Picture books that use a clever combination of words and images to tell their story, provide a rich and authentic resource for teachers of children. Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) also recognise their value as one of the most natural and effective ways of teaching and view them as a flexible and useful tool that can be employed with children at many different stages in their learning. This fusion of the best of English language teaching practice and the rich and motivating world of children’s literature offers high quality and innovative language teaching that is both effective and fun.

The Magic Pencil exhibition that celebrates contemporary children’s book illustration brings together the work of 13 illustrators who offer both familiar and new ways of approaching book illustration. The Magic Pencil website provides bibliographies and profiles for each of the featured illustrators and is a fantastic starting point for teachers who are selecting titles to work with.

One of my favourites is I will not ever NEVER eat a tomato by Lauren Child, which creates a world that is familiar and grounded in reality yet is also wildly imaginative: simple everyday foods like carrots, peas and mashed potato become orange twiglets, green drops from Greenland and cloud fluff from the pointiest peak of Mount Fuji 'These are not peas, of course they are not, these are green drops from Greenland. They are made out of green and fall from the sky' ….. 'Well maybe I’ll nibble just one or two. Oh,' says Lola, 'quite tasty'. – a clever linguistic technique used by Charlie to entice his sister, Lola, to eat her dinner!

Context helps children make sense of the world. Picture books present language in a familiar and meaningful way enabling children to identify with situations and characters. They understand the basic conventions of picture books and are able to grasp what is happening and predict what they can expect next. The stories encourage children to draw on their own personal experience and develop their imagination. All of these things help to develop positive attitudes towards learning a new language and experiencing a different culture. Picture books also offer a different approach to that of many conventional EFL materials in which children are often exposed to oversimplified language. Stories go beyond the utilitarian level of basic dialogue about mundane daily activities where pupils are endlessly limited to the present tense – they provide exposure to language in new and interesting situations.

In the early stages of learning a new language it is advisable to choose picture books where the illustrations have a clear connection with the text. As the teacher reads a story aloud, children are able to relate what they see to what they hear and can use the visual clues to help make sense of what they are learning. The illustrations are critical to supporting children’s understanding, allowing them to develop both their visual and linguistic literacy as well as their appreciation of illustrative style. 'My favourite picture is the boy and the tomatoes because the tomatoes are a photograph and the boy a picture'. Eduard, aged eight, Barcelona.

Children learning a new language should be exposed to a range of different medium so sending or receiving an e-card from the Magic Pencil website involves children in postcard writing and reading. When I visited a group of children at the British Council Young Learners Centre in Barcelona, I sent them an e-card with a personalised message to prepare them for my visit, to provide a point of entry to the storybook and to arouse their curiosity. They were enchanted by the illustration and motivated by the personalised card. In addition, the Barcelona Young Learners Centre has the full set of 60 Magic Pencil facsimiles adorning its walls, so children were able to see the illustration from the e-card in the display.

As a follow up to reading I will not ever NEVER eat a tomato children were asked to make up their own appetising names for other foods from the story. A difficult activity but with the help and guidance from their teachers, mushrooms became baby umbrellas and magic fairy hats, cauliflower became snow flowers and eggs became flying saucers. This is a perfect example of how stories can develop the imagination and creative powers.

There are many other wonderfully illustrated storybooks from the Magic Pencil exhibition, which can be used to help children learn English. Teacher support materials for I will not ever NEVER eat a tomato and Cloudland at primary level and Clarice Bean, That’s Me! and Dear Diary at secondary level can be found on the Magic Pencil website. In addition, there are introductory activities at both levels using book covers for primary school level and the artists themselves for secondary. The materials can also be used to promote values and citizenship education and to develop intercultural awareness, through comparing and contrasting Magic Pencil writers with ones from their own country and culture.

Picture books address universal themes, they challenge children to play with ideas and feelings and to think about important issues. In my experience, teachers sometimes find it difficult to imagine how they can use a picture book with their students. But once they have begun it can be difficult to return to more conventional EFL materials.

Gail Ellis is Global Manager Young Learners, for the British Council and based in Paris and Special Lecturer, School of Education, University of Nottingham.