The topic of this thesis is The picture book as a stimulus for language development. In the first part of the paper, the picture book and its importance in the language development of preschool children are theoretically treated. Furthermore, the function of the picture book is explained and it is explained why it is so important in children's development. The characteristics of a good and high-quality picture book are listed and its educational value is described. Then, in the paper, we consider the definition of language and talk about how language develops in preschool children. Depending on the age of the children, certain characteristics are specified. The second part of the paper is dedicated to defining reading. It also talks about the importance, but also about the application of reading. Furthermore, it is briefly explained what stimulating reading and dialogic reading are, and some of the advantages of dialogic reading are listed. The application of dialogical reading in working with preschool children was additionally clarified. At the end of this thesis, I described the activities of reading picture books that I carried out with preschool children (Maca Papučarica, The Big Word Factory, Hedgehog's Home, Mrav dobra srca, Elmer and the Cricket and the Ant). Under each described activity, it is additionally analyzed what specifically a certain picture book encourages in the development of language and what was intended to be achieved by reading it. The objectives of the activity of reading picture books are stated, and some of them are: encouraging language development, encouraging the development of cognitive abilities, developing imagination, creating a positive attitude towards reading, stimulating early literacy, etc. Ten preschool children participated in the activities. At the very end of the work, the conclusion and the cited literature needed to write this thesis were presented. Of the picture books we read, the children liked Elmer the most.