Ilr Magazine – Good To The Very Last Book

Ilr Magazine – Good To The Very Last Book

The importance of children’s literature.

Every educational process begins with literature, because it assumes an informative role and opens the doors to knowledge, provides access to knowledge, brings information to practical life. There are many ways and several resources to work with literature such as (tales, poems, legends, stories, characters, fables, theaters, illustrative images, ludic, picture books, etc.).

Children’s literature allows children to write better, developing their creativity, because the act of reading and the act of writing are closely linked. In this sense, “children’s literature is, first of all, literature, or rather, it is art: a phenomenon of creativity that represents the world, man, life, through the word”. It merges dreams and practical life, the imaginary and the real, ideals and their possible/impossible realization.

Children’s literature has the task of transforming dreams into reality, it is an excellent resource for the teaching-learning process, for the child’s growth, its joy and its magic. Children’s literature in the early stages of learning has a forming and socializing function.

Children’s literature promotes the child in its developmental and socialization process, and in this phase the child’s interests are related to sound, rhythm, individualized scenes, books with few texts, many prints and rhymes, dealing with animals and known objects and scenes familiar to the world of children. In this literary process, one finds – if the privileged space to stimulate the subject as generator of the magical hypotheses, as it affirms.

It is the magical mentality phase, in which the child makes little difference between the external and the internal world. Literature will help – there to make the distinction between the “I” and the world through books, engravings of objects in their environment. Between 4 and 6 years the child prefers to read magical realism: fairy tales, legends, myths, fables, which can offer imaginative change, because at this stage of his development the child is essentially susceptible to fantasy.

Literary texts provide skills, knowledge and languages suitable for children with different levels of understanding. Literature promotes the integral formation of the child, stimulating them with several teaching methodologies such as: legends, fables and short stories that are richer narratives of knowledge.

It is observed that stories such as: Little Red Riding Hood, The Beauty and the Beast, The Ugly Duckling, Rapunzel, Cinderella, the Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs and all their characters, even being “old” stories continue to be an attraction for children, and efficient methods against anguish, suffering and child fears.

When these stories are presented to children with concrete methodologies in search of developing the imaginary, certainly these children find in the characters of the story their “idol” or their “hero”, and this fact develops in children feelings of curiosity, interpretation, interest, affection, magic and courage.

The importance of children’s literature as a creative stage within the general problem of imagination, since it is not clear at what age or in what form and circumstances it appears in the child.

However, in the development of literary teaching, the mediating teacher must pedagogically use all available resources to contribute to the learning of the students in an appropriate way, where each child demonstrates his or her capacity and ease in imagining, understanding, interpreting, writing, reading and speaking in a formal way through storytelling.

Because only an excellent class where the diversity of pedagogical resources is present together with play in the teaching-learning, is that the children have built their own understanding of the real world, of the socialization among others in a gradual and meaningful way through their creativity and imagination.

The literary process is fascinating in all ages, we must keep in mind that the habit of literature does good even for adults. We must break down the barriers of prejudice that still exist in some contexts of society, which believe and interpret the literary process in an empty and meaningless way with human life in society, because this analysis stems from unobserved and deeply studied questions about the literary genres and the cognitive development of people.

purpose of children's literature

Literature acts as an instrument of mediation for the development of the child in a participative and critical way in the teaching-learning process, its educational character contributes in a positive way to the socialization and formation of the child, in its interpretation of the world, people, cultural and linguistic varieties and its own personality.

Literature is a verbal art in which it involves a representation and a vision of the world that are centered on the creator of literature, where he draws elements from the world to help the reader structure his cultural universe.

In summary, considering reading as an achievement that occurred gradually, it is observed that it is a fundamental element in the formation and construction of knowledge of the child, and that it goes far beyond the mechanical decoding of written lines, but in the curiosity and consequent discovery unveiled through it.

We understand that the vast description around the potential extracted from children’s literature, as a post in this work, which can, above all, contribute to the formation of active and competent readers, consequently to a significant learning of the child in the educational process, because as we know the first contact with books should happen in the child’s childhood and preferably with their relatives.

The family is very important in the educational process, and it should seek to develop the child’s imagination, creativity, taste for reading and writing, opening spaces in the child’s life in the acquisition of knowledge and social communication in formal and non-formal contexts.

Just as the school is responsible, the family is also responsible for the teaching-learning, because when the school and the family decide to collaborate and act together in the search for strategies and knowledge projects, certainly this teaching-learning process is modifiable, beneficial, meaningful and pleasant for all members of the school community.

purpose of children's literature

Once upon a time: a brief history of children’s literature

purpose of children's literature

Director, Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, The University of Western Australia

purpose of children's literature

Researcher, The University of Western Australia

purpose of children's literature

Lecturer in medieval and early modern history, The University of Western Australia

Disclosure statement

Susan Broomhall receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Joanne McEwan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Stephanie Tarbin receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

University of Western Australia provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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April 2 is International Children’s Book Day and the anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous contributors to this genre, Hans Christian Andersen . But when Andersen wrote his works, the genre of children’s literature was not an established field as we recognise today.

Adults have been writing for children (a broad definition of what we might call children’s literature) in many forms for centuries. Little of it looks much fun to us now. Works aimed at children were primarily concerned with their moral and spiritual progress. Medieval children were taught to read on parchment-covered wooden tablets containing the alphabet and a basic prayer, usually the Pater Noster. Later versions are known as “hornbooks”, because they were covered by a protective sheet of transparent horn.

purpose of children's literature

Spiritually-improving books aimed specifically at children were published in the 17th century. The Puritan minister John Cotton wrote a catechism for children, titled Milk for Babes in 1646 (republished in New England as Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in 1656). It contained 64 questions and answers relating to religious doctrine, beliefs, morals and manners. James Janeway (also a Puritan minister) collected stories of the virtuous lives and deaths of pious children in A Token for Children (1671), and told parents, nurses and teachers to let their charges read the work “ over a hundred times .”

These stories of children on their deathbeds may not hold much appeal for modern readers, but they were important tales about how to achieve salvation and put children in the leading role. Medieval legends about young Christian martyrs, like St Catherine and St Pelagius, did the same.

Other works were about manners and laid out how children should behave. Desiderius Erasmus famously produced a book of etiquette in Latin, On Civility in Children (1530), which gave much useful advice, including “don’t wipe your nose on your sleeve” and “To fidget around in your seat, and to settle first on one buttock and then the next, gives the impression that you are repeatedly farting, or trying to fart. So make sure your body remains upright and evenly balanced.” This advice shows how physical comportment was seen to reflect moral virtue.

Erasmus’s work was translated into English (by Robert Whittington in 1532) as A lytyll booke of good manners for children, where it joined a body of conduct literature aimed at wealthy adolescents.

In a society where reading aloud was common practice, children were also likely to have been among the audiences who listened to romances and secular poetry. Some medieval manuscripts, such as Bodleian Library Ashmole 61 , included courtesy poems explicitly directed at “children yong”, alongside popular Middle English romances, saints’ lives and legends, and short moral and comic tales.

Do children have a history?

A lot of scholarly ink has been spilled in the debate over whether children in the past were understood to have distinct needs. Medievalist Philippe Ariès suggested in Centuries of Childhood that children were regarded as miniature adults because they were dressed to look like little adults and because their routines and learning were geared towards training them for their future roles.

