Nothing nourishes a child's vocabulary like an eloquent picture book

Sublime, stupendous, frilly, plume, sprinkles, and baubles are just a few words in the fancy vocabulary of Fancy Nancy, who would never say purple when she could say fuchsia. Two new picture books have recently caught our attention and reminded us of the best way to grow children's vocabularies—by reading the rich trove of illustrated books found in all good libraries.

Jane O'Connor's latest book, Fancy Nancy (HarperCollins, 2006), is a pure delight. One day Fancy Nancy gets an idea that is stupendous. “That's a fancy word for great,” she explains, as she makes plans to give her family lessons on how to be fancy. Soon she has them adding accessories to their outfits and driving the family limousine to a fancy restaurant for a fancy meal, topped off with parfaits. The book's back cover boasts, “No one knows fancy like Nancy,” and we agree. After enjoying this charmer, children will be adding stupendous new words to their own repertoires.

And then there's Selig, star of The Boy Who Loved Words (Schwartz & Wade Bks., 2006) by Roni Schotter. Selig collects words like some people collect shells or stones. He loves the sound, taste, thought, and feel of words. He jots down his favorites—such as tantalizing, tintinnabulating, luscious, gusto, and voracious—on slips of paper, and they dance through the book in a variety of typescripts. In this picture book for older children (ages six to nine), Selig finds that his purpose in life is to provide words for all those who are searching for just the right one.

In his classic, The Read-Aloud Handbook (Penguin, 2001), Jim Trelease sites fascinating research about “rare” words—words that are seldom used in conversation but play a critical role in learning to read. Most of us use about 5,000 words in our daily conversations. There are another 5,000 words that we use less often. “The eventual strength of our vocabulary,” Trelease writes, “is determined not by the common ten thousand words but by how many 'rare words' we understand.”

How does a child come to understand rare words? According to the research, in a typical conversation with a three-year-old, an adult uses only nine rare words per thousand. In a conversation with a 10-year-old, the number jumps only to 11.7 rare words per thousand. Guess what happens in a children's picture book? There are 30.9 rare words per thousand. That's three times more than in a typical conversation with a three-year-old! So while everyday conversations will help a child learn basic vocabulary, nothing beats reading aloud with her.

When we talk to adults about language development, we sometimes read aloud one of our favorite picture books and ask them to record the rare words they hear. One of the books we've enjoyed using is Time to Sleep (Holt, 1997) by Denise Fleming. Although there's very little text in this 32-page book, our audiences often come up with lists of 30 to 40 rare words. And they're wonderful words—words like trudge, slithering, sniffed, and rumbled. The adults are always amazed. They also enjoy our “Mother Goose” word list, which includes such fancy words as contrary, buckle, nimble, and lean.

Reading research tells us that it's easier for children to read words they have already heard. How much easier will it be for a child to recognize nimble on a written page when he is familiar with Jack, who nimbly jumps over a candlestick? The research on reading comprehension indicates that knowing the meanings of individual words is the key to understanding what is being read. When we talk to children about the peddler's cap being a hat, we are modeling to parents the best thing they can do to help their child develop early literacy skills. We're pretty sure that Fancy Nancy will be a stupendous reader, and, like Selig, a voracious one, too!