The purpose of this study is to clarify what kind of value mothers place on the picture book reading. After observing a mother-child interaction in picture book reading, we conducted semi-structured interview for mothers who have their child aged in 20 to 26 months. The results from the interview showed that the mothers place on the three values of picture book reading based on their child's reactions. These are : 1) “Values related to child development and growth” such as promoting and understanding child development and growth, 2) “Values related to their child here and now”that children here are in positive state, 3) “Values related to mothers themselves” such as that mothers are satisfied with the reaction of their child. Moreover, the results showed that reading picture book with children has not only merit for children, such as promoting child development, mothers find value for themselves. These findings suggested that mothers who read picture books adjusted their behavior for children to increase these values, which in turn encouraged children to develop.
