By Tim Longoria | LTVN Reporter/Anchor
I have always been told by friends and family about how wonderful reading is for your brain. I have never been the type to choose reading a book over watching TV or going outside, but I do enjoy taking some time away from technology and stimulating my brain in another way.
For all my visual learners out there, I am sure you can attest to my claim: picture books make reading more fun.
I would much rather see color, action and emotion along with the words telling the story than try to figure out what the author had envisioned with six consecutive paragraphs on a singular page.
Not only do I not lose focus like I normally do when reading a regular book, but picture books take me back to the good ol’ days of being a kid. What’s better than seeing food literally rain down from the sky in “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”?
Don’t answer that. Let me have my fun.
I know for a fact that there would be less groaning and whining when a teacher assigns a book to read (that nobody cares about) if we replaced those books with light-hearted paper entertainment, if you will. Maybe it would even make English and history classes even more enjoyable than they already are! It would be so much more fun to write a 10-page book report over “Clifford: The Big Red Dog,” than trying to argue which president was better way back when.
Listen, I know I am advocating something that would most likely only get approval from Kindergarteners through 6th graders, but I love the humor and joy that kids bring. I honestly think we need to start referring more to our feelings during our childhood in order to approach life today with a different, more positive outlook. I am not saying we should have recess and naptime while in college (although you might want to stay tuned for my next opinion article if you cracked a smile at that last thought), but I would just love to have a taste of my childhood again.
Books are great. Reading is fun. You learn a lot.
But with pictures, illustrations and imagination on each page of a picture book, they are automatically, in my book (nice pun), put at the top tier of entertainment that doesn’t involve electricity.
Who knows? Maybe President Livingstone will see this article and make a change to the paperback books on campus. “One picture per three pages.” But if not, oh well. A boy can dream.
