I am so aware of this bridging problem: I have received SO MANY messages from parents saying that their son or daughter had always struggled to read, or been reluctant to read – but that a Rabbit & Bear book was the first "long" book they had finally managed to read on their own, and the child was so proud of their achievement, and now they were addicted to books. Providing bridge books makes a real difference...
Anyway, the situation is definitely improving. (Rachel just got nominated for Editor of the Year at the Bookseller Awards, so she is finally getting proper recognition for her pioneering work!) More and more long, complex, but fully illustrated books for five- and six- and seven- and eight-year olds are now being written and published, to help children bridge that artificial gap; but I just thought I would tell you about the problem, and its historical roots, because I have found it so interesting myself, as a writer and as a parent, to discover all this. It's in some ways an invisible problem in the culture, and it causes children and parents to blame themselves for something that simply isn't their fault.
Gosh this is so interesting, and makes perfect sense now you explain it. We happened to be in a bookshop today so we picked up a copy of Rabbit’s Bad Habits. My daughter read it aloud to my son and they giggled over it all the way home!
Oh, that's wonderful! Giggling all the way home, heh? Er, yes, I suspect I know which pages made them giggle the most... Had I known you were going to buy it, I probably would have warned you that Rabbit's Bad Habits is the rudest of the Rabbit & Bear books. But it's scientifically accurate! Rabbits really do have some peculiar (and giggle-worthy) habits, by our standards.
Anyway, I'm delighted they enjoyed it. And I'm glad you found my historical explanation for the problem children face in moving on from picture books to be of interest. I was rather worried I'd gone on far too long!
Best of luck with your homeschooling, and with the Substack. I'm finding it very interesting. (Some great tips on teaching maths., thank you.)
Ah I’m so pleased it’s interesting and useful. Thank you! Have to tell you that when my daughter felt that five minutes was five minutes too long to wait for her tea today, I suggested she go and read a bit more Rabbit and Bear. And she did! To me this makes it worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.
You mentioned the difficulty children sometimes have in bridging the gap between reading picture books, and chapter books. I have become, somewhat accidentally, an expert in this transition, so, if you are interested, I will share what I've learned with you and your readers.
Picture books usually have 32 illustrated colour pages, with very few words on each page, because that format, historically, allowed the publisher to print the whole book in full colour on one very large sheet of expensive, high-quality, often glossy, paper (and then cut it up – 2, 4, 8, 16 – and assemble the book). More pages would have made the book much more expensive.
Chapter books, however, have always been printed in the normal way, on normal, cheap, matt, wood-pulp paper. As a result, they usually have only a small number of black and white pictures, and often none at all. And they are much longer, often over 100 pages.
But this divide, between picture books of 500 or so words, and chapter books of at least 20,000 or so words, is purely an artefact of technology, and the limitations of early full-colour printing presses (Nowadays, with modern presses, it should be easier, and somewhat cheaper, to print longer, fully illustrated books.)
However, over the years, this divide became deeply embedded inside publishing companies. Children's publishing was internally subdivided into picture books (32 pages, full colour, very few words), and an entirely separate publishing section, with different editors, that published longer and less illustrated books for older children.
It is this entirely artificial gap which causes so many of the problems children encounter when they first attempt to read for themselves.
They are expected to abruptly leap from heavily illustrated books with very few words (where the pictures give you a great deal of assistance in understanding the text), to far longer books with hardly any illustrations to help with understanding. No wonder children struggle to make that transition; they simply shouldn't have to do it all in one leap, it's absurd.
My own background is as a novelist, writing for adults, so when I wrote my first book for children, I had no idea how rigid this divide was. I wrote the book to be the length it needed to be – which was about five times longer than a standard picture book, but a couple of times shorter than a standard chapter book. The dead zone in children's publishing!
This is where I learned all the above, because the feedback, when my agent submitted it, was fascinating. Children's publishers all wanted it to be either much longer, or much shorter – not because there was anything wrong with the story, but to suit their existing formats.
I said no to their suggested changes, because I liked it just the length it was: a 500 word version would have compressed and simplified the story to death, and a 20,000 word version would have stretched and diluted it to death.
But, as a result, it took over two years to find a publisher. Finally, we found a wonderful editor called Rachel Wade at Hodder Children's Books, who loved it BECAUSE it was that in-between length. She was extremely aware of this bridge problem – that traditionally there had been no bridge between picture books and chapter books – and she'd recently had great success with a series by Alex Smith about a dog called Claude, fully illustrated, but 100 pages long, that bridged the gap.
So I signed a deal with Rachel, and Hodder; they got the magnificent Jim Field to illustrate it; and Hodder published Rabbit's Bad Habits in 2016. The story has a happy ending, because it is now published in 36 languages, has won a number of awards in various countries, and continues to sell extremely well. (And I've gone on to write four more Rabbit & Bear books with Jim: all 100 pages long, all fully illustrated.)
Which leads me to another reason I am so aware of this bridging problem: I have received SO MANY messages from parents saying that their son or daughter had always struggled to read, or been reluctant to read – but that a Rabbit & Bear book was the first "long" book they had finally managed to read on their own, and the child was so proud of their achievement, and now they were addicted to books. Providing bridge books makes a real difference...
Anyway, the situation is definitely improving. (Rachel just got nominated for Editor of the Year at the Bookseller Awards, so she is finally getting proper recognition for her pioneering work!) More and more long, complex, but fully illustrated books for five- and six- and seven- and eight-year olds are now being written and published, to help children bridge that artificial gap; but I just thought I would tell you about the problem, and its historical roots, because I have found it so interesting myself, as a writer and as a parent, to discover all this. It's in some ways an invisible problem in the culture, and it causes children and parents to blame themselves for something that simply isn't their fault.
Gosh this is so interesting, and makes perfect sense now you explain it. We happened to be in a bookshop today so we picked up a copy of Rabbit’s Bad Habits. My daughter read it aloud to my son and they giggled over it all the way home!
Oh, that's wonderful! Giggling all the way home, heh? Er, yes, I suspect I know which pages made them giggle the most... Had I known you were going to buy it, I probably would have warned you that Rabbit's Bad Habits is the rudest of the Rabbit & Bear books. But it's scientifically accurate! Rabbits really do have some peculiar (and giggle-worthy) habits, by our standards.
Anyway, I'm delighted they enjoyed it. And I'm glad you found my historical explanation for the problem children face in moving on from picture books to be of interest. I was rather worried I'd gone on far too long!
Best of luck with your homeschooling, and with the Substack. I'm finding it very interesting. (Some great tips on teaching maths., thank you.)
Ah I’m so pleased it’s interesting and useful. Thank you! Have to tell you that when my daughter felt that five minutes was five minutes too long to wait for her tea today, I suggested she go and read a bit more Rabbit and Bear. And she did! To me this makes it worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.