The purpose of this study was to determine if picture books in high school classrooms could enhance word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Previous research has not fully considered employing picture books as mentor texts in high schools. Twelve participants from two low-performing 10th grade English classes were identified as low-, medium-, or high-performing students. Using action research, students were taught from an inquiry-based approach as the teacher read aloud picture books and asked students what they noticed. Students referred to the picture books as they were challenged to improve their narrative writing. Findings demonstrated that picture books helped secondary students of all ability levels improve. Conclusions shed light on the abstract nature of sentence fluency, and showed teacher modeling to be effective.