But there is plenty of evidence that children’s social and emotional (as well as spiritual) development were the subject of adult attention in times past. The regulations of late medieval and early modern schools, for example, certainly indicate that children were understood to need time for play and imagination.

purpose of children's literature

Archaeologists working on the sites of schools in The Netherlands have uncovered evidence of children’s games that they played without input from adults and without trying to emulate adult behaviour. Some writers on education suggested that learning needed to appeal to children. This “progressive” view of children’s development is often attributed to John Locke but it has a longer history if we look at theories about education from the 16th century and earlier.

Some of the most imaginative genres that we now associate with children did not start off that way. In Paris in the 1690s, the salon of Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d’Aulnoy, brought together intellectuals and members of the nobility.

There, d’Aulnoy told “ fairy tales ”, which were satires about the royal court of France with a fair bit of commentary on the way society worked (or didn’t) for women at the time. These short stories blended folklore, current events, popular plays, contemporary novels and time-honoured tales of romance.

These were a way to present subversive ideas, but the claim that they were fiction protected their authors. A series of 19th-century novels that we now associate with children were also pointed commentaries about contemporary political and intellectual issues. One of the better known examples is Reverend Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby (1863), a satire against child labour and a critique of contemporary science.

The moral of the story

By the 18th century, children’s literature had become a commercially-viable aspect of London printing. The market was fuelled especially by London publisher John Newbery, the “father” of children’s literature. As literacy rates improved, there was continued demand for instructional works. It also became easier to print pictures that would attract young readers.

purpose of children's literature

More and more texts for children were printed in the 19th century, and moralistic elements remained a strong focus. Katy’s development in patience and neatness in the “School of Pain” is key, for example, in Susan Coolidge’s enormously popular What Katy Did (1872), and feisty, outspoken Judy (spoiler alert!) is killed off in Ethel Turner’s Seven Little Australians (1894). Some authors managed to bridge the comic with important life lessons. Heinrich Hoffman’s memorable 1845 classic Struwwelpeter reads now like a kids’ version of dumb ways to die .

purpose of children's literature

By the turn of the 20th century, we see the emergence of a “kids’ first” literature, where children take on serious matters with (or often without) the help of adults and often within a fantasy context. The works of Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Francis Hodgson Burnett, Edith Nesbit, JM Barrie, Frank L Baum, Astrid Lindgren, Enid Blyton, CS Lewis, Roald Dahl and JK Rowling operate in this vein.

Children’s books still contain moral lessons – they continue to acculturate the next generation to society’s beliefs and values. That’s not to say that we want our children to be wizards, but we do want them to be brave, to stand up for each other and to develop a particular set of values.

We tend to see children’s literature as providing imaginative spaces for children, but are often short-sighted about the long and didactic history of the genre. And as historians, we continue to seek out more about the autonomy and agency of pre-modern children in order to understand how they might also have found spaces in which to exercise their imagination beyond books that taught them how to pray.

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  • v.10(1); 2020

Children’s literature to promote students’ global development and wellbeing

Manuela pulimeno.

1 PhD Candidate in Human Relations Sciences, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari, Italy

2 UNESCO Chair on Health Education and Sustainable Development, Federico II University, Naples, Italy

Prisco Piscitelli

Salvatore colazzo.

3 Department of History, Society and Human Studies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

Background: Tales were transmitted from one generation to another, enriching young people with values, beliefs, imagination and creativity. Children’s literature still plays a crucial part in education as it provides knowledge and entertainment, representing a typical example of "edutainment". In this paper, we carried out a review to examine pedagogic, didactic and psychological/therapeutic dimensions of children’s literature, with the aim of highlighting its role in promoting students’ holistic development and wellbeing.

Methods: We have searched for original articles (from 1960s to 2019), by using the following keywords: "fairytales" or "fairy tales" or "folktales" or "fables" AND "education" or"development" or "learning" or "teaching" or "school" or "curriculum" or "classroom" AND "children" or "child" or "kids" or "childhood" AND "health" or "wellbeing".

Results: We found 17 studies concerning pedagogic aspect of children literature, while 21 and17 studies were selected for didactic and therapeutic dimensions, respectively. From a pedagogic point of view, tales convey basic values useful for children lives. In a didactic perspective, properly chosen storybooks represent a valuable resource for school activities, improving students’ language skills and building up a friendly/respectful classroom environment. Children stories are also used by health professionals for therapeutic purposes (bibliotherapy) to prevent unhealthy habits and addictions, or address psychosomatic disorders. Finally, storybooks and web-based/digital stories can be an effective vehicle for health contents, to encourage the adoption of healthy lifestyles among schoolchildren.

Conclusion: Children’s literature and storytelling could be helpful in promoting students’ global development and wellbeing, when included in school curricular activities.

Introduction

Myths, fables and fairytales – originally founded on oral tradition – allowed adults to communicate with young people in an uninterrupted process until nowadays. 1 Tales have been told everywhere and in every time to educate, entertain and increase individuals’ awareness about moral principles and customs, thus representing an important part of traditional heritage as well as a way to reinforce tolerance and mutual knowledge among different populations. 2

Reading or listening to tales can be considered significant community practices, capable to impact on young generations, empowering and preparing them for the future. 3 Since culture is crucial for learning, stories have a fundamental part in shaping individual’s role in the society, becoming a helpful resource from didactic, psychological/therapeutic and pedagogic perspectives. 4

From a didactic point of view, storybooks can provide children with new information about the world, enrich vocabulary and enhance specific language skills (in the classroom or at home), nurturing communication between the storyteller (teacher, parent or other professional staff) and the listeners. 5 , 6

It is known that stories – by reproducing fictional situations that match with children’s real problems – allow them to feel comfortable and safe in difficult circumstances, ensuring emotional security and providing healthier ways to deal with internal struggles, life adversities and stressors. 7 Story-tales compensate what young people may lack, by presenting them positive patterns of behaviours and constructive models through the characters they could identify with. 8

Storybooks (or digital tales) are easier to understand for all children compared to abstract notions or theories, and might become special instruments for mapping the reality and conveying health contents, especially to the most vulnerable groups. 9 , 10

As suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO), health literacy should be incorporated in school curricula, in the context of a health-promoting classroom environment, in order to provide new generations with useful knowledge about healthy lifestyles. 11 - 13 Actually, school represents the ideal setting to perform health-related interventions and positively influence students’ wellbeing as well as their academic achievements. 14 - 16 The final goal is to involve young generations in practical actions about healthy habits (i.e. balanced nutrition and physical exercise) and prevention of risky behaviours (such as cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use) through a personal re-elaboration of health knowledge.In our previous systematic review, we have provided evidence for taking into account narrative-based strategies among the possible highly motivating approaches to encourage schoolchildren in adopting healthy eating habits since childhood. 17 , 18 More broadly, in this paper we explored the rationale for using children’s literature and storytelling in school setting to promote students’ global development and wellbeing.

