What’s the deal with my picture book obsession?  In 2011, I started a blog called BiblioZealous where I was free to opine to my heart’s content about picture books. I don’t know a whole lot about many things in life, but I do know a fair bit about children’s literature and especially picture books. And while I have many failed moments in the story of raising my seven children, I am clinging to the good and sustaining hope that every single one of them love books, love reading, and love reading aloud with me. This will take them far in life and root them in what matters most.

In mid-2015, I took all 200+ posts  from BiblioZealous and moved them over here mostly because I wanted ownership over my content… but really in an effort to have an integrated life.  See, I don’t see picture books as all that childish of a diversion. Really, we are at our most human, most authentic selves when connected with child-like hearts to all that is good, noble beautiful and true in life. Picture books can be fun. They can be meaningful. They can be beautiful. But ultimately, I see them as a way to orient our hearts to a higher good, a slower life, and a simpler faith. This is why you’ll see picture book illustrations and references in many of my posts;  they can often serve to help simplify, narrate or metabolize the “real world.”

I also use picture books to heavily supplement or even serve as the basis of my homeschooling lessons. I find that they can serve as a perfect medium with which to introduce complex concepts to children in a delicate and respectful way (think The Donkey of Gallipoli for example).

I also think picture books can be perfect for adults during certain periods of life too. I know that I am a better woman for having read If You’re Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow and I still feel thoughtful after reading The Giving Tree.  Regardless, 95% of the posts on this blog before May 27th, 2015 are picture book posts. And there will be more to come, mixed in with the more serious side of life also. “Beauty can save the world…” Dostoevsky said.  And I believe that beauty can be manifested in even the humble medium of children’s literature. That is why I’m passionate about picture books.