OVERVIEW
If you've ever drawn a heart for the word "love," you've written a rebus. Rebus, writing which substitutes images for words in the text, is used by authors to write books for young readers able to identify only a limited number of words. Rebus books substitute pictures for the harder words that young students cannot yet identify or decode.
A rebus puzzle encourages children to sound out words and find letters, numbers, and images that can replace words in a story while still making the story understandable by a writer. Rebuses create a unique challenge that may entice even the most reluctant of writers
Generally a rebus story uses 7 to 10 picture words, some of which are repeated in the story. Focus on nouns, colors, and numbers. Verbs don�t make good picture words. There should be only one way to "read" the picture. For example, "smile" is not a good rebus word because the reader might be confused with a picture that showed a mouth, teeth and lips. But, "nose" is a good picture word because there is no confusion as to its meaning.
What topics work best? Anything that is part of a 2- to 6-year-old�s world: family, friends, home, toys, animals, school, holidays, weather, gardens and nature. Sometimes a retold folk tale works well in this format.
Keep the language and sentence structure simple. Don�t worry about using big words if they can be pictured. For example, hippopotamus or wheelbarrow will be used with a picture.