Material and Methods

A narrative review has been carried out in order to analyze the pedagogic, didactic and psychological/therapeutic dimensions of children’s literature, highlighting the potential of narrative-based strategies in fostering students’ global development and wellbeing. Starting from January 2019, over a five-month period in the context of PhD in Human Relations Science of Bari University (Italy), we have searched on Web of Science for original articles and books, published from 1960s to 2019, by using the following keywords: “fairytales” or “fairy tales” or “folktales” or “fables” AND “education” or “development” or “learning” or “teaching” or “school” or “curriculum” or “classroom” AND “children” or “child” or “kids” or “childhood” AND “health” or “wellbeing”. We summarized definitions of health, presenting “wellbeing” (in its three dimensions of physical, emotional/mental and social health) as the main goal of every educational practice, and school system as the ideal setting to display health-related interventions. We also used citation tracking to detect other papers concerning children literature and narrative-based strategies (from oral storytelling to printed books and digital resources) as effective operational tool for conveying health contents to promote global development and wellbeing in school setting, along with the prevention of risky behaviours. Finally, we have provided brief definitions of children’s literature, presenting some historical insights about its pedagogic or didactic use, and psychological/therapeutic applications (bibliotherapy and narrative medicine).

Children’s literature is broadly defined as any creative literary work that has been especially written and designed for children’s use. 19 Only in the 18th century, with the evolving of the concept of childhood, a separate genre of children’s literature was created. 20 Modern children’s literature comprises short fairytales and fables, picture books, comics, cartoons, novels, nursery rhymes that can be potentially appreciated by most children. 21 In our search, we selected 17 studies concerning pedagogic dimension of children literature, 20 , 22 - 37 while 21 and 17 studies were chosen as addressing didactic 1 , 5 , 38 - 56 and therapeutic dimensions, 6 , 7 , 57 - 71 respectively ( Table 1 ).

Children’s literature as narrative tool in education: pedagogic dimension

The crisis we are facing is not only economic and financial, but also political, cultural and ethical, generating anxiety and fear due to the perception of a precarious existence in the context of a growing individualism and insensitivity to other people’s difficulties. Moreover, our society measures everything in terms of monetary value, giving priority to scientific/technological knowledge and decreasing the relevance of human sciences, which have nurtured the traditional humus of citizenship education. 72

Despite educational system is dealing worldwide with several challenges, school still represents the ideal setting to display interventions aimed at promoting students’ holistic development. Beyond its specific commitment, it is essential to build up healthy, respectful and satisfied citizens: the future adults capable to take care about themselves, the others and the environment. 24 , 73

In the globalization era, characterized by deep socio-economic changes and collapse of the traditional social tissue (i.e. new forms of poverty, increase of inequalities, family mobility etc.), the cultural heritage of folktales – easily available both for parental and teachers’ use – could represent a helpful tool for promoting individual personal growth, social cohesion and sustainable development. 2

Tales were told and are still told in every society and in many different settings to share experiences, customs, norms, and values, providing the listeners with entertainment and new knowledge. 25 In the “culturalistic” perspective, children’s stories belong to a specific cultural niche that could help young people to move into the life, allowing them to understand who they are as human beings and how they can contribute to the progress of the world. 26

Children’s literature continues to be a significant opportunity of presenting moral principles in an enjoyable and engaging way 27 and it is growing fast along with the aim to entertain, educate and provide new knowledge (in line with the new concept of “edutainment”), being able to integrate fun and adventure demanded by children (simulating the activity of free play) with the adults’ objective of offering them a set of moral examples. 20 , 28

A big part of children’s literature is represented by fairytales, which have the final goal of transmitting the basic universal values, and raising children’s awareness on many aspects of the life. 29 That’s why, even before printing press was invented, fairytales have been used by parents to transmit culturally appropriate moral norms to their children from an early age, equipping them with information, attitudes, and skills that could act as a kind of “vaccination” against all kind of threats to individual or collective health. 30

The most famous example fulfilling these criteria can be found in “Pinocchio”, written by Carlo Lorenzini (Collodi) to make children aware about the consequences of adopting wrong behaviours. 31 , 32 Similarly, in Germany, the Grimm Brothers presented noble values and positive models in their amazing adventures, helping children to understand what is good and what is bad. 33

Tales are very interesting for children because they show real aspects of family and community life, reinforcing the relations with the parents and highlighting ethical values related to social life. 34 , 35 Through implicit meanings embodied in the stories, children indirectly acquire pedagogical messages, able to influence their global personality and stimulate a social sense of duty. 27

Children’s stories are the place of endless possibilities, so that young people can open their mind to wide horizons, generate new viewpoints, find possible alternatives or solutions to problems, cultivating their points of strengths such as self-confidence and resilience. 36

The role and importance of children’s books have changed in modern society, but even today, children’s literature (including movies and digital resources) influences our daily lives and contributes to the development of young people in a number of ways, ranging from the transmission of values to didactic purposes. The presence of digital technology represents a challenge but also an opportunity for traditional fairytales’ or fables’ existence. Digital storytelling (the combination of the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia tools) is a helpful instrument to generate more appealing and stimulating learning experiences. 37

Actually, printed publications tend to be expensive, while the Internet-based resources are a cheap alternative (usually available online for free), and might raise children’s interest towards books in many different ways. Combining narrative possibilities and technological potentials can be more powerful in terms of access to information, sharing of work, differentiated and motivated learning models. However, there is a fundamental distinction (at least in terms of establishing good relationships with educators) between watching a fairy tale on monitors (static and passive approach or even by computer-based interactive mode) and listening to a live re-telling of it. 22 , 23 , 74

Didactic dimension of children’s literature

The didactic intention of narrative works was discovered on clay tablets in Sumerian and Babylonian texts, dated back many centuries before Aesop’s fables (successively put into Latin verses by Phaedrus). Myths initially transmitted orally became well-known throughout the Mediterranean area thanks to Greek manuscripts of Alexandrian scribes, who used them in their daily education activities. Also philosophers (i.e. Plato) introduced myths and fables in their academic lessons with students and disciples: the rules of grammar and style were learned through the stories, encouraging young scholars to create new ones. Fables of Aesop were considered as useful didactic means also in medieval schools to teach Latin and rhetoric. 1

Even today, children’s literature – as integral part of primary school curriculum – could be a significant experience in the lives of children, with fables and fairytales being used as motivating teaching tools in both humanistic and scientific disciplines. 38 - 40 Educators are aware that all creative and artistic activities, including literature – while entertaining listeners or readers – can play a fundamental role in improving students’ knowledge, but also in the acquisition of daily life skills, useful to cope with any problematic situations. 41

Childhood is a crucial stage for language development, 75 so it is important to make it a pleasing experience: reading or listening to stories could be a joyful way for language training, able to overcome all the possible learning barriers. 42 - 44 Thanks to the recurring narrative passages intrinsic in the fairy tales’ or fables, child is able to deal with some complicated concepts or patterns, which require more repetitions to be better interiorized. That’s why tales are a valuable resource in teaching foreign languages and improving language skills (writing, reading, speaking and listening). 45 The use of narrative in teaching foreign languages has been found to lower the level of anxiety, allowing students to take risks in the language classes, thanks to the familiarity with stories and the relaxing learning environment generated by storytelling. Therefore, telling or reading stories is a successful strategy to acquire grammar structures, syntax, new vocabulary, increasing oral/written competences, and therefore the ability to communicate effectively and successfully. 46

By reading or listening to stories, students enhance their verbal proficiency and learn to accurately express their thoughts and feelings in everyday relations, making practice of peace-making skills (i.e. negotiation and discussion). 47

