YouTube Read-Alouds: A Case Study in Picture Books

New to picture-book research, this article considers the phenomenon of YouTube “read-aloud” channels. Unlike other “BookTube” channels which focus on reviews and recommendations, these channels consist of adults reading other people’s copyrighted stories in their entirety, sometimes with the addition of graphics or sound effects, but often with no transformation of the original work beyond the reader’s dramatized voice. Nevertheless, read-aloud channels can garner millions of views, and have turned YouTube into perhaps the largest online repository through which picture-books can be accessed in their entirety without paywalls.This article therefore considers how YouTube read-alouds remediate picture-book reading. I offer a case study of two popular read-aloud channels, @AwniesHouse and @KidTimeStoryTime. My analysis considers branding, audience, recommendations, and how the channels’ video structures mediate interaction with the material texts they feature. Locating YouTube read-alouds within the existing research, I demonstrate how these videos diverge from other forms of book adaptation, and from other modes of oral picture-book reading. I therefore conclude that YouTube read-alouds are a distinct form of picture-book engagement, with unique affordances and limitations which particularly affect the stasis, tactility, and interactivity of picture-book reading.