Junko Yokota

"Books Come Alive: Reading Aloud and Reading Along with Young Children is about using read alouds to promote empathy and the ability to think deeply in response to literature. Grounded in research and theory, the book explores how to ensure that read alouds have maximum instructional value to promote literacy and spark children’s lifelong love of literature.
This book offers teachers information about book selection, how to plan for and conduct read alouds, and extend children’s experiences. The book also includes a vetted and extensive compendium of high-quality books for read alouds, accompanied by a framework for teaching with those books."  Rowman & Littlefield

Bring text and its meaning alive for students! This collection offers the perspectives of classroom teachers, researchers, and children's book authors, including award-winners Kate DiCamillo and Katherine Paterson. Together, they share their thoughts on the power of character ...

Specifically, reading aloud builds oral language and vocabulary (e.g., Hargrave & Sénéchal 2000; Wasik & Bond 2001; Blewitt et al. 2009), listening comprehension—a precursor to reading comprehension (e.g., Brabham & Lynch-Brown 2002; Zucker et al. 2010)—content knowledge (Pappas & Varelas 2004; Hoffman, Collins, & Schickedanz 2015), concepts of print (Piasta et al. 2012), and alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness (Aram 2006; Brabham, Murray, & Bowden 2006). Equally important, reading aloud is one way we enculturate young children into literacy—helping them acquire the language, values, practices, and dispositions of the literate world (Heath 1983).

The most influential recent development in publishing is the advent of digital formats. Ebooks have gone from curious novelty to big deal in a very short time. In the United States in late 2010, School Library Journal hosted its first annual Virtual eBook Summit; it was “a big hit” and had over 2,000 participants online hearing librarians, publishers, and content creators talk about the increasingly digital book (Whelan, 2010 ). Only one year later, the second annual summit on this topic was titled “eBooks: The New Normal.” The typical ebook read on a dedicated ereader (Kindle, Nook, etc.) has not hit the children ’ s literature world for elementary school child readers in a particularly big way, but ebooks and apps that incorporate text, illustration, and interactive features and that are directed at an audience of young children—often thought of as the eequivalent to picture books—have become a major force. We find these digital picture books to be the most exciting innovation in ...

This chapter offers a consideration of the picturebook and illustrated book form.  Illustrated books contain at least one illustration and may include text that does not rely on imagery; picturebooks feature a limited word count, convey meaning through sequential imagery, and exhibit an inter-related relationship between text and pictures. In this chapter, the authors examine the purpose, function and medium of illustrated books, spotlighting historical milestones. Twelve different classifications of illustrated books, including that of picturebooks, are delineated. The final conclusion considers the future of the illustrated book and the effects of technology on its form.

Key Words: Picturebook, Illustrated Books, Visual Literature, Sequential Art, Picture-Storybooks

That picture books have the power to convey a broad range of themes is widely recognized in our research field.  Often, those themes are subtly embedded within the goal of conveying story to the child reader.  But at other times, the sociopolitical goals are at the forefront and the story that carries the messages becomes secondary.  To what degree is intentionality appropriate when the audience is young children?  In what ways can adults who mediate children’s reading experiences make choices that impact the child reader’s response?  When a book moves in translation from its country of origin to new audiences, what aspects of cultural knowledge impact interpretation of text and illustration?  Questions such as these have been explored in earlier research, listed below.  Attention in this paper is given to the question, ‘what are the differences in books on the same sociopolitical topic, when interpreted by different authors and illustrators?’  This research begins with an analysis of visual and textual elements within books with sociopolitical themes, then considers the sum impact of how the theme is conveyed through those elements and finally, analyzes how it is accomplished across several books on similar themes.  Discussion focuses on literary and artistic merits of picture books with socio-political themes, yet without overt didacticism. Books that have won awards focused on sociopolitical content serve as core texts.  The focus on award-winning books is due to the power that such books have in finding their way into libraries and classrooms and get the attention of librarians and teachers who mediate such books with children. This original research will bring together previous work I have done for over two decades on related topics focused on advocacy through award-winning books, reader response to picture books, and multicultural analyses. 

Previous Research in Recent Years on Related Topics:
Yokota, J., Adachi, S., & Teale. W.  (2012, November).  A critical analysis of Rose Blanche in translation:  Bringing a Holocaust story to a Japanese audience.  Presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Literacy Reading Association, San Diego, CA.
Yokota, J.  (2011).  Awards in literature for children and adolescents. In S. Wolf, K. Coats, P. Enciso, & C. Jenkins (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature (pp. 267-278).  London & New York:  Routledge. 
Yokota, J. & Adachi, S.  (2011, May).  Talking about issues that matter through discussions of picture books. Presented as part of the Pre-Conference Institute on “Discussions that Matter:  Fostering critical reading, critical thinking and critical literacy,” 55th Annual Convention of the International Reading Association, Orlando, FL. 
Yokota, J.  (2010).  Fostering peace and social justice through literature:  The Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards.  Journal of Children’s Literature, 36 (2) 27-28. 
Yokota, J., Adachi, S., & Teale, W. H.  (2010, December). Analysis of Culturally Relevant Visual Content in a Translated Picture Book:  Japanese and American Educators on Hiroshima no Pika.  Presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Literacy Reading Association, Ft. Worth, TX. 
Yokota, J. & Kolar, J.  (2008).  Advocating for Peace and Social Justice through Children's Literature.  Social Studies and the Young Learner, 20(3), 22 - 26