CHILDREN'S LITERATURE ESSENTIALS

by ANITA P. DAVIS
1st edition, 228 pages, $24.95  
ISBN 978-0-89641-345-0

 

Children's Literature Essentials is a companion volume to Reading Instruction Essentials which is suitable for use by college professors in education courses and by elementary teachers seeking to enrich their classes. This book is unique for several reasons:

• It reflects a novel way to teach and learn children's literature

• Students are able to place their work in the text itself and consult it in the future as a valuble reference.

• It will guide one's reading of children's books and one's examining authentic reading materials.

• It will assist the user in selecting and reading appropriate children's literature rather than merely reading the restricted, brief excerpts that an anthology would provide.

• It gives guidance to those developing criteria for assessing a book; readers of this textbook will read actively.

• It will become a permanent part of the libraries of its users;

• The format encourages students to keep the book for improved teaching and learning. These proponents of children's literature will have reading lists, criteria, teaching ideas, and other information for ready reference.

• Children's Literature Essentials along with Reading Instruction Essentials complement each other and will help create effective language arts classes.

• This book will encourage research and the use of best-practices instruction.

• It will help the reader explore current readings related to children's literature particularly recent periodicals and on the Internet.

• Children's Literature Essentials incorporates the use of technology (videos and the Internet) into its content and into its suggestions for teaching and learning children's literature.
  

CONTENTS

• Chapter 1: WHAT IS CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
  What Children's Literature is Not
  What Children's Literature Is
  The Right Book for the Right Child at the Right Time
  Child Development
  Ages, Characteristics, Interests and Suggested Readings
  Things to Do

• Chapter 2: PICTURE BOOKS: A CONTRAST TO ILLUSTRATED BOOKS
  Illustrated Books vs. Picture Books
  Picture Books
  Types of Picture Books
  Summary
  Thiungs to Do

• Chapter 3: EVALUATING PICTURE BOOKS
  Content of Picture Books (Genre, Setting, Backdrop and Integral Settings, Character Development, Stereotyping, Diction, Theme and Intended Audience)
  Illustrations or Pictures (Integration of the Pictures with the Text, Mood, Consistency, Authentic, Symbolic)
  Format (Size of Book, Book Cover and Jacket, Binding, Type Font and Size, Page Layout, Paper)
  Media (Pastels, Oils and Acrylics, Watercolors, Pen and Ink, Collage, Crayon, Scratchboard, Prints, Stone Lithography)
  Summary
  Things to Do

• Chapter 4: EVALUATING JUVENILE FICTION
  Categorizing Juvenile Fiction
  Traditional Literature (Parable, Fable, Fairy Tales, Folktales, Myths, Legends)
  Ways of Classifying Modern Literature (Novels, Romance, Confession, Mineppean Satire)0
  Plot (Order of the Plot, Types of Conflict, Patterns of Action, Structure)
  Setting
  Characterization
  Theme
  Style
  Authenticity
  Contrast Evaluative Techniques
  Summary
  Things to Do

• Chapter 5: MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
  Reasons for Studying the History of Children's Liaterature
  The Oral History
  Oral Traditional Literature
  Preserving the Stories and Records of the Past
  Earliest Recorded Literature
  Touchstones in the Earliest History
  Touchstones in the History of Children's Literature during the 1500's
  Touchstones in the Hisotry of Children's Literature during the 1600's
  Touchstones in the History of Children's Literature during the 1700's
  Touchstones in the History of Children's Literature during the 1800's
  Touchstones in the History of Children's Literature during the 1900's
  Fanciful Works of the Early 1900's
  Novels of the Early 1900's
  An Ending Date for Milestones
  Summary
  Things to Do

• Chapter 6: POETRY
  Uses of Children's Poetry
  Choral Reading (Types, Cautions in Using Choral Reading)
  Summary
  Things to Do

• Chapter 7: POETS AND POEMS
  Early Poetry Passed by Word of Mouth
  Poetry of the 1600's
  Poetry of the 1700's
  Poetry and Poems during the 1800'sa
  Poets and Poems of the 1900's
  Multicultural Poems
  Summary
  Things to Do

• Chapter 8: USING LITERATURE IN THE CLASSROOM
  The Unit (Resource, Teaching, Integrated Subjects, Descriptive, Thematic, Literature, Novel)
  Real Aloud Periods
  Learning Center
  Individualized Reading
  Self-selected Reading
  Sustained Silent Reading
  Creative Writing Activities
  Guilded Reading
  Summary
  Things to Do

• Chapter 9: INFORMATIONAL BOOKS
  Content Area Teachers andConcern One: Assignhed Texts are Unsuitable to the Students
  Response of Content Area Teachers to Concern One: Assigned Texts are Unsuited to the Student
  Content Area Teachers and Concern Two: Students are Unable to Read Informational Books
  Repsonse of Content Area Teachers to Concern Two: Students are Unable to Read Informational Books
  Summary
  Things to Do

• Chapter 10: MULTICULTURAL AND NON-SEXIST LITERATURE IN THE CLASSROOM
  African-American Image in Books in the United States
  Multiculturalism and Cultural Pluralism: Their Impact on Society and Children's Literature
  Multiculturalism and Cultural Pluralism: Teaching Activities for the elementary classroom
  Exceptionalities
  Sexism
  Summaray
  Things to Do

• GLOSSARY

• INDEX
  
  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . .

Anita P. Davis is a professor of Education at Converse College, Spartanburg, South Carolina. She received her Ed.D. from Duke University.