TEMA 1
LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN IN ENGLISH
Introduction to the World of Children
Literature (I)
Definition, values, book formats and
reading schemata
CONTENT
 1. Defining literature for children
 2. The value of children´s literature
 3. Book formats
 4. Engaing students in reading
Defining Literature for Children
 What is literature?
 Are all books literature?
 Are only stories considered literature?
Defining Literature for Children
 How to determine what age or grade level a book would
be suited for?
 Any book a reader likes is appropriate for that reader.
 The author often makes the main charcaterthe age of the
intended audience.
 Some books publishers indicated the level of the book.
Defining Literature for Children
 Hillman (2002): literature should be of a good quality.
 But what are the qualities that constitute good quality?
 What is the age group for children literature?
 It is not easy to distinguish between children literature and
adolescen literatture.
Defining Literature for Children
 Children literature is good-quality trade books for
children form birth to early adolescence, covering topics of
relevance and interest to children through prose and
poetry. They are the books that children seE as reflecting
their life experiences, understandings, and emotions.
Defining Literature for Children
 Content
 Children’s books are about the full range of experiences of
childhood from the difficult to the exciting.
 These experiences should be relevant to children today.
 The content include amazingly diverse and interesting
topics.
 Prose or poetry.
 If prose: fiction, nonfiction, or combination of both.
 Childhood stories that are humorous and suspenseful are
appropriate for children. Nostalgic and overly sentimental
stories are not appropriate.
Defining Literature for Children
 Diverse cultural experiences should be reflected.
 Avoid stereotypes.
 Element of hope is important.
 Books for entertainment and information.
Defining Literature for Children
 Quality
 Not all trade books aim at young learners are worth close
attention.
 Quality in writing and illustration has to do with originality and
importance of ideas, imaginative use of language and image, and
beauty of literary and artistic style.
 These books have permanent value and stay in our memories.
The value of children’s literature
 ENJOYMENT
 Good books offer enjoyment. The positive early experiences
often lead to a lifetime of reading enjoyment.
The value of children’s literature
 PERSONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
 Readers grow in their own identities by finding themselves and
their families and communities within books.
 Stories are also repositories of culture.
 Stories based on events in the past provide a connection to the
people, who made history.
The value of children’s literature
 IMAGINATION AND TRANSFORMATION
 Stories provide children with alternative paths for
understanding their past or imagining their future.
 They develop their imagination and are inspired to overcome
obstacles, consider different perspectives, and formulate goals.
The value of children’s literature
 KNOWLEDGE AND INSIGHTS
 Good books offer information and wisdom and so combine the
heart and mind, reason and emotion.
The value of children’s literature
 UNDERSTANDING AND EMPATHY
 Literature helps children gain an appreciation of the universality
of human needs across history, which makes it possible for them
to understand what connects all of us as human beings as well as
what makes each of us unique.
 Literature plays an essential role in building intercultural
understanding as children immerse themselves in the lives and
thinking of characters within global cultures.
The value of children’s literature
 LITERARY AND ARTISTIC PREFERENCES
 Children come to recognize the literary and artistic styles of
many authors and illustrators.
 Personal preferences and interest are powerful motivators for
becoming a lifelong reader.
The value of children’s literature
 READING AND WRITING
 Reading improves by engaging in the actual process.
 Regular reading of excellent literature can foster language
development and help young children learn to read and value
reading.
 By listening to and reading excellent literature, children are
exposed to rich vocabulary and excellent writing styles, which
serve as good mentor texts for their own speaking and writing
voices.
The value of children’s literature
 LITERATURE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
 Literature as teaching material in social studies and history,
science, health, and mathematics.
The value of children’s literature
 ART APPRECIATION AND VISUAL LITERACY
 Illustrations in children’s picture books can be appreciated for
their cognitive value in helping to tell the story and for their
aesthetic value as art.
Book formats
 PICTURE BOOKS
 Most children’s book are illustrated, but not all illustrated
books are picture books.
 Picture book convey its message through a series of pictures
with only a small amount of text (or none at all).
 Wordless books.
