Abstract:

Acquiring a reading culture is a developmental process in which three important stakeholders participate: the child as a subject of self-development, the parent as the child’s basic and most responsible educator, and the library as an out-of-home institution that has transformed its role in the last decade. With the intention of informing, promoting, and educating their users, libraries have launched numerous programs, including the program of the City Library of Rijeka, called Listen… little story! intended for two-year-old and three-year-old children and their parents. The approach to children and parents is based on a new paradigm of childhood, i.e., knowledge of the child and childhood as a process of joint participation in a particular space, time, and culture. In addition to presenting the program, as an example of good practice of using picturebooks in the development of a reading culture among children from an early age, and strategies for applying a picturebook in the acquisition of a reading culture, this paper also includes a selection of contemporary scientific and theoretical knowledge about the picturebook as a unique literary and artistic work.

Keywords:

Picturebook, reading culture, early-aged children, library.