Learning from stories can stimulate and offer promising insights in other areas of children’s cognitive development such as problem-solving and reasoning skills. 48 Educators should awaken children’s interest towards reading and, at the same time, encourage them to use imagination, finding themselves inside the story; once children become attached to their favourite characters, they can reproduce them while playing, following the time chain and cause-effect relation of narrated events, so that the educational message of the stories can be better interiorized. 5 , 49 Educators should also be aware about their own responsibility when selecting children’s books for didactic purposes (not necessarily following popular titles or “best sellers”), and read the stories in a caring and warm environment. 50 Storybooks are accessible to students of all ages and can be borrowed from libraries or friends, while digital storytelling can be easily and quickly found on the Internet, even for free. 51

Multicomponent narrative-based approaches integrate traditional tales or other specifically developed storybooks, with audio and video resources (including those available on the Internet), cartoons, animated films, puppets or scenic elements. 23 , 52 , 53 Theatre reading or dramatization of children’s literature can be used at school to overcome the risk of short attention span of schoolchildren, and when dealing with difficult textbooks. Reader’s theatre in the classroom involve students as actors as they were really acting on the stage, while the teacher is guiding the scene and giving suggestions to the characters. In a study investigating the impact of readers’ theatre over six weeks, students assigned to the theatre class showed significant progress in reading level, compared to a control group who received more traditional literary and vocabulary education. The readers’ theatre class presented better fluidity in reading and expression, enriched vocabulary, and increased motivation compared to the control group. 54 Finally, it can be said that storytelling activities (including reader’s theatre) in school setting represent innovative didactic experiences, capable to build up also health knowledge and promote students’ global wellbeing. 55 , 56

Therapeutic dimension of children’s literature

Children’s storybooks not only provide new knowledge – by enriching children’s vocabulary and enhancing their communication skills – but also ensure emotional support during problematic circumstances of the life. Encouraging children to overcome fears and inner conflicts, tales act as promoters for change, positively influencing their social behaviour. 57

When parents or teachers provide children with a book, they usually hope that they will absorb the moral values that it contains. 58 - 60 Actually, fairytales can produce positive effects on personality development, satisfying all psychological needs of the children such as contact, entertainment, and cognitive demand. In the Freudian perspective, assuming the absence of a well-defined superego and moral standards in childhood, fairytales are useful to show proper patterns of behaviours needed by children. 61

Children’s literature – as a form of artistic creativity – presents a therapeutic potential for readers and listeners, in the same way that Greek tragedy was able to “heal” the spectators. 62 , 63 In the vision of the cathartic role of literature, we can say that it may influence children through psychological mechanisms, primarily consisting in involvement, imitation, identification, insight and universalism. Story-tales could be used in school-setting for primary prevention programs with the ultimate goal of preventing risky behaviours among young people, thanks to the potential of creative and artistic means such as specifically-developed children’s storybooks. Actually, narrative-based approach as a teaching and learning strategy is omnipresent in the classrooms, but it is infrequently used to promote students’ health. 64

Literature, as well as other forms of art (music, dance, drama, drawing, painting etc.) can be used to empower and motivate children towards the adoption of healthy behaviours, contributing to the improvement of pupils’ quality of life. The educational properties of the stories allow young people to accept their own differences, while showing how the characters of the tale cope with difficulties, enabling readers to enter in a fantastic world of entertainment, and – at the story’s end – to come back into reality in a comfortable way. 65

The main goal of art therapy in education is the holistic human development, to be accomplished by working on imagination, curiosity, and creativity, which represent all the basic features to be preserved in children, along with the natural needs of joy and play. 66 , 67 Artistic activities present also the potential of breaking down cultural barriers, actively involving the most vulnerable and marginalized children, as assessed in a study examining the effect of a creative expression program designed to prevent emotional and behavioural problems in immigrant and refugee students attending multi-ethnic schools. 76 This vision has been already adopted by the famous violinist Menuhin and his Foundation, to help vulnerable and disadvantaged children by using music and other form of arts. 77

Within the broad umbrella of art therapy, we can find “library therapy”, which S.M. Crothers in 1916 has turned into the term “bibliotherapy”, characterized by the fact that the treatment is carried out by the means of literature, using books to foster individual emotional wellbeing. Understanding the principles and practices of bibliotherapy is essential for teachers and educators, working with children, who may take benefit from the exposure to reading materials related to their specific problems.

The “healing” potential of books was known since the time of the ancient Greece and even before: Ramses II in Egypt identified a group of books in his collection as “remedies for the soul”. Aristotle and other Greek philosophers believed that literature could deeply heal people, while the ancient Romans recognized the existence of a relationship between medicine and reading, with Aulo Cornelius Celso explicitly associating the reading with medical treatment. This attitude towards therapeutic opportunities of books was cultivated even in the Middle Age and Humanism/Renaissance times, but also in the late eighteenth century books were proposed as a remedy for different types of illnesses. Today, literature is somehow considered as psychological therapy, especially in childhood, and even as a cure for psychosomatic disorders. 6

In the therapeutic approach, bibliotherapy includes also discussion and reflection on the story’s topics that overlap with the individual needs and have an evocative function that relies on projection and identification mechanisms. Proper storybooks work as a strategy for attitudinal change and self-improvement, acting through a compensatory function in children who lack of positive experiences which are often missing in their family or community. 68 Therapeutic reading can also represent a form of prevention as the readers acquire a more flexible mind to recognize problems and eventually ask for help. There are books that address questions concerning physical appearance, emotions and character traits, family relationships, and socioeconomic problems. 69 Bibliotherapy can be also applied in the field of psychotherapy for the treatment of minor disorders, eating behaviours and some forms of addictions, from alcohol and tobacco to drugs and ludopathy. 7

Narrative medicine, an emerging discipline in healthcare field – which embraces medicine, psychoanalysis and literature – is used to overcome individual traumatic experiences. It helps patients and health professionals to tell and listen to the complex and unique stories of illness through an active approach (subjects are invited to compose poetic or literary pieces) or passive mode (consisting in reading already existing pieces). 70 , 71

Efficacy of narrative-based strategies to promote health and wellbeing in school setting

