ORIGINAL PAPER The (Untold) Drama of the Turning Page: The Role of Page Breaks in Understanding Picture Books Katrina Emily Bartow Jacobs 1 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract While scholars have recognized the importance of page breaks in both the construction and comprehension of narrative within picture books, there has pre- viously been limited research that focused directly on how children discuss and make sense of these spaces in the text. Yet, because of their nature as dramatic gaps in the narrative, page breaks offer unique and exciting opportunities to understand how children make meaning of picture books (Sipe in Storytime: young children’s literary understanding in the classroom, Teachers College Press, New York, 2008). This study explores how explicitly inviting young children to discuss page breaks offers insights into how these spaces function within the children’s readings. Drawing on transcribed audio-recordings of a series of read-aloud sessions held with a group of children ages five to eight, the analysis focused on coding themes within the children’s talk around page breaks in picture books. Specifically, the children referenced the role of page breaks as aesthetic choices; the utilization of page breaks to comprehend word/picture relationships; and the negotiation of these gaps in the story as they worked construct a cohesive understanding of the narrative. Overall, the data represents the rich possibilities for educators to include explicit talk around page breaks during picture book read-alouds as a pathway toward better under- standing children’s sense-making of these texts. Katrina Bartow Jacobs, Ph.D., is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in Language, Literacy, and Culture in the Department of Instruction and Learning. She earned her Ph.D. in Reading/Writing/Literacy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a former teacher of first and fourth grade. Her research interests focus on the role of literature in the classroom, literacy teacher education, and the impact of high-stakes assessments on how teachers design and implement literacy curriculum and pedagogy. & Katrina Emily Bartow Jacobs kbjacobs@pitt.edu 1 Department of Instruction & Learning, University of Pittsburgh, 5106 WWPH, 230 S. Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA 123 Children’s Literature in Education DOI 10.1007/s10583-016-9282-6