ESSENTIALS OF
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE:
Chapter 1

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
• is good quality trade books for children
• from birth to adolescence
• covering topics of relevance and
interest to children of those ages
• through poetry and prose,
• fiction and nonfiction

CONTENT
• About experiences of childhood, both good
and bad & diverse topics of interest to
children
• Told in a forthright, humorous , or
suspenseful manner!
• IF told about childhood in a nostalgic or
overly sentimental way -- inappropriate
• When children shown as victims, stories
should emphasize h o pe for a better future
• Mainly for enjoyment and information

QUALITY
• Involves originality and importance of ideas,
imaginative use of language, and beauty of
literary and artistic style
• Fresh, meaningful and interesting for years

QUALITY
•Good (but not great) have value (fast-moving,
adventure-filled, predictable stories encourage newly
independent readers to read). No need for YOU to
read aloud.
•Low end: books nothing more than ads for TV
cartoon characters or author soapboxes.
Back

ACADEMIC VALUE OF
LITERATURE TO CHILDREN
• Illustration in picture books: appreciate both for
• its ability to help tell the story
• its value as art (aesthetic)
• Invaluable in teaching children to read daily:
• read excellent literature aloud
• silent independent reading of free-choice
material
(Literature and the Child: use resources as listed in Appendix B, p403+; not
confined to textbook as sole source)

PERSONAL VALUE OF
LITERATURE TO CHILDREN
• ENJOYMENT
• IMAGINATION AND INSPIRATION
• VICARIOUS EXPERIENCE
• UNDERSTANDING AND EMPATHY
• HERITAGE
• MORAL REASONING
• LITERARY AND ARTISTIC PREFERENCE

Current Trends
• Rapid increase in publication of children’s literature over last 30
years/5,000 books published each year.
• 3 X as many books available as a decade ago.
– Picture books
– Heavily illustrated nonfiction
– Highly commercial TV-related spin-off
– Rise in books written by celebrity authors: Heather French,
Madonna/Curic/Leno/Dr. Laura Schlessinger
• Increasing numbers of multicultural and international books
• Increase in amount & complexity of illustration in children’s books.
• Fewer full-length novels; more short, high-interest, low-reading level
novels for 10-14 year olds.
• Picture books dealing artfully with varied family structures.

• Small press publishers assuming the task of publishing more
challenging, original, “risky” books, as independent book publishers
fall to corporate takeovers.
• Dominance of illustration in children’s books. Advance technology
has led to improvements in many picture books.
– Readers are becoming more visually oriented as they spend more time
watching television and playing video games and spend less time
reading.
– Technology has made possible a new emphasis on graphics and
photos in nonfiction—stunning presentations.
• Critics concerned design and appearance factors overpower the content of
the books while “going beyond the artistic knowledge of young readers.”

•Interactive approaches to books have been developed in reaction to CD-ROMs
for readers to have something to be involved with, to change, to manipulate. Rise
of audio books another way to involve children in literature.
•Rapid increases in home schooling and charter schools have created a need for
more children’s librarians in public libraries who can select good literature for
purchase, advise readers effectively, and offer interesting programs for children.
•Increase in bilingual books, esp. English -Spanish & Spanish only books to
accommodate ESL/SSL students.
• Tie-in artifacts, such as lunch boxes and dolls, are being manufactured to
accompany books.
•Pop-up, scratch-and-sniff, and paper–engineering products for young children
are proliferating.
•Fear these are less literary and more commercial.

•More novels being written in verse, such as Hess’s (1997)
Out of the Dust, Creech’s Love That Dog (2001),
Heartbeat (2004) and Woodson’s Locomotion (2003).

• Production of board books for toddlers
– simple concepts/colors/numbers
– Children of color
• Mass marketing of books in supermarkets, mall bookstores, and drugstores,
along with rise of book clubs in schools, has changed the way books are
selected
– Before/teacher or librarian led children to books after explaining their merits;
now appeal of cover alone sells the book or not.
• Because of tax on warehoused goods, books go out of print quickly if sales
aren’t high
– Difficult to find book loved as a child
– Or one you read a review of 2-3 years ago. Kira-Kira
No copies available in book stores when it
won the Newbery/sent back after 3
months
• Consolidation of publishing houses into a few megacompanies make finding
a publisher more difficult for unknown authors.

Celebrities Writing for Children
• Famous singers, actors, entertainers try their
hands in writing for children with mixed
results.
• Famous published authors of adult books
write for children:
– Carl Hiaasen/ Hoot
– Walter Moseley/47
– David Baldacci/ Freddy and the French Fries
– James Patterson/ Maximum Ride

• “Rapid growth of technology in all areas of
publishing.
– As schools adopt computerized management
reading programs such as Accelerated Reader,
reading and books become less a means to
enjoyment and discovering new information and
more a matter of gaining points.”

• Reading is the sole
means by which we
slip, involuntarily, into
another’s skin,
another’s voice,
another’s soul.