Learning About Books and Children

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The more direct narrative voice of the fi rst person is quite common today. In contemporary realism it is almost the norm. Judy Blume helped popularize this kind of storytelling with books like Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret and Blubber. Blume’s stories are not known for strong characterization, but they do reveal the author’s ability to recreate the everyday language of children. The advantage of using fi rst-person narrative is that it can make for easy reading. It attempts to invite its au dience by taking a stance that says, “Look—we speak the same language.” However, children’s perspectives on the world are limited by their lack of experience, just as their vocabulary is. This is an added challenge for an author writing in the fi rst person; for al though it might be easy to present the narrator’s thoughts and feelings in an appealing way, it will be more diffi cult to show that the narrator’s view might be narrow, misguided, or simply immature when seen from a broader perspective. At times authors counter the limitations of a single point of view by alternating the presentation of several views within the same story or changing points of view. Konigsburg’s multiple narratives in The View from Sat urday add great richness to the textual tapestry. Author Linda Sue Park provides an innovative twist on this technique in Project Mulberry, when she intersects the fi rst-person narrative of her main character, Julia Song, with a dialogue between herself as author and Julia as a product of her imagination. The author’s personal and cultural experience is refl ected in more subtle ways in every book’s point of view. An author of color has a unique opportunity to illuminate those nuances of culture that outsiders can never capture. To be sure, there are writers who create fi ne literature from sustained contact with a culture other than their own. But their points of view are no substitute for those of an author who has lived those cultural experiences from birth. Additional Considerations The books we think of as truly excellent have signifi - cant content and, if illustrated, fi ne illustrations. Their total design, from the front cover to the fi nal end paper, creates a unifi ed look that seems in character with the content and invites the reader to proceed. Today we have so many picture storybooks and so many beautifully illustrated books of poetry, nonfi ction, and other genres that any attempt to evaluate children’s literature should consider both the role of illustration and the format of the book. We will discuss these criteria in greater depth in the chapters in Part 2 of this book. The format of a book includes its size, shape, page design, illustrations, typography, paper quality, and binding. Frequently, some small aspect of the format, such as the book jacket, will be an important factor in a child’s decision to read a story. The fi rst-person narrative of character seventh grader Julia Song is interspersed with her conversations with the author in Linda Sue Park’s thought-provoking and delightful Project Mulberry. Cover from Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park. Jacket illustrations copyright © 2005 by Debora Smith. Reprinted by permission of Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Miffl in Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. All types of books—novels, picture books, poetry, bi og raphy, informational books—should be well designed and well made. Many factors other than illustration are important. The type should be large enough for easy reading by children at the age level for which the book is intended. At the same time, if the type is too large, children might see the book as “babyish.” Space between the lines (leading) should be suffi cient to make the text clear. The paper should be of high quality, heavy enough to prevent any penetration of ink. In longer works written for older children, this means offwhite with a dull fi nish to prevent glare, although other surfaces are used for special purposes. The binding should be durable and practical, able to withstand hard use. Publishers produce many books in alternate bindings, one for the trade (bookstore sales) and an extrasturdy version for library use. It is important to notice that books reprinted in paperback by many book clubs may not include de tails from the hardcover edition such Chapter One Knowing Children’s Literature 21
as end papers. Thus, while teachers may want to have inexpensive paperback copies of a picture book for their classroom libraries, it is important to make the hardcover edition available to children as well. Of course, a book should never be se lected on the basis of format alone. No book is better than its content. Comparison with Other Books A book should be considered not in isolation but as a part of the larger body of literature. Individual books need to be compared with others on the same subject or theme. Is this just another horse story, or like Jessie Haas’s Unbroken does it make a contribution to our un derstanding about human motives and desires? Every teacher and librarian should know some books well enough to develop a personal list of books of excellence that can serve as models for comparison. How does this adventure story compare with Armstrong