"Look what I found!" Preschooler's Picture Book Seeking : an Interactional Approach

The purpose of this study is to investigate how children search for and choose picture books while visiting the library together in a preschool group. How do children interact with each other and their teacher while searching for picture books? Which aspects of children's everyday lives are apparent in their choice of picture books? The theoretical frame of reference consists of Brenda Dervin's sense-making approach to information seeking and William Corsaro's sociological approach to studying children's routine activities within a peer culture. To capture children's interaction, we have observed a preschool group consisting of six 3- to 5-year olds and their teacher in a library setting during three visits. Our study shows that children's search for picture books is a social activity that involves various verbal and nonverbal strategies in order to include and exclude each other when they find a picture book that interests them. Children take turns shouting "Look what I found!" while holding up a book they recognise, in order to capture their peer's attention. Children's book choice is dependent upon peer's response which can explain why they often choose books that they recognise from preschool and from the massmedia. When they can't find such books, they make sense of unknown books by modifying its characters to something familiar. An unknown picture book about a lion "becomes" The Lion King in the eyes of the children. When the children seek the teacher's approval, it appears that she judges their book choices from a read-aloud perspective that ignores the children's own interest and use of picture books. AnnaCarin Elf och Nancy Petrén vann Säffle biblioteks uppsatspristävling "Framtidsspanare sökes!" 2005.AnnaCarin Elf och Nancy Petrén vann Säffle biblioteks uppsatspristävling "Framtidsspanare sökes!" 2005.Uppsatsnivå: D