"But Daddy, I can't read the words.”

This statement stopped me dead in my tracks. My daughter, Zoe, was three years old. It was bedtime and I was in her doorway, about to close the door. She had slept with a book every single night since it was safe to leave objects in her crib, and since she graduated to her big-girl bed, it was a nightly tradition for her to select a few titles to sleep with. This sudden insecurity was a make-or-break moment for me as a father. Even though we had been reading three to five picture books per day since her birth, Zoe's reading life could be unraveled by my response.

I sat on the edge of her bed and told her, “You can read the pictures, and the pictures tell the story as well.”  Her face filled with a newfound confidence. Her dad was right; through the illustrations she was able to read the book and follow the story. I pulled a few wordless picture books off of her shelf, like OWLY & WORMY: FRIENDS ALL AFLUTTER by Andy Runton, and TUESDAY by David Wiesner, and she happily got back to reading when she was meant to be sleeping.

Over the ensuing weeks, my daughter’s insecurity vanished and she continued to read book after book. Please note that I am not putting the word “read” in quotation marks, because my daughter was in fact reading—she was reading the pictures. She was following a narrative cover to cover, and eventually she began putting sounds together.

Jeff Mack's GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS was the first book where she read the entire text aloud all by herself. (The book consists of five words, and it's hilarious.) As she grew over the months, I challenged her to read more of the text in the picture books as we read together. BINK AND GOLLIE and LING AND TING are some heavily-illustrated early readers that she especially enjoyed. I attempted reading aloud books with more challenging texts and selected JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, the edition lavishly illustrated by Lane Smith. She loved it so much that when I later suggested we read CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY because the author, Roald Dahl, had also written JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, Zoe looked at me indignantly and said, “No Daddy, that book was written by James Henry Trotter” (a.k.a. the book’s protagonist).

But when we turned to read another one of my childhood favorites, THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE by Beverly Cleary, she lost interest. At first I thought it might be the story; perhaps my daughter wouldn't take to all of the same characters that I had loved as a kid. But then I realized that the problem wasn't the narrative, but the book's sparse illustrations. Great as they are, there just weren't enough illustrations to hold her interest. She wasn't as involved with the reading process because she wasn't able to follow along on her own. We put the book aside and will revisit when she's a little older.

I often rail against the grown-ups who want to push their children out of picture books too early. At first I feared that I was becoming that which I preach against, but I reassured myself that I had remained in tune with my daughter's comfort level. And besides, when she does read chapter books independently, I do hope that we as a family still cuddle up at night to read aloud a good picture book.

It's my hope that teachers could adopt this same mentality. Why not take some time out of the sixth grade school day to read aloud a great picture book, old or new? I am of course, no trained educator, but as an author of children's literature I am often asked for reading advice. I've written twenty-three books, but it's as a parent that I can tell you with confidence: to create a reader from the ground up, you cannot go wrong with a book that has a strong picture to text connection with a high interest and low readability.

Jarrett J. Krosoczka is the author and illustrator of twenty books, which include picture books (PUNK FARM), graphic novels (LUNCH LADY AND THE CYBORG SUBSTITUTE) and chapter books (PLATYPUS POLICE SQUAD: THE FROG WHO CROAKED). Jarrett will celebrate the release of his next picture book, PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLYFISH, on April 8, 2014. His work has been featured in THE NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY, and on PBS and NPR’s ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. His TED Talk, which chronicles his path to publication despite challenging childhood circumstances, has amassed more than a half a million views online.