The purpose of this study was to examine how young bilinguals construct meaning with multimodal informational texts. The most frequently used literacy practice to support the meaning construction involved viewing an image. The function of image played four distinct, but important roles: image as access to meaning and content; image as prompt for discussion; image as a catalyst to seek access to written language; image as a multimodal complement to written language. The roles were examined using a case study approach that drew on multiple levels of analysis in order to describe content knowledge and language development among first-grade bilinguals over an academic year.Informational texts and text complexity are at the forefront of current educational conversations as educators continue to focus on preparing college-ready students in increasingly demanding educational and workforce settings. In addition to typical considerations for educating students, teachers must also take into consideration their culturally and linguistically diverse populations. As the amount of informational texts and higher-order thinking skills are emphasized, new research on language and literacy development is warranted, particularly with young bilinguals. In this study, I examine how bilinguals engage with the visual images offered in print-based multimodal informational texts as a way to gain a deeper understanding of possible roles the mode of image in informational text might play in meaning construction and language development for young bilinguals in an inquiry-based classroom.In the United States, the context of this research, a great deal of research and instruction in the primary grades is focused on phonics, decoding and literal level skills as some scholars believe children are "learning to read" before moving into "reading to learn" in upper elementary grades (Chall, 1983). However, multiple researchers call for an in-depth examination of how young children are engaging with multimodal texts (e.g. Hassett & Schieble, 2007;Serafini, 2012;2014). Multimodal texts are broadly defined as texts with more than one mode (e.g., combinations of written language, photography, illustrations, sculpture, etc.). As such, most picturebooks found in elementary classrooms are multimodal because readers of picturebooks are constantly engaging with multiple modes (i.e., illustration, written language, etc.). The print-based multimodal informational texts in this study included the modes of illustrations, written language, photography, and diagrams. Kress (2003) argues that language can no longer be considered the sole or dominant means for representing and communicating ideas and concepts, and he points out that language in isolation fails to provide access to the full meaning potential in multimodal texts.