Health is defined by WHO Constitution as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing”. 78 WHO has demonstrated that many early deaths can be avoided if each stakeholder in the society takes its piece of responsibility in promoting healthy lifestyles. 79 Health promotion and prevention represent two sides of the same coin being both focused on proactively maintaining people healthy. 80 Primary prevention should start as early as possible and school has the opportunity to guide people since childhood on the right path towards healthy life. Actually, education and health are intertwined, and it is undoubtable that wellbeing has also a remarkable impact on students’ learning outcomes. School represents the ideal setting to convey proper contents about risk and protective factors 81 by using motivating approaches (including “teaching narratively”), able to capture the interest of pupils and generate a harmonic and non-competitive learning environment. 82 Narration can be regarded as an interesting way to trigger students’ motivation 82 and develop a “narrative thinking”, which is fundamental for every human experience, including learning and interiorization processes. 83 - 86 Specifically developed storybooks can foster children’s self-responsibility towards health and stimulate critical thinking about the consequences of adopting risky behaviours (i.e. unhealthy eating habits), thanks to psychological processes based on the identification with the characters of the stories. 17 Actually, children literature and storytelling have been proved to be effective in specifically conveying health knowledge: the persuasive effects of narrative engagement have been illustrated in many researches and reviews. 87 - 95 De Graaf et al have specifically performed a systematic review of 153 experimental studies on health-related narrative persuasion with a focus on the narrative characteristics as potential explanatory factors in the effectiveness to convey a health message. 87 , 88 The results showed that stories that presented a healthy behaviour were more often associated with effects on the intention to adopt it, and stories with high emotional content were usually more effective, as well as the use of a first or second-person perspective in the text. No differences were observed between the media used for the narrative intervention (book or video etc.), while the familiarity of the setting and the way of displaying the health message in the narrative was found to be a promising persuasive factor. 88 Shen and Han assessed 25 studies comparing narrative to non-narrative messages, showing a significant effect of narrative for primary prevention and detection of risky behaviours, but not for cessation of negative attitudes (e.g., quitting smoking). 89 Zebregs et al included 15 studies that recorded positive persuasive effects of narrative. 91 Braddock and Dillard metanalyzed 74 studies that compared narrative-based interventions to a control group that did not receive any relevant message. 92 Their results showed that, compared to a baseline zero-effect, narrative had positive effects on story-consistent beliefs, attitudes and intentions. By reviewing 45 studies, Tukachinsky et al concluded that engagement with the narrative and its characters was positively related to attitudes and intentions implied by the narrative itself. 93 Other authors have focused on the persuasive effects resulting from the “transportation” into a narrative world: when children read, they “enter” into tales and act out together with the characters. 94 Dahlstrom et al have shown that it is important to consider whether the persuasive message is integrated in the causal structure of the narrative or not. 95 Stories with two opponent main characters seem to have an impact on narrative persuasion in the context of social issues, while tales presenting a transition of the characters from unhealthy to healthy behaviour may be particularly beneficial. 90 Moreover, the content and form of the narrative - such as characters, events, and the setting of the story - are very important: characters can be more or less similar to the readers, thus producing a different persuasive effect. 96 , 97 A further dimension relevant to health-related “narrative persuasion” is the context of the presentation used in the narrative: an entertainment format where the reader is unaware that the narrative has a persuasive intention or a narrative frame in which the persuasive intent is more explicit. 98 - 100 In addition to narrative characteristics, variables related to target recipients – like the predisposition to become engaged in narratives and prior knowledge of the readers – as well as the environment/situation in which the story is narrated may increase or reduce the engagement and effectiveness of narrative-based interventions. 101 , 102 Most likely, the full process of persuasion is determined by the interaction of narrative, recipient and situational factors (such as noise in the environment) that can distract the student and decrease engagement. It should be emphasized that contents of the stories must be close to the children and the main character’s mental states needs to be as much as similar to the feelings of the child. Finally, it seems that multicomponent approaches including printed stories or tales told by a health educator in a face-to-face settings (i.e. live storytelling) can produce effects on beliefs, attitudes, intentions and even on the behaviours of recipients. 103

Oral and written tales are part of a collective memory, maintained from one generation to the next as an intangible cultural heritage for the transmission of moral values (i.e. Homer’s epic poems). As emphasized by the UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003, folktales play a dynamic role in bringing people closer together, thus ensuring knowledge exchange among different cultures and increasing the respect for others in a tolerant peaceful way.

At the start of 21st century, school system faces new challenges worldwide, pushing educators to display innovative strategies in order to motivate students and engage them in stimulating and “transformative” learning. 104 This perspective goes beyond the passive acquisition of knowledge, moving toward a more active, experiential and participatory approach to lifelong learning. 105 The adoption of cooperative practices into daily classroom activities can contribute to the enhancement of students’ wellbeing, lowering the competition and anxiety due to the pressure of success, currently detectable among schoolchildren. 80

To achieve these goals, narrative interventions may be considered as one of the possible strategies for teaching and learning because children’s stories create the comfortable atmosphere that is usually lacking in school setting. 5 , 106

Since ancient times, myths, legends, fables and fairytales have supported individuals to understand who they are as human beings and the world around them, allowing people to map the reality through the use of words and language. 107 , 108

From fairytales and fables – plenty of adventures, heroes, personified animals, enchanted forests and magical objects – children gain additional experiences, feelings and thoughts, learning to cope with inhibitions, vulnerability, and shyness. According to the psychoanalytical interpretation, children’s stories lead readers towards a deep level of consciousness, dealing with the fundamental human questions expressed in the language of symbols. Beyond its educational purposes, children’s literature can positively influence mental wellbeing, nurturing thoughts, feelings and behaviours of young generations. 63

Stories – as a kind of creative form of art – help children to fight (like the heroes) for good things and success in their life, satisfying their spirit of play, spreading good mood, with benefits on physical health, mental brightness and moral virtue. These latter represent the three dimensions of wellbeing – pillars for the integral growth of the child – in the perspective of building up the future mature and socially active man. 109

Children’s literature presents a strong pedagogical component and should be regarded as a real educational strategy with the potential of being incorporated into school curricula. Learning experiences carried out in a friendly school environment generate improvement of emotional health and better academic achievements 8 , 110 - 116 A properly chosen book stimulates children’s power of observation, reason, memory and imagination, broadening the range of experiences, compelling the readers to reflect on their behaviours, and find out possible solutions to their troubles while providing entertainment. A famous sentence of Albert Einstein was: “If you want your children to be intelligent, tell them fairytales; if you want your children to be more intelligent, tell them more fairy tales”. 117 Unfortunately, in today’s busy society, adults lack the time to talk with children, so that reading or telling stories could represent a great opportunity of constructive exchanges in the family and at school. 28

Multicomponent narrative-based approaches (storytelling, role-playing, games, post-reading activities) are able to satisfy children emotional needs, provide sensory input, increase attention span, and shape the aesthetic taste. 43 , 44 The power of listening and speaking is able to create artistic images and induce schoolchildren to produce their own stories or tales. This is well accomplished by introducing them to literature from early childhood, and ensuring them interesting, funny and attractive materials. Telling or reading a story is cheap, pleasing, inclusive, it can be used in any setting without special equipment except the imagination. 50 , 118 Moreover, it generates catharsis, resulting in reduced anxiety, better comfort, self-esteem, thus helping young people to cope with any adversity and improving communication of feelings.

According to Richard-Amato, 119 students find themselves in the characters or narration, and learn how to behave adequately while facing similar situations in the future life. 6 It happens that the child becomes aware about the topic of the story, unconsciously solves the problems, increasing self-confidence, with positive implications for personality development. 119 By developing the imagination and creativity, children can discover new ideas and increase personal motivation to achieve their objectives. Albert Einstein was used to say: “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant to me more than any talent for abstract or positive thinking”. 117

Finally, it can be considered also the contribution of literature to stimulate individual agency, applying the already acquired knowledge, to make the world more fit to human needs. 120 In this perspective, the Italian writer Leonardo Sciascia was used to say that if he did not believe that literature could produce a change, he wouldn’t have continued to write. 121

Stories are also able to convey health information about prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Several researches highlight the role of storytelling as a source of beneficial effects in primary prevention. Reading a storybook or listening to stories is helpful for children as it promotes pupils’ emotional expression and psychological wellbeing; it can be used to stimulate changes in young people lifestyles, encouraging them in practicing physical activity and reducing the consumption of sweets and soft-drinks, ultimately resulting in a measurable reduction of body mass index in specific cohorts. 122

Bibliotherapy facilitates behaviour´s externalization, promotes empathy and prosocial behaviours, and helps solving problems such as bullying and teasing, which represent common situations in every school. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of treating bullying through bibliotherapy, that can become an innovative approach to promote a respectful school environment. A huge amount of children’s stories has been used in order to prevent and give other perspectives on bullying, demonstrating that children’s books can serve as a useful channel of exchange between parents, teachers and children. An example for that is the Child Adolescent Teasing in Schools (CATS) book review project and website, where – after the exposure to a fictional story about teasing and bullying – children share their own experience and are guided to develop successful coping strategies against teasing and bullying occurring at school. 123

Children’s books have been also used to let students learn peaceful alternatives to the violence of modern society, focusing on conflicts prevention in the classroom and the way for overcoming the problem. 124 This has led to the creation of specific lists of books which help children to better understand and cope with some situations of discomfort such as traumatic stresses.