Sperry’s Call It Courage, or this fantasy with A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, or this historical fi ction with Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry? These ref erence points of outstanding books help to sharpen evaluations. It can also be helpful for teachers and librarians to become familiar with some of the review journals in the fi eld of children’s literature and to compare reviews of a given book. What have reputable reviewers said about this book? Where have they placed it in relation to others of its type? Have they singled it out for special notice by starring it or providing a special focus? A comparison of reviews of one book usually reveals more similarities than differences, although reviewers have personal preferences just as other readers do. Appendixes A and B provide sources that will be helpful in evaluating and selecting children’s books. In summary, the basic considerations for the evaluation of fi ction for children are a well-constructed and well-paced plot, a signifi cant theme, an authentic setting, a credible point of view, convincing characterization, appropriate style, and an attractive format. Not all books achieve excellence in each of these areas. Some books are remembered for their fi ne characterizations, others for their exciting plots, and others for the evocation of the setting. Classics in Children’s Literature Knowledge of children’s classics—those books that have stood the test of time—can provide further guidance for evaluating children’s books. What makes a book endure from one generation to another? Alice Jordan states: “Until a book has weathered at least one generation and is accepted in the next, it can hardly be given the rank of a classic.” 39 Many books and poems have achieved an honored position in children’s literature through a combination of adult adoration, parent perpetuation, and teacher assignments. Most adults remember with nostalgia the books they read as children. They tend to think that what they read was best and ignore the possibility that any better books might be produced. It is easy to forget that every “classic” was once a new book, that some of today’s new books will be tomorrow’s classics. Teachers and librarians should begin with modern children and their interests, not adults’ interests when they were children. Certain books became classics when there were very few books from which children could choose. In fact, many classics were not children’s books at all, but were written for adults. In their desire to read, children claimed these adult books, struggled through the diffi cult parts, and disregarded what they did not understand. They had no other choice. Today’s children are not so persevering, because they see no reason to be. The introductory sentence of Robinson Crusoe runs the length of the entire fi rst page and contains diffi cult vocabulary and syntax. Defoe wrote the story in 1719 for adult readers, but children quickly discovered this story of shipwreck and ad venture and plunged into it. However, they can fi nd the same tingling excitement and more readable prose in survival stories like Henning Mankell’s Secrets in the Fire, Graham Salisbury’s Night of the Howling Dogs, or Donna Jo Napoli’s Three Days. The classics should not be exempted from reevaluation by virtue of their past veneration. They should be able to compete favorably with contemporary books. Un impressed by vintage or lineage, children seldom read a book because they think they should. They read more for enjoyment than for edifi cation. Some books have been kept alive from one generation to the next by the common consent of critics and children; these are the true classics of children’s literature. No teacher or parent has to cajole a child into enjoying the adventure and suspense in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, the mystery and excitement of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, or the memorable characters in Alcott’s Little Women or A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh. These books can hold their own amid today’s ever-increasing number of new and beautiful books. The Book Awards Teachers and librarians will fi nd it helpful to be familiar with books that have won awards. 40 These awards, 39Alice M. Jordan, Children’s Classics (Boston: Horn Book, 1974), p. 4. 40See Appendix A for various book awards, criteria, and winners. Information also appears in Children’s Books in Print (New York: R. R. Bowker). 22 Part 1 Learning About Books and Children www.mhhe.com/kiefer10e
Page 1 and 2: Part One Learning About Books and C
Page 3 and 4: 4 1 Knowing Children’s Literature
Page 5 and 6: the rest of the world, and to live
Page 7 and 8: Valuing Literature for Children Bec
Page 9 and 10: and the unbelievably intense cold b
Page 11 and 12: a particular author or series of bo
Page 13 and 14: how ever, is each story’s theme o
Page 15 and 16: A fast-moving plot combines with de
Page 17 and 18: neighbors. The credibility of chara
Page 19: Paulsen’s The Winter Room is a mo
Page 23 and 24: TalkingPoint Do award-winning books
Page 25 and 26: Birdsall’s The Penderwicks on Gar
Page 27 and 28: ChapterReview Visit the Online Lear
Page 29 and 30: Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secre

Learning About Books and Children

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?