How Could Smells and Scents Elevate Picturebook Reading?

This chapter explores the role of olfaction, or sense of smell, in early reading and discusses the opportunities it provides for richer and more inclusive learning that engages the full spectrum of children's sensory experiences in and around books. Scented books, or smell enhanced books and ebooks, offer new opportunities for children and adults to engage and make meaning with words and pictures. Drawing on current research that emphasizes the importance of embodied, affective, and multisensory reading experiences, this chapter argues that introducing scented books into early years classrooms is an important step towards developing rich multimodal and multisensory classroom literacy practice that provides more equitable learning opportunities for diverse learners.