From Picture Books to Chapter and Middle-Grade Books: Not Leaps But Ladders, a guest post by Cynthia Levinson
Picture books are just so inviting! Cheerful, intriguing or heart-felt covers beckon young readers—even if they’re not yet reading—to open them up and dive in. Large trim sizes and heavy paper help little hands turn each page. Absorbing illustrations convey the story as much as the words do—and often more. And, with generally just thirty-two or forty-eight pages, they can be swallowed whole in practically no time. What’s not to love?
Chapter books, on the other hand, can feel daunting. So many pages! So few pictures! Just seeing them lined up on the library shelves can make a child want to avoid the deep end and keep swimming in the shallow end. Not that picture books are at all shallow! On the contrary, they often deal with meaningful concepts and issues and provide a great conversation-starter even for teens.
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So, how can you help readers, regardless of their age or reading level, cross the bridge over those troubling waters (OK—enough already with the aquatic metaphor!) and get comfortable with chapter books? You might think of two kinds of approaches—one based on content and the other on theme.
Content
The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist introduces five- to ten-year-olds to the Birmingham Children’s March in which nine-year-old Audrey volunteered to protest segregation, get arrested, and spend a week in jail. True story. As in many picture books, there is one focal character. And the story opens with a joyful, colorful illustration by Vanessa Brantley Newton of Audrey and her mother cooking a special meal together. Who are they cooking for? Turn the page. Their friend Mike—aka Martin Luther King, Jr.—and other civil rights activists, one of whom persuades over three thousand children to fill Birmingham’s jail cells. Forty-eight pages later, Audrey is slurping ice cream at a lunch counter next to a white child.
Once kids get the basics of this heroic tale, they can ramp up and read about Audrey again as well as about three teenagers in We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March. This book, for middle- and high-schoolers, opens with Audrey, too, but more suspensefully and ominously: “‘I want to go to jail,’” Audrey had told her mother.” Harrowing details of the children’s experiences are conveyed in the text and black and white photographs. Still, 150 pages later, they’ve succeeded. “‘With commitment, things can change,’” Audrey said.”
Readers who get piqued by the more focused story can slide into the bigger one based on a grounding of essential facts, mini-dramas, and hope.
Theme
Speaking of change, take a look at two of my favorite books (I don’t want to talk just about my own!)—the recent picture book small things mended by Casey w. Robinson, illustrated by Nancy Whitesides, and the older middle-grade Be A Changemaker by Laurie Ann Thompson.
In small things mended, Cecil, a widower, uses screwdrivers and pliers to repair the broken items brought to him by neighborhood children—a pocket watch, a music box, and other “thingamajigs.” But when Eleanor brings her stuffed elephant that has a broken heart, Cecil is stumped. Until he figures out how to fix the elephant’s and his own, leading to a welcome change in the entire neighborhood.
With that as a basis, you can move on from one changemaker to many. Thompson’s book shows older readers how to be like Cecil—not fixing thingamajigs but maybe neighborhoods. “How many times have you complained about something but done nothing to fix it?” she asks. “When you set your mind to it, you absolutely can do something that matters.” She then profiles teens and even younger kids who have made solid differences in their communities. Thompson even provides the, ahem, nuts and bolts for how others can follow suit.
In other words, start with one kind of change made by a fictional grown-up and step up the ladder to real-world changes led by youngsters!
Moving Right Along
There are also stair-step series of books that follow the same characters and stories, advancing with kids’ reading skills from early independence to hiding-under-the-covers late at night with the proverbial flashlight.
Take, for example, the Fenway and Hattie books by Victoria Coe. The early chapter books about this pairing of a mischievous beagle, through whose eyes—and nose—the stories are told, and his beloved owner have large font and illustrations and ten chapters with only 500 words each. This level is like the gateway drug! Thoroughly hooked on Fenway’s shenanigans and cockeyed point of view, more solid readers can easily graduate to the middle-grade versions, which have about 35,000 words.
So, all in all, you’re never too old to read a picture book. And your students can just keep climbing up to more challenging and informative books about the same subjects or the same themes or even the very same characters that caught their attention when they were younger!
Meet the author
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Cynthia Levinson, Sibert Medal winner, has written multiple award-winning nonfiction books for young readers. Her most recent picture book is Free to Learn: How Alfredo Fought for the Right to Read. Her next book, for ages 12 and up, Who Owns the Moon? And Other Conundrums of Exploring and Using Space, will be out in January 2025.
Links:
- Website
- X: @cylev
- Bluesky: @cylev
- Insta: cylevinson
- Facebook: cynthia.levinson.7
About Who Owns the Moon?: And Other Conundrums of Exploring and Using Space
by Cynthia Levinson, Jennifer Swanson
Today’s teens may travel to the Moon in their lifetimes. This primer on what to know for a future in space combines technology and science with law and policy for a fascinating look at a very timely subject.
For teens who are space fans, this book is loaded with fascinating facts, great stories, and new ways of thinking about the challenges of space. It covers topics on the science of space and developments in technology (e.g., satellites behaving like spacecraft), and it also considers the laws that have been drafted for space travel and space etiquette—the agreed upon norms of behavior that allow humans to explore without conflict.
The book discusses the problem of space debris, and the growth of space tourism. It provides details about the Artemis missions and plans for the Gateway space station, and so much more. It challenges young readers to think about the decisions that need to be made in the years ahead to ensure that space exploration remains an exhilarating and peaceful activity.
And the final chapter provides guidance on careers in the space industry—being an astronaut is only one of many exciting paths to pursue.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
ISBN-13: 9781682635377
Publisher: Margaret Quinlin Books/Peachtree Publishers
Publication date: 01/07/2025
Age Range: 12 – 17 Years
Filed under: Guest Post
About Amanda MacGregor
Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on Twitter @CiteSomething.
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