Characteristics Of Children Literature

Children’s literature is the precedent for the development of all children. Children’s literature varies from poetry to children’s picture books. Every aspect of children’s literature gives an ability to grow a child mentally and develop their ideas and imagination. In early literature, children were romanized to be perfect and well behaved. Author Maurice Sendak counters the idea of a perfect child in his book “Where The Wild Things Are”. Sendak uses his picture book to illustrate a child’s ability to have feelings of anger, resentment, and frustration. The interviewer, Patrick F. Roughen of Red Feather Journal states that“Where the Wild Things Are (1963) contains some of the earliest attempts in children’s literature to represent the intrapsychic challenges of the lives of children. Anger, frustration, and the complexities of parent-child relationships can be found throughout its pages”. “Where the Wild Things Are” reinforces the idea that children are capable of emotions that one would imagine are only depicted in the adult world.

Thus, this novel is pleasant to read by the young readers and children is the easy target for instilling new information as their minds are still fresh and clean. Children act as a sponge, and absorb almost everything that is being taught.

It surprised me at first that Contemporary Realistic Fiction is the most popular genre in children’s books. But after reading this it made more sense why contemporary realistic fiction is the most popular genre. It approaches the reality of children’s own lives. They can also connect to it so much easier than other genres.

Children’s Literature is a wide range. It is collection of culture, concepts and future values. After reading the introduction” Trade And Plumb-Cake Forever, The Riverside Anthology of Children’s Literature), I considered most insightful in reading this section , Children’s literature differs from adult literature, Children’s literature plays a key role in raising children's imaginations, and it plays an important role in the development and creative thinking in children.

In the poems “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, each poet illustrates adults who are providing explanations for children to protect them from the harsher realities of life. In “A Barred Owl”, Wilbur conveys his point that children should be shielded from these harsh realities, through the use of personification and understatements. However, in “The History Teacher”, Collins conveys his point that protecting the students’ innocence is a lost cause, through his use of metaphors as well as understatements. Both poets use similar and different devices to convey their respective points.

Lamott explains that the “child you” is meant to coax out that spark for an extraordinary piece of writing that may have been overlooked by using a more mature, adult approach. Lamott personalizes the infamous fear of the “first draft” by describing her experience as a food review writer for California magazine. Even years after she first took the position, she suffered the same panic each time she was requested to write a new review. Stressed out she would write a sentence or two, mark it out, try again, distract herself with other tasks for a time, then sit back at her desk and stare at the same picture frame. By the time Lamott got to the picture frame stage, she always ended up with the same epiphany, to write a “Shitty First Draft” that no eyes but hers would see. By allowing us amateur writers into her realm, and allowing us to understand that she shares our struggles even at the professional level, Lamott solidifies the credibility of this piece and the importance of the “Shitty First Draft”. Lamott wrote Shitty First Drafts within her book about writing to inform young or inexperienced writers in a funky, warm way that no one spins a perfect piece of writing in one

Another interesting trend in children’s literature is mixing of genres, such as mixing cartoons and novels, which may be

In “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur and “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins, the authors both argue that innocence is necessary to cultivate the ideal child via their protective tones, deceptive plot, and contrasting rhyme schemes.

After a four week survey of a multitude of children’s book authors and illustrators, and learning to analyze their works and the methods used to make them effective literary pieces for children, it is certainly appropriate to apply these new skills to evaluate a single author’s works. Specifically, this paper focuses on the life and works of Ezra Jack Keats, a writer and illustrator of books for children who single handedly expanded the point of view of the genre to include the experiences of multicultural children with his Caldecott Award winning book “Snowy Day.” The creation of Peter as a character is ground breaking in and of itself, but after reading the text the reader is driven to wonder why “Peter” was created. Was he a vehicle for

Lamott examines how being powerless like a tyke will permit you to spill out everything that your intending to express in your paper. Youngsters have no channel; they typically say whatever is on their psyche and what they are precisely feeling inside. Towards the closure of the passage Lamott makes an amazingly brilliant focus, assuming that you weren't meandering on and spilling everything out on the paper, you might never find what you are positively searching for.

Children’s literature has existed for as long as there have been stories to be told to children. Stories, books, songs, poems are all made for children. Children’s literature does not have a definite definition of what it is; basically, it is anything a child reads (Lerer, 2008). Children begin to learn what reading and writing are used for before even knowing how the system works. Children recognise the function of written language by seeing examples of written language that are being used around them. Many children know the difference between reading and talking, they are aware that written language is used to do things in this world (Emitt, Zbaracki, Komesaroff and Pollock, 2015). Quintilian, John Locke, Saint Augustine and Doctor Seuss speculated on the ways children learn the Australian language and learn about their lives from literature (Lerer, 2008). In fact, Lerer states that “the history of children’s literature is inseparable from the history of childhood, for the child was made through texts and tales he/she studied, heard and told back,” (2008, p.1). Children’s literature nurtures an understanding of narrative structures and visual images played in storytelling, this helps develop

 So much, in fact, was assigned to the woman’s role that today we can well believe that appropriate, wholesome, ‘safe’ reading-matter for the child was a boon to the mother. And into this breach, ready to fill the gap that had earlier existed in the field, when most children’s books were by English writers, came many American writers, largely from New England or the Middle Atlantic states, many of them themselves women and mothers.   The writers for these periodicals were in fact often anonymous, or signed themselves with initials or pseudonyms; Child, for example, usually signed herself ’Aunt Maria’. Editors, to fill

Although many view children's fiction as suitable only to children, and an embarrassingly immature pursuit for a serious person, children' stories mold the way we think. They allows us to look at very complex and difficult issues in a safe and playful way, and they give us the freedom to imagine the unimaginable.

'In children 's literature the notion and construct of 'childhood ' became an influential force...it became associated with freedom...and play; focusing on educating children malleablly. '

There are numerous children’s books available for educators to utilize as they create, integrate, and incorporate reading books into their lessons. When selecting books for students, many factors come into play. One central component to employ when selecting Children’s books is ensuring the book is developmentally appropriate for the child (Lennox, 2013). In order to select