PICTURE BOOK SELECTION BEHAVIORS OF EMERGENT READERS - INFLUENCE OF GENRE, FAMILIARITY, AND BOOK ATTRIBUTES

Empirical studies with school-aged children have led to assumptions th at emergent readers do not have specific reading preferences or demons trate patterns in their book selections. This study was designed to de termine whether emergent readers demonstrate reading preferences based upon genre, familiarity and four other book attributes. Over a seven- week period, 53 preschoolers and 49 kindergartners from two socioecono mic levels were given the opportunity each school day to select a pict ure book to take home from a set of 40 books with equal representation in five genres. Children's familiarity with the 40 picture books was assessed through a parent survey at the beginning of the study and tea chers recorded the titles that were chosen by each child each day duri ng the study. Children's book choices were analyzed by genre, familiar ity and four book attributes. Findings demonstrated that emergent read ers appear to demonstrate genre preferences (both ages preferred modem and traditional fantasy over realistic fiction, informational and alp habet-number books). Additionally the study found that children select familiar books more often and that especially in the case of kinderga rtners, familiarity influences reselection. Finally, emergent readers most frequently selected books with a simple text (one to five lines o f text per page). The findings of this study counter previously-held a ssumptions that emergent readers select books randomly or choose them based on convenience of their display. Implications for the role of ge nre preferences, familiarity and book attributes are discussed.