According to our earliest research on children's thinking, there are stages in development:


0-2 is called sensorimotor stage. In this stage, kids learn, literally, by using all 5 senses. Their eyes, ears, nose, mouth and fingers take in stimuli in order for them to begin making sense of their world. It's not surprising that kids recognize their parents' voices and smile even though they may be only 3 months old! Books, of course, help stimulate learning to know that voice. Kids as young as 8-9 months have pointed to a simple drawing of a moon when asked "Where is the moon?" or to a dog, "Where is the dog?" A picture of a moon is pretty darned abstract when you think of it (a crescent) but it seems universally recognized by kids who are talked to, looking at pictures in books and learning the familiar Mother Goose rhymes on their parents' lap. Kids learn about textures by touching, feeling different surfaces and they begin to manipulate their small and large muscles by handling books, learning to point, learning to turn pages, enjoying the feel of the sandpaper page to show "Daddy's whiskers" or the cotton puff to represent a pair of slippers or a bunny's tail. All this book stuff reinforces real life experiences and names them, labels them for kids BUT it also offers life experiences through stories that many kids have not had, like walking through a jungle to hear the lion's ROAR!! Because books end up in kids' mouths (they are, indeed, using all 5 senses to soak up the world), I have seen libraries where a basket offers those hard, cardboard books, "Inedible books for little children!" That's why the Imagination Library offers so many of these hard cover, hard page books -- they are inviting the handling, the touching, the kissing, the whatever that kids need to do to "soak up" a story!

2-7 years old - preoperational stage. Kids during this period are very egocentric, actually believing that their world begins and ends with them (well, perhaps with their primary parent or caretaker whom they see as an extension of themselves). Their world is small but they seek the pleasures of laughing, pretending to be frightened, pretending to frighten others, all through books that allow them, invite them, sanction their "practice" of real life. They have a tough time seeing differences between fantasy and reality, but absolutely need the fantasy world in order to explore all their emotions which might not be allowed in real life. Since kids of this age lack control over their lives, but feel controlled (by parents' decisions, by bullying from siblings and playmates, etc.) they must find an avenue to practice or work out their feelings and emotions. So, they relate to frightened Hansel and Gretel or believe that they are the Ugly Duckling with the possibility of growing up to be beautiful -- all this reading of fantasy stories fuels the imagination. Einstein once said, "You want to raise a bright child? Then, read him fairly tales! You want to raise a brighter child? Then read him MORE fairly tales!" There's a strong correlation between those kids who are allowed to exercise their imagination, play in a fanciful world, ally themselves with these fairy tale characters and their later IQ and school achievement. But in the earlier part of this wide age range, reading stories and poems to kids expands their knowledge of how our language works: our words rhyme, sounds slide together, there are soft and hard sounds, absolutely funny sounds crack us up, and we know how to make scary sounds!! Kids love this practicing of the basic Mother Goose rhymes to hear all those sounds and rhythms. What a strong basis for learning to read later on. If one does not understand intuitively from lots of reading that sounds make words and words make sentences and sentences make stories, then, it's pretty hard to catch up later on.

And a final note, I am a strong believer in reading out loud to all ages (even after kids learn to read) because the language (called syntax) in books is so different from our spoken language. We tend to speak in short phrases, one word responses, etc. But literary language in well written books offer us all the possibilities that the English language offers: beautiful, lyrical sentences, short sentences with impact, etc. The whole array - that's why good writing is so important to hear as well as to read. So, for the kids, especially, that are not reading, I want them read to -- even as late as high school, for they'll never again have the chance to listen to the English language at its best. You can see why I love reading!

The Imagination Library provides a foundation, the cement for knowing how to 'be with books.' The idea of anticipation, the idea of collecting, the idea of a home library in a bookshelf, the idea of finding an adult to share it with, the idea of comparing books with friends, of talking about the ideas in the books -- that's what real readers do. How do kids who never see real readers know how to act? At least the kids who get the 60 books begin to make up their own rules of receiving, taking care of and finding people to read to them and they may, indeed, teach their elders in the home who don't know how to be with books! I don't buy this argument that some of the researchers out there are saying, that children's books in a non-literate home do little good. I know that kids know what to do with them.


Dr. Jinx Stapleton Watson
School of Information Sciences
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tn. 37996-4330