Routledge Developing Children's Critical Thinking through Picturebooks: A guide for primary and early years students and teachers

This little book is one of the more valuable ones I have. It brings hope for a new generation of critical thinkers, educators, and informed parents as well. I strongly recommend it.

A very interesting and useful read. I work in an early years setting full time and I'm also a part time student. I picked this up to support my CPD as well as my degree and it is honestly the best book I've bought by far for both of those things! It explains brilliantly how reading with children and the types of literature/illustrations they have access to can influence and develop children's problem-solving skills, their social awareness and understanding of others/how everyone can see something differently, how the adults around them can also impact a child's view on reading/literature and their enjoyment of it. A great feature of this book is that it also lists many great picture books to support different areas of critical thinking and even though it was published in 2014, the books listed within are timeless and sure to remain useful for many years to come. This book has really inflamed my passion for children's literacy development and if you are thinking about purchasing this, I would highly recommend going for it, you won't regret it!

An excellent overview of the author's Critical Thinking and Book Talk approach to reading with children. This is dialogic approach that empowers children to share their ideas, questions, and insights. It's a great companion title to my book about the Whole Book Approach  Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking about What They See  and I am excited to use it with my students. Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking about What They See

Mary Roche's inspiring presentation at the 2017 Oxford Reading Spree was my motivation to read this wonderful book.The book affirmed my beliefs and values (as both a teacher and a parent). The recorded interactions between children were a joy to read and were a particular highlight for me.Most helpful of all was the way Mary's thorough examination of Critical Thinking and Book Talk prompted me to reflect on areas of my own practice, where I had started to slip into a one-size-fits-all mentality. The book steered me away from standardised thinking, enabling me to realign my practice with my beliefs and values - and my desire to be involved in 'educating for freedom' (p150).

Interesting but lots of obvious statements