 They are usually larger than storybooks, and their shapes are
varied.
 The number of pages is fairly uniform (most books have 32
pages).
Book formats
 Pete the Cat and his four groovy buttons
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Ad46sVA-c
Book formats
 EASY-TO –READ- BOOKS
 A format specifically designed to give beginning readers successful
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independent reading experiences.
Some publishers have their own trade-marked names: “I can read” or
“Ready to Read”.
Read independently by children.
They are smaller than regular picture books.
The illustrations are designed to give clues to the meanings of the
words, but the pictures are smaller and less profuse.
Larger print, more space between lines.
Restricted vocabulary: usually fewer than 250 different words.
The majority of the early easy/to/read books were animal fantasy,
but they are now available in all genres.
Book formats
 History of this format is interesting.
 The first book was Dr. Seuss THE CAT IN THE HAT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jK6l1WJKUU
Book formats
 Graphic Novels
 Became especially popular with children and adolescents.
 Novels whose stories are told through a combination of
illustrations and text.
 Longer than picture books (from 64 to 128).
 Most of them are fantasy, but can be found in all genres of
literature, and the tone can be humorous or serious.
 The text presents a complete story line with a distinct plot
(compare with comic books or mangas that contain episodic
stories).
 May have sequels.
Book formats
 Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
 http://www.wimpykid.com/books/book10/
Life was better in the old days. Or was it?
That’s the question Greg Heffley is asking as
his town voluntarily unplugs and goes
electronics-free. But modern life has its
conveniences, and Greg isn’t cut out for an
old-fashioned world.
With tension building inside and outside the
Heffley home, will Greg find a way to
survive? Or is going “old school” just too
hard for a kid like Greg?
Book formats
 Chapter Books
 Are longer and have fewer illustrations.
 Junior novel.
 Include fiction and nonfiction novels.
 Lengthy enough for the author to divide in chapters.
 Graphics and illustrations are common but are less important
than thee text.
Book formats
 Hardcover books
 Are the highest-quality books.
 Covers are of heavy-duty cardboard.
 The pages of the book are sewn together.
 Durable.
 The best colour reproduction of illustrations.
Book formats
 Paperback books
 Covers are of lower-quality paper.
 The pages are glued together.
 The best format for juvenile novels and children books that
children may read only once.
Book formats
 Series books
 Sequel – trilogy – a series
 Unifying elements, such as characters or theme.
 Some of them are of high literary quality: J.K. Rowling’s harry
Potter stories.
Book formats
 eBooks
 Newest on the scene.
 Can be downloaded from a variety of sources as Project
Gutenberg and an Internet bookstore.
 Advantages: small and light weight, font size is changeable, and
they have search function.
 Some books are available for download free. The classics at
Gutenberg project are free.
 Disadvantages: children read 10% slower on electronic readers.
TO FIND OUT MORE…
 TeachingBooks.net
 TeachingBooks.net is an easy-to-use website that adds a
multimedia dimension to the reading experiences of children's
and young adult books. Our online database is developed and
maintained to include thousands of resources about fiction and
nonfiction books used in the K–12 environment, with every
resource selected to encourage the integration of multimedia
author and book materials into reading and library activities.
 http://www.teachingbooks.net/support.cgi?f=support_about
ENGAGING STUDENTS IN READING
 SCHEMA BUILDING:
 Strategy that will help readers better comprehend and enjoy the
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books they read.
The strategy is grounded in reader response theory: to interact with
a text the reader must bring something to the reading process.
This something is called schema, a system of cognitive structures
stored in memory that are abstract representations of events, objects,
and relationships in the world.
SCEMATA: background experience or prior knowledge.
In order to comprehend a book, readers must be able to integrate
new information in the text with their prior knowledge.
PREPARING SCHEMA BUILDING
 SCHEMA BUILDING
 Enhancing children’s understanding and appreciation of a
fiction book.
 Pre-reading schema building: can be used with either
picture books or juvenile books.
PREPARING SCHEMA BUILDING
PREPARING SCHEMA BUILDING
Information gained by using the pre/reading schema-building before reading TheVoyage of
the Frog.