“Therapeutic libraries” have been established for paediatric patients or their families in hospital setting according to the vision that literature can help children to improve their quality of life, reducing stress and pain levels associated with the hospitalization process. 125

In a randomized trial, a combination of storybooks and workshop sessions have been successfully tested in primary prevention programs for anxiety management, showing a significant improvement in coping skills and perceived self-efficacy: every session was based on a story describing characters facing common stressors and how they deal with their daily problems. 126 It can be said also that children’s literature offers strategies to overcome the anxiety and the fear of the unknown, stimulating reflection and re-elaboration of personal criteria to be applied in real life. 127 Bibliotherapy is used in school setting (from primary to high school) to foster social and emotional growth, offering the opportunity to find a deeper understanding of self, solutions to personal problems and enhanced self-image. 128 , 129

Finally, as demonstrated by the worldwide success of self-help manuals, bibliotherapy could be a helpful resource to reduce unhealthy food habits for the prevention or treatment of obesity, as well as in supporting who want to quit smoking or other addictions both in young people and adults. 130 - 132

Limitations of this work are mainly due to the initial design of the study, representing an exploratory work that found few on-field experiences concerning the use of narrative-based strategies to promote health and wellbeing among schoolchildren. A future work, carefully planned as systematic review, could take advantage from the findings of this first attempt, in order to better refine a comprehensive search in scientific literature.

Children’s literature offers young people the possibility to acquire a system of values (educational role), to be engaged in motivating learning activities (didactic aspect), and to deal with inner conflicts and life difficulties (psychological value). Based on international evidence, children’s literature and specifically developed storybooks can encourage the adoption of healthy choices and represent a useful preventive tool to foster young people’s global wellbeing, helping them to better cope with emotional/social problems while proposing proper patterns of behaviours and conveying health contents. 133 - 136 Children’s literature is a helpful tool to “educate”, “teach” and “heal”, so that narration could be considered among the possible educational strategies which can be used for pedagogic, didactic and therapeutic applications in the promotion of children’s global development both at home and at school.

Implications for practice

This review indicates that children’s literature not only presents a strong pedagogical and didactic value, but it can also generate benefits for global development and wellbeing of young people. Moreover, children’s literature can be regarded as a flexible instrument that facilitates the transmission of health contents to the students, allowing teachers to become “health educators”. Narrative-based strategies have the potential to be integrated as useful approach in the school curricular activities to specifically convey health contents (at least in primary and secondary school). 135 , 136 Being able to impact emotional experiences and individual motivation, children’s literature should be considered as a powerful educational tool also for health professionals, who can take advantage from the use of stories to spread health information. Actually, narration is a “transformative” mean that can be useful – in the frame of educational contexts – especially for the prevention of obesity, risky behaviours and addictions (cigarette smoking, alcohol, drugs, bet). Finally, beyond the possibility to prevent future diseases at individual level, thanks to well-designed narrative-based interventions in school setting, children can become themselves “health promoters” and “inter-generational multipliers” of desirable effects by influencing in a positive way their families and community. In this perspective, the use of children’s literature to convey health contents and promote wellbeing in school children might represent an interesting instrument to foster collective health.

Ethical approval

This review did not need any formal approval from ethical committee.

Competing interests

There are no competing interests concerning this article. This research has been carried out in the frame of institutional activities of the PhD in “Human Relations Sciences” of Bari University and UNESCO Chair on Health Education and Sustainable Development, without receiving any external funding or economical support from third parties.

Authors’ contributions

MP, PP and SC have conceived, prepared, written, approved and revised the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to Prof. G. Mininni, Director of PhD Course in Human Relation Sciences at University of Bari “Aldo Moro”.

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Tools Of The Trade

Through the looking glass: how children's books have grown up.

Byrd Pinkerton

purpose of children's literature

Kindergarten students read before class starts at Walker-Jones Education Campus in Washington, D.C. Elissa Nadworny/NPR hide caption

Kindergarten students read before class starts at Walker-Jones Education Campus in Washington, D.C.

In Sarah Parrish's second-grade classroom, the colors are loud, but the kids are quiet.

It's Thursday morning. Her students sit at their desks, reading to themselves. Books about Ramona and Junie B. Jones. Mystery books, fantasy books ...

Marisa Sotelino has just finished Horse Diaries #3: Koda . She grins when asked about it, showing a mouthful of light green braces.

"It's interesting to see other people, or animals' point of view," she explains, "because, well, you can't be a different person."

Nearby, a boy named Alec Mahini talks about his love for fantasy books: "It makes me feel that I'm in the adventure kind of, like the narrator."

Their teacher thinks all these genres — fantasy, mystery, biography — are worth reading. "Any book that can hook their interest is wonderful," Parrish explains. "Because we want to encourage that reading. The fun and excitement of it — that kind of spark is really important."

It might seem totally obvious: Children should read fun, fantastical books in the classroom and outside of it, so they can learn to love to read. But it turns out that this particular view of children's books is relatively new.

American classrooms have had some form of children's books since the 17th century, but the books teachers have used, and the way they use them, have changed dramatically. For our Tools of the Trade series, we decided to go back to the beginning.

Chapter 1: Once upon a time (in the late 1600s), in a land far, far away (England), there lived a British philosopher named John Locke.

He's mostly remembered for his works of political theory. But for our purposes, let's focus on a short book he wrote in 1693 , called Some Thoughts Concerning Education.

Locke wanted to change education — and one of his big ideas was to make reading fun. The alphabet, he wrote, should be taught with dice games, and readers should start with "easy, pleasant" books, even books with pictures. These are not unusual ideas today, but they were relatively new in their time. The first widely printed picture book for kids — the Orbis Pictus -- had been published only a few decades before, in 1658.

As Locke put it, " ... 'tis usually long before Learners find any Use or Pleasure in reading which may tempt them to it."

The popular school books in Locke's time, like the American New England Primer , were not about storytelling. The Primer did have some pictures, but it was mostly tables of letters and syllables, used to help people learn to read the Bible.

As Locke's theories took hold, both in England and in the United States, they shaped many of the children's books that were published in the 1700s.

Take The History of Little Goody Two Shoes , from 1765. It sticks closely to Locke's educational model of making learning a game. Little Margery Meanwell , also known as Goody Two Shoes, grows up poor, but betters herself through charity and education. For most of the book, she goes around teaching spelling through games, as she does in this passage:

purpose of children's literature

An edition of the The New England Primer , from 1803. Rare Book and Special Collections Division/Library Of Congress hide caption

An edition of the The New England Primer , from 1803.

