Picture Books Are A Great Way For Adults To Learn
Many believe, in order to be a “serious academic” you must read articles from peer reviewed scholarly academic journals that have been vetted by the experts. Sometimes I’ll read articles like that, but I also do some serious academic learning from reading picture books.
I learned about the art, life and activism of artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Diego Rivera from the reading the books Radiant Child by Javaka Steptoe and Diego Rivera (His World and Ours) by Duncan Tonatiuh respectively.
I learned fascinating history behind Winnie The Pooh by reading Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick.
I learned about pioneering Cuban drummer Millo Castro Zaldarriaga by reading Drum Girl Dreaming by Margarita Engle.
I learned about the teeth of The Giganotosaurus by reading Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins.
I learned about Chief Red Cloud by reading Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender by S.D. Nelson.
I could go on and give you 100s of examples to add to those above. ( and feel free to ask me if you want more).
I don’t always have the time/motivation/interest to read a 500 page book. Moreover, reading a Wikipedia article about a historical event/person/science concept can be pretty dry. On the other hand, reading a well researched picture book can give you an entertaining and informative synopsis about a topic in about 5-10 minutes. In addition, there are picture books about a lot of interesting topics that most likely were not included in your education even if you are one of those fancy serious academics with PhDs who write in peer reviewed scholarly journals.
Reading picture books is not only a great way for children to expand their knowledge of the world, but for adults too. If you don’t believe me that is a good learning strategy for adults, Jeopardy Champion James Holzhauer read picture books as a strategy to get all the knowledge he used to win over 2 million dollars.
Have you ever won 2 million+ dollars on Jeopardy? I think not. So get to reading...
