Childrens Literature Presentation

The Monster Under the Bed

Natalie Barton, Christie Georgiou, Michael Griffiths, Aisha Ibrahim

Story Summary
The story is about a little boy aged 7 called Charlie, who is still afraid of the dark- to which his mother gets annoyed at. What the mum does not know is that a monster does live under the boys bed. However, the monster is not a nasty monster, and is more afraid of the light than Charlie is afraid of the dark. Charlie realises this and decides to make the monster his pet, and at the end calls him Frobblegobble.

Psychology of Children

Peter Gray (2011) wrote an article on "Why Young Children Protest Bedtime" where he theorized that children being afraid of the dark is an "Evolutionary Mismatch", where genetically it is already programmed for children to be afraid of the dark, and to which "any young child, alone, in the dark, would have been a tasty snack for night-time predators." Gray then suggests that children protest because they are going to bed alone, which is an unique feature to Westernized cultures, whereas in other cultures, it is common for the child to still sleep in the parents bed, or bedroom. Stories from our own childhood of the

Visual Influences

In the children books we looked at, we noticed a recurring theme of how bold colour, and interesting typography was used, especially in use of onomatopoeia, or adjectives.

Visual Influences (cont.)

Our book is aimed at 3-7 year olds, as we found that a fear of the dark was prevalent in this age bracket, and to which we made the protagonist, Charlie, in the upper-end of. This influenced how we used colour and language, making the background colouring bright, the monster "a beautiful sight", and we've even made the pages almost

(Insert example of day-time/nighttime page view)

Visual Influences: Monsters in Children's Literature

Frobblegobble: The Monster

Our monster Frobblegobble, is portrayed as being "big and hairy/...it would look awfully scary", but when Charlie realises that Frobblegobble is as afraid of the light as Charlie is as afraid of the monster, it is revealed that his coat was "a beautiful sight". The monster is created to show a kinship to the reader, by the sentence "...the monster was nice

Language

In the children's books we studied, we noticed that there was a lot of language devices used, such as onomatopoeia ("THUMP"), alliteration (...suddenly a shrieking/And a squealing and a squeaking), and a simple rhyme scheme ("I'm underneath the bed/Hardly poking out my head").

Language in "Monster Under The Bed"

Our story follows a simple AABB rhyme scheme, which enables the reader to match a steady rhythm, and which makes the story fun and easy to remember.

The language is also simple, in keeping with the 3-7 year age group that we was aiming towards.

The Narrator
The Narrator in Monster's Under The Bed is seen to know more than Charlie, due to the Narrator being able to confide in the reader that the monster wanted to play with Charlie's toys, and is "nice and friendly". This is used due to the reader being most likely an older figure, typically one of the parents, and is then seen to be someone that the child can trust in. So even though the character is frightened (my heart was beating like a drum), the child has no need to be, due to being reassured by the Narrator/spoken reader, who in this instance could be seen as being the same person.

Charlie is also briefly the Narrator, at the

Relations to Other Media

Pixar famously used the idea of children being frightened of monsters in the closet to make a film called Monsters, Inc, where two monsters Mike and Sulley go around collecting childrens screams, although in the end it is revealed that they are the children's friends. Bump in the Night was a popular stop-animation children's TV show that featured a monster that lived

Why Young Children Protest Bedtime: A Story of Evolutionary Mismatch.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201110/why-young-childrenprotest-bedtime-story-evolutionary-mismatch

Reference list

RIDDELL, Chris (2011) Mr Underbed. 3rd ed. Australia, Random House Australia pty. BRIGHT, Paul and CORT, Ben (2006) I'm Not Going Out There! Great Britain, Little Tiger Press. WEATHERLY, Lee and HALL, Algy Craig (2011) The Scariest Monster In The World. 2nd ed. Great Britain, Boxer Books Limited.