"The usual manner of spelling, or carrying on the game, as they called it, was this; supposed the word to be spelt was plumb pudding (and who can suppose better) the children were placed in a circle, and the first brought the letter p, the next l, the next u, the next m, the next b, and so on, until the whole was spelt; and if any one brought a wrong letter, he was to pay a fine, or play no more."

But even though Goody Two Shoes had a plot, it was not the kind of fantastical adventure we're familiar with today.

"Locke was very suspicious of anything that might be thought to escape the real," explains William Gleason, a professor of English at Princeton University who researches children's literature.

"It doesn't mean that there wasn't any fantasy," Gleason adds, "but the dominant strain — and particularly the strain that was educationally approved — was highly rationalized."

Chapter 2: Then, we fell down the rabbit hole.

Lewis Carroll published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865.

"It offers such an amazing imagined world of curiosity that it really kind of changes the game," says Gleason. Alice kicked off a whole series of books that focused on imagination — Peter Pan, Tom Sawyer, The Little Princess, The Secret Garden — books now considered staples of the "golden age" of children's literature.

Gleason says these books were part of a shifting sense of what childhood really meant. In the late 1800s, a child, or, at least, a middle-class Anglo-American child, was becoming less of an economic unit and more of an emotional one. Childhood was seen as a space of protected innocence.

So Alice embraced childhood curiosity and wonder, reinventing children's books. She did not, however, reinvent the American classroom.

purpose of children's literature

Alice attempting to play croquet using a flamingo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. John Tenniel - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Wikipedia Commons hide caption

Books like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn sold well, but they weren't really taught in schools. That's partly because they took an almost anti-educational stance. Huck, for the most part, doesn't go to school, and Alice's book smarts don't get her very far in Wonderland.

There may be another reason, though, that authors like Twain and Carroll didn't make it into classrooms. Seth Lerer argues that those books didn't align with a major purpose of U.S. education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the assimilation of immigrants.

Lerer studies children's literature at the University of California, San Diego. He points out a widely popular children's book from that time that did make it into schools: Hendrik van Loon's The Story of Mankind , an illustrated walk through the history of Western civilization. Its central themes are individualism and democratic participation — ideals that schools at that time were seeking to instill.

"The classroom," Lerer says, "is the educational Ellis Island for early 20th century America."

Chapter 3: The Russians are coming.

In the mid-20th century, the U.S. competition with the Soviet Union drove a re-evaluation of children's books in the classroom, according to Philip Nel, who studies children's literature at Kansas State University. Suddenly, the whole country was afraid that the U.S. was falling behind, and that education was to blame.

Rudolf Flesch's best-seller, Why Johnny Can't Read, and What You Can Do About It, and a piece in Life magazine titled Why Do Students Bog Down on First R? led the charge.

The Life article , by the journalist and author John Hersey, suggested that boring Dick and Jane readers were to blame for Americans' subpar literacy.

"Many children understandably prefer lurid comic books and television shows to insipid, goody-goody school readers," he wrote. "In bookstores, anyone can buy brighter, livelier books featuring strange and wonderful animals and children who behave naturally, i.e. sometimes misbehave."

So began the effort to make early readers that children might actually enjoy.

purpose of children's literature

An illustration of the shift from manpower to machine power in The Story of Mankind. Hendrik Willem van Loon /Ohio State University Library hide caption

The result?

The Cat in the Hat. Green Eggs and Ham. Are You My Mother? The Berenstain Bears. Go, Dog. Go!

Seuss and Sendak were unleashed in schools, and the shift away from morally improving, no-frills lessons that began with Alice a century earlier was complete.

Chapter 4: To The Hunger Games and beyond.

William Gleason, the Princeton professor, sees another shift taking place, slowly. A shift toward books that confront the complexity — and deep emotional challenges — that children and adolescents face. There's also been a growing move toward books that reflect the diversity of the current student population.

Books like Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, which deals very frankly with puberty, are a part of this shift. And young-adult dystopian books like the Hunger Games series, with its dark themes of violence and frustration, continue it.

"We're taking childhood anger and fear and anxiety seriously and turning it into powerful representation," Gleason says. "That is something different."

Correction May 10, 2016

A previous version of this story incorrectly gave Rudolf Flesch's first name as Irving.

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Children's Literature: A Very Short Introduction

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Children's Literature: A Very Short Introduction

(page 1) p. 1 Introduction: what is children's literature?

  • Published: October 2011
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Outside academia, the term ‘children's literature’ has a largely unproblematic, everyday meaning. From newspapers and other media to schools and in government documents, it is understood to refer to the materials written to be read by children and young people, published by children's publishers, and stocked and shelved in the children's and/or young adult (YA) sections of libraries and bookshops. Occasionally, questions are asked about whether something is suitable for a juvenile audience, a question usually provoked by concern about content – is it too sexually explicit? Too frightening? Too morally ambiguous? Sometimes questions of suitability reflect concerns about style – will grammatically incorrect or colloquial language or writing that includes swearing or abusive language or experimental writing counteract lessons taught in school or instil bad habits? More recently, as large numbers of adults have been reading books that were originally published as children's literature (the Harry Potter books, His Dark Materials , The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, The Book Thief, Persepolis ), there has been some debate about whether such books are suitable for adults, and if this kind of reading is a symptom of the dumbing down of culture. For the most part, however, what children's literature is, is taken for granted.

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Enjoying A Good Story: Why We Use Children’s Literature When Teaching Adults

  • Guest editorial
  • Published: 15 December 2010
  • Volume 39 , pages 1–5, ( 2011 )

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  • Nancy K. Freeman 1 ,
  • Stephanie Feeney 2 &
  • Eva Moravcik 3  

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Early childhood teacher educators frequently enhance their teaching by reading children’s books to their adult students. It is not unusual for faculty outside of early childhood to question devoting precious class time to read-alouds which they may consider a curious, if not frivolous, instructional strategy. Quality children’s literature can, however, enhance students’ experiences in the college classroom, contribute to their understanding of course content, promote their personal growth and self-understanding, increase their appreciation for quality children’s literature, and enhance their ability to integrate storybooks into their own teaching. Children’s books often capture a child’s point of view. They have the potential to provide historical or cultural perspectives on children and families. They also can lead to the examination of universal truths and can facilitate the discussion of sensitive or emotional issues A list of books with suggested uses is included.

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Do you love stories? Like most early childhood educators so do we. We regularly read children’s books to adults as part of the courses we teach, as well as at conference and in-service presentations. We have used picture books effectively with teachers at every stage of their professional development: beginning students who are being introduced to the profession, student teachers immersed in the everyday life of classrooms, and practicing teachers in the midst of their teaching careers. We have found the adult learners we work with love to be read to, and report that children’s books make meaningful and engaging contributions to their professional development. This enthusiastic reception to our reading makes it clear to us that many excellent children’s books succeed with multiple audiences, the children for whom they were written as well as adults.

When we have made conference presentations describing our success using children’s books when teaching adults we have discovered that we are not alone. Early childhood teacher educators often incorporate storybooks when they teach adults. One explanation for their attraction to children’s books may be that their work with children has demonstrated to them the power of quality children’s literature. We have also observed that reading children’s books aloud to adult students sometimes attracts curious stares or criticism from colleagues, even within colleges of education. They question our devoting precious class time to reading aloud which they consider a peculiar, if not frivolous, instructional strategy.

