The Study of Children’s Literature the consequences of wrongdoing and choices.
They will also learn to see
I. Definition of Children’s Literature
Children’s literature, the body of written works and accompanying illustrations
produced in order to entertain or instruct young people. The genre encompasses a
wide range of works, including acknowledged classics of world literature, picture
books and easy-to read stories written exclusively for children, and fairy tales,
lullabies, fables, folk songs, and other primarily orally transmitted materials.
II. Personal and Academic Value of Literature to Children
a) Improve self-esteem - Students enjoy reading books about imperfect characters
who overcome real-world obstacles.
b) Increase Awareness of the World - Understand that the purpose of literacy is to
communicate with others and achieve various goals in their life.
c) Improve Cognitive Function - The more children read, the more they learn to
remember details and the sequence of events within literature.
d) Improve Test Scores - Education online states that reading to a preschool child
may be the most important thing parents can do for educational success.
e) Words and Vocabulary - Simple sentences - complex sentences.
f) Imagination - Imagination to explore.
g) Develop Reading Skills - Develop kid’s vocabulary, grammar, language usage,
develop reading strategies and skills, etc.
h) Develop Writing Skills - Improve kid’s analysis of text, basis for personal writing,
etc.
i) Exposure to Content Area Subjects - Give early exposure about the topic that will
they learn
j) Develop Appreciation for Various Art Forms - Exposure to literature at an early age
will attract their attention about the literature.
Personal Values:
● Strengthening a bond between the child and adult reader. Parents can
read to their children whenever they are free or during bedtime. This will
inevitably create a parent-child bond within themselves, thus enhancing
their relationship.
● Experiencing the pleasure of escaping into a fantasy world or an exciting
adventure.
● Developing a favorable attitude toward books as an enrichment to their
lives.
● Stimulating Cognitive Development - Children will have better
understanding in scenarios and situations. They are able to understand
things from another facet.
● Academic value - Gaining new vocabulary and syntax.
● Stimulating and Expanding their Imaginations - Children, who read stories,
will have a better imagination than those who do not. With imagination,
they are better writers or thinkers with vast creativity.
● Empathizing with other people’s feelings and problems.
● Learning ways to cope with their own feelings and problems.
● Widening horizons as they vicariously learn about the world.
● Developing an interest in new subjects and hobbies.
● Understanding the heritage of their own and other cultures.
● Bringing history to life.
● Stimulating aesthetic development through illustrations.
● Exploring artistic media used in illustrations.
III. Literature for Developing Children’s Literature of Different Age Levels
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Getting children to read is an important aspect of preparing them for success in
school. While there are many different philosophies about how children learn
language, most agree that exposure to diverse usage of language is an important
part of the developmental process. Children's literature is important because it
enhances development of language skills and other critical thinking skills that
provide the foundation of learning.
Focusing only on literature's value in developing language skills, however, overlooks
other contributions that reading adds to a child's development. Children read for fun,
and in the process, develop better reading skills and abilities to enjoy more reading.
Because reading children's literature stimulates a child's imagination, reading
provides an important visual experience.
Books provide "windows" into worlds that many would never be able to physically
visit and see and encourage students to consider situations that would never have
even occurred to them.
Reading to Children
Exposing these children to language is an important part of the primary school
curriculum. A great deal of research supports the correlation between language
exposure and language development later in life. Children's literature provides other
valuable experiences as well.
Reading picture books to children introduces them to reading strategies that will be
used to develop and extend reading skills. In general, these books are carefully
written so that most words can be sounded out. The pictures provide clues as to
what the words mean.
Children enjoy making connections between pictures in the and the way those ideas
were represented with words. Getting children to enjoy stories is an important part of
teaching them to read because once children come to enjoy stories, they are more
motivated to pick up books and work their way through the words to enjoy the story.
In fact, "work their way through the words" is probably a poor choice of words here -
children that enjoy stories get a great deal of intrinsic value out of being able to
"discover" a story based on the words.
Children's Reading Abilities
A public library's children's librarian shared with me a story about a time a mother of
a "prominent" family came and asked for help in finding a book for her child because
the daughter was not reading. Trying to be helpful, she started the conversation by
asking the child, "Do you like to read?"
The mother was furious - of course her child loved to read! The angry mother
immediately went to the head librarian at Dwight Foster and registered a blistering
complaint about the Youth Services Librarian.
When the librarian finally got her chance to explain her side of the story to the head
librarian, the situation was diffused. To this day, this librarian will not ask a child if
they like to read. Reading abilities can generate controversy.
To those that are unfamiliar with children's literature, this may seem strange, but
when one appreciates that children's literature is about To those that are unfamiliar
with children's literature, this may seem strange, but when one appreciates that
children's literature is about.
To those that are unfamiliar with children's literature, this may seem strange, but
when one appreciates what children's literature is about. A highly motivated reader
will employ reading strategies and other resources to master text that is beyond
what a test can measure. Likewise, a highly unmotivated reader might not extend
the effort needed to complete a book that a test might indicate should be an easy
read. Let children choose what to read.
YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
Young adult literature is anything that readers from the age of 12 -18 choose to
read, not necessarily something they have been assigned to read. It is often referred
to as "YA" literature so as not to sound condescending (i.e. "here is a book that was
written for you kids..."), Some think of it as literature written for and published
specifically for young adults. Whether or not they have read it on their own purely for
enjoyment, or have been assigned to read it in a class, makes no difference.
During the last half of the 20th century, young adult literature has developed as a
distinct unit of publishing. There is a market for stories especially written for youth.
There is also doom and gloom talk of young people no longer reading like they used
to, that there are too many other interests, including the media and the Internet, that
take time away from reading activities.
There is a wide variety of literature for young adults. The late sixties saw distinct
changes in publishing for young adults with the publication of The Pigman, by Paul
Zindel, in 1968, and The Outsiders, by S.E.Hinton, in 1967.
Seven Characteristics of Young Adult Literature:
1. YA authors write from the viewpoint of young people
2. "I want the credit." In many YA novels the parents or other authority figures are
absent. The characters are forced to confront their problems on their own.
3. The literature is fast-paced, the stories told at a frantic pace with emphasis on
powerful images.
4. YA literature involves a variety of genres and subjects, with about half being
contemporary realistic fiction.
5. It includes stories about characters from many different ethnic and cultural
groups. The characters are no longer all white, middle class characters. There are
fewer taboos about what can be included.
6. YA books are basically optimistic with characters making worthy
accomplishments. The characters are faced with challenges, which earn the
reader's respect, even if they don't succeed. The characters show change and
growth.
7. Successful young adult novels deal with emotions that are important to young
people.
Developmental Tasks and Needs
In 1972, Robert J. Havinghurst published Developmental Tasks and Education, in
which he outlined eight developmental tasks young people are experiencing. These Genres of YA Literature
tasks should be kept in mind when reading YA lit: 1. Realistic Fiction, Problem novels
2. Humor
1. Acquiring more mature social skills. 3. Adventure, Sports, Mysteries, Supernatural, Horror
2. Achieving a masculine or feminine sex role. 4. Fantasy and Science Fiction
3. Accepting the changes in one's body, using the body effectively, and 5. Historical Fiction
accepting one's physique. 6. Nonfiction, Biography, Poetry, Drama, Short Stories
4. Achieving emotional independence from parents and other adults.
5. Preparing for sex, marriage, and parenthood. IV. Choosing Books for Children and Censorship
6. Selecting and preparing for an occupation. School Library Media Centers A children's library so that books are grouped by
7. Developing a personal ideology and ethical standards. reading levels and are readily available for students to "browse." In an elementary
8. Assuming membership in the larger community. school library, books might be arranged in the following sequence:

An alternative point of view is provided by The Center for Early Adolescence at the 1. Leveled Readers (categorized from lowest to highest)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They list seven developmental needs 2. Easy (Not leveled)
(instead of tasks) of young adults. They also provide a framework to better 3. Intermediate - Beginning Chapter Books (include some illustrations, large
understand the YA genre. fonts, and more white space on the page. These books provide a
transition to the highest level)
1. Physical activity 4. Fiction (representing all other books, these books are further categorized
2. Competence and Achievement by the fiction genres identified earlier.
3. Self-definition
4. Creative expression In some school districts, children in first grade are told to start with leveled books
5. Positive social interactions with peers and adults based on district assessment and work their way through the reading levels and
6. Structure and clear limits then progress through the reading sequence. Others allow teachers to carefully
7. Meaningful participation watch students select books and use their choices to informally assess what
students are ready to read.
Stages of Literary Appreciation
It is thought that personal attitudes and reading, listening and watching skills are all Public Libraries
part of literary appreciation and that this appreciation is developed in stages -- that A public library might arrange books by reading level in the following sequence:
readers continually add on to them, but do not drop any previous stages. This is 1. Picture Books (up to approximately 2nd grade)
another important framework to consider when looking at YA literature. 2. Chapter Books (approximately 3-4th)
Understanding that pleasure and profit come from literature. 3. Plus (approximately 3-8th)
4. Teen
1. Learning to read. 5. Nonfiction (all others)
2. Losing oneself in a story 6. Young Adult (sometimes actually shelved in Adult Fiction Room - not in
3. Finding oneself in a story children's collection. This classification is also used to remove
4. Venturing beyond themselves controversial books from the children's room).
5. Reading widely
6. Aesthetic Appreciation Helping Children Find Books
Do not ask children if they enjoy reading or at what level they read. Instead, show
them 2 books - one representing the best guess as to what that child's lowest
potential reading level is and another representing the highest potential reading
level. Let’s children look at books and decide for themselves. Then, direct them to
the section of the library containing the reading level that the child has indicated.