When you imagine a picture book, you might think of the beautiful classic wordless children’s book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner The Snowman. Remember that wonderful book by Raymond Briggs? The heartwarming tale of a boy and his come- to- life snowman, their adventures, and the snowman’s sad melting is a memorable story that, if you were shown as a child, you aren’t likely to forget.

But picture books can actually be filled with words. A picture book is simply a book that combines both images and narrative to convey a story. They’re usually done for the children’s market—though not always—and are often created using a variety of mediums, including acrylic paints, oil pastels, watercolors, or other art supplies. I recently discovered that the artist Eric Carle actually paints on tissue paper to create his amazing animals and illustrations.

Good picture books function in two ways. On one hand, if they have text, they tell a good story to keep children interested, or even learning. On the other, they tell a story through their pictures that children can use to develop pre-reading skills with. In fact, one picture book may hold dozens of stories inside based on the stories that children (along with their siblings and parents) can create together by simply interpreting the pictures.

I remember learning to read through picture books. My parents had the entire Sweet Pickles series, where each book corresponded to an animal character and a letter of the alphabet. My favorite volume was I, which was for Me Too Iguana. I loved the story about an iguana who only wanted to be like other animals until all of the other animals taught her how unique and special she was all on her own.

I memorized that book and could point out the words from my mother’s repeated reading of the text. My grandmother actually thought I was reading at age three because I could “read” the book by memory!

In fact, picture books can be an important tool in teaching children how to read, as well as how to follow story progression, sentence structure, comprehension and other skills. They can also help foster imaginative skills through making up stories.

Some famous picture books you might be familiar with include The Cat in the Hat, The Little Engine That Could, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Goodnight Moon, and Where the Wild Things Are.