In this guest editorial we present our rationale for using children’s literature with adult learners and summarize feedback we have received corroborating the contributions children’s books have made to our teaching. We also identify some books we have used effectively with adult learners. It is our hope that teacher educators who use children’s literature with adults will find this discussion a re-affirming rationale if their use of children’s books has been questioned, and that those who have not experimented with incorporating children’s literature into their teaching may be inspired to try enjoying a good story with their college students.

Using Children’s Books When Teaching Adults

Our review of the literature revealed four purposes for the incorporation of children’s literature into pre-service and in-service teachers’ coursework. The reason that was most frequently mentioned was to enhance students’ cross-cultural competence. This effort was in response to the persistent mismatch between the teaching workforce, which is estimated to be 87% White, and the schools novice teachers are most likely to enter, where over 37% of the students are “culturally, linguistically, and ethnically different from the dominant U.S. culture” (Escamilla and Nathenson-Mejia 2003 , p. 238).

The second purpose involved using children’s literature to help prepare teachers to work in inclusive classrooms. These efforts were designed to help preservice teachers realize “the importance of being sensitive to those issues that are part of the lives of individuals with disabilities” (Kurtss and Gavigan 2008 , p. 28) and have helped their students “begin to move beyond sympathy for individuals with disabilities and recognize their strengths” (p. 26).

A third reason reported for using children’s books with preservice teachers was to prepare students to work with children and families going through divorce (Kramer 1996 ). A description of these efforts indicated teacher educators introduced their students to the use of bibliotherapy to “sensitize future teachers to the challenges faced by children and families” (p. 6).

Finally, Hansen and Zambo ( 2005 ) described the fourth purpose for using children’s picture books which was to supplement the required textbook in a child development course. They used quality children’s literature to “introduce theories, help students understand vocabulary and concepts, and to encourage students to make connections between everyday experiences with children and concepts” (p. 41). In this instance children’s literature was used to help students apply theories to characters in children’s books and, by extension, to the children they knew.

These examples put the spotlight on a number of contributions quality children’s literature can make to teacher educators’ efforts to prepare informed, reflective, and effective teachers. We have identified several additional benefits to the well-thought-out use of children’s books with teachers and prospective teachers.

Why We Use Children’s Literature When We Teach Adults

Our enthusiasm for using children’s picture books in our teaching grew naturally from our appreciation for a good story. It meshes with our goals for our own teaching as well as the goals we have for our students. How could we not share something we care so passionately about? We want our students to know and use good children’s literature. We want them to understand childhood and to be sensitive to the interests, enthusiasms, fears, and delights of children. We have identified these four ways our students benefit from our inclusion of children’s literature in our teaching.

First, reading picture books aloud enhances students’ experiences in the college classroom. It helps to create a nurturing and encouraging learning environment and contributes to the creation of classroom community. Additionally, it often serves as a positive, motivating experience in a higher-education setting that is all-too-often a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.

Second, sharing quality children’s literature enhances students’ learning about children and childhood. Good books have a capacity to capture a child’s viewpoint, experience, or sense of wonder. Adult students also benefit from experiencing first-hand how picture books can effectively use images, words, and rhythms to tap into their own, and their students’ multiple intelligences. Additionally, some books give us the opportunity to provide an historical perspective or cultural lens for understanding children and childhood. Books chosen to highlight historical or cultural perspectives can illustrate differences while serving as a springboard for examining universal truths about human nature, childhood, parenting, teaching, and learning. When used in this way, children’s literature serves as an accessible vehicle for raising difficult or sensitive issues and provides a safe space to address some of the important and potentially emotional issues that teachers of young children encounter in their work.

A third reason we include children’s literature in our early childhood courses is because the practice increases students’ knowledge of good literature; adds to their repertoire of favorite titles, authors, and illustrators; and models effective strategies for sharing literature with children. In fact, we have found that students invariably discover new favorites in our classes and often are motivated to learn more about the books, authors, and illustrators we share. We are intentional about preparing for reading and take care to model effective techniques for using a variety of genres and formats, including big books, that introduce, enrich, or summarize class content. One of our goals is to help students develop their skills in effectively sharing literature with children.

Finally, children’s books also contribute to our adult students’ personal growth and self understanding. The right book can broaden their horizons, bring rich memories to mind, and lead to “aha” insights that give them emotional connections to particular course content. We have observed that by increasing students’ knowledge of, and appreciation for, children’s literature we are helping them come to appreciate the timeless appeal of the classics, the “read it again” draw of well wrought literature – an antidote to the notion that children’s books are simply “cute” diversions for circle time. By helping them see the beauty and wisdom in children’s books we are also, by extension, enhancing their appreciation and enjoyment of all literature. They are having opportunities to experience the delights of well-crafted words and images that can evoke emotional, aesthetic and moral responses. It is our hope that our students will get into the habit of turning to literature to refresh and renew themselves as well as children, and that their teaching is richer because of having been in our classes.

Soliciting Students’ Voices

Reading children’s picture books to students enrolled in early childhood teacher preparation courses has always seemed worthwhile, but reading out loud takes a significant amount of class time. While we were fairly certain that reading children’s books was beneficial, we sought students’ feedback to see if they agreed and to learn about their perspectives. Their responses to an anonymous survey indicated that they too believed that quality children’s literature enhanced their experiences in our classrooms.

These comments are typical responses describing how sharing children’s books in class improved adult students’ overall experience:

“I think it is a wonderful idea to read children’s books to adults. You get such a different perspective.”

“I love it. It really helps and I enjoy being read to. Taking it out of the curriculum would be a mistake.”

Survey respondents also frequently described how the books read in class helped them master the course content while encouraging class discussions:

“The books helped aid class discussions and clarify topics.”

“The choice of books read in class was helpful with tying in the information that was being taught in lecture.”

“It was helpful to see a book about what we were learning. It’s a nice visual to go with the lecture.”

“Not only did [read-alouds] give me titles to add to my library, but they help me understand the material in a different way than a textbook.”

“The books were great examples of how we can apply what we learned in class in the classroom.”

“The literature made the class more interesting and I love the discussions.”

Students indicated that children’s books also helped them develop a richer understanding of children and childhood:

“[Reading books in class] allowed me to more clearly understand the way in which many young children perceive the world.”

“Sharing the literature helped me to get a visual understanding of the information discussed.”

“I really enjoyed the children’s literature we used in class because it gave specific examples that I believe will help me.”

They also expressed their appreciation for the contributions quality picture books can make to the curriculum and were enthusiastic about the opportunity to increase their repertoire of quality children’s literature:

“I feel that the more literature the better, especially at this time in the education program [most students are sophomores]. Students need to start getting introduced to a lot of books. One or two should be read a week.”

“I think now I feel I am more able to connect stories to life. Before I would just read to read or see pictures, now I know how to read to not just show children’s books, but reflect also.”

“It made me realize there is more to children’s literature than cute and fun books. Most have an underlying meaning…”

Other comments indicated that students were reaping additional benefits we had hoped would result from the time we spent on reading children’s books in class. Some students indicated the experience helped them see how books illustrate varied instructional strategies; others indicated they planned to include some of these books in their classroom libraries. A number of students saw how