9. Early impressions

Six engaging picturebooks for young children are analyzed for their ability to stimulate the physical and cognitive processes involved in the acquisition of visual, musical and language literacies: these include alphabet and music notation, and narrative, word use and grammatical structure. Recognition involving categorization of stimuli and memory formation depends on the development of networks of synapses, and the firing of mirror neurons reinforces the storage of these experiences. Porter’s ABC, Bataille’s ABC3D, and Van Allsburg’s The Z Was Zapped represent innovative alphabet books merging perception, action and experience; Simon’s Mocking Birdies introduces musical sounds, rhythms and notation; Goffin’s Oh! and Gravett’s Orange Pear Apple Bear humorously convey notions of book structure, language convention and word use.