Parents, please don’t stop reading to your children – a wonderful picture book that can change their lives | Picture books

“Children become readers in the lap of their parents.” – Emily Buchwald

I can’t think of a better way to start the year than to have one of my books selected in The Guardian’s readers’ poll of the best Australian picture books of all time. Come Over to My House, co-written with musician Eliza Hall and illustrated by Daniel Gray Barnett, is a rhyming picture book that explores the home lives of children and parents who are deaf or disabled. I’m very proud to have been a part of creating this book, and I’m very pleased to see it on this list among so many exceptional titles.

Some of the books on this list were created by dear friends and peers. Others are books I read to my children when they were young. It’s great to see so many Australian picture books that have stood the test of time, passed down from generation to generation. Many of these picture books hold a strong place in our hearts because they represent a treasured time in our childhood: memories of cuddling up on someone’s lap, or sitting cross-legged on a mat listening to a beloved adult fill the room with funny sounds.

Unlike most books, picture books were created primarily for reading aloud. As well as being a great way to connect with a child, reading aloud is a vital first step to developing literacy. It expands vocabulary, promotes brain development and develops so-called “phonological awareness” – helping children recognize the rhythms and patterns of language. Research shows that reading aloud to your child regularly from a young age gives them a distinct advantage when they start school.

It is unfortunate that many adults stop reading picture books to children when they develop reading skills on their own. Sometimes it’s because the child thinks they’ve outgrown it, declaring, “Picture books are for babies.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Often, children’s authors use more complex vocabulary and complex storytelling in a picture book than they would in an early chapter book, which usually aims to provide familiar but limited vocabulary, as well as simple stories, for the child to decode on their own.

The text is only half the story; Illustrators not only illustrate what is written in words, they add another layer of meaning, often carrying the emotional weight of the book. In The Guardian’s list of the 50 best books, children can imagine what it might feel like to be a wombat, a fox, an opossum or a bunyip. They can learn to be proud of their differences, or discover how similar they are to someone who may seem different from them. There are books that act as mirrors, others as windows. Reading develops empathy, and I’m happy to see how diverse this selection is, and how many of these books depict the lives of a wide range of children.

As my co-author Eliza Hall says: “Growing up with a disability, I remember not seeing myself in any of the picture books I read, and wishing the books that exist today had existed back then, because I would have felt much less alone.” Or our illustrator Daniel Gray Barnett, who discovered from working on this book that he has autism spectrum disorder: “Knowing this about myself explained a lot about how my brain works and why I am the way I am. This book changed my life. I’m so glad it came to me when it did.”

You never know: a book on this great list could change your child’s life. Or even your own.