Before Words: Wordless Picture Books and the Development of Reading in Young Children

In this book, the author challenges reductive views of emergent literacy prevalent in many of today’s kindergarten and pre–K classrooms. As an alternative, Lysaker explains how reading wordless books with young children helps them to develop a range of comprehension abilities that are important for understanding narrative texts. Readers will find concrete methods to help them gauge, document, and respond to children as they make meaning of and respond to wordless books. Through description ...