ABSTRACT
A reader of a picture book must link not only two different narratives, that of the printed text and that of the pictures, but also what the pictures tell about the printed text. At all ages, the children became interested the moment they saw the cover and became keener as they turned the pages. There was definitely a belief that books with pictures were for younger children and the amount of pictures in books decreased in inverse ratio to the words as books were intended for older readers. The older pupils were more able to articulate the difference between the meanings derived from the written text and the pictures. In English schools, picturebooks are not often re-read and re-discussed because of the constraints of the curriculum. This means that many children remain at a more literal level of comprehension, in which they understand the plot sequence but find it difficult to construct meaning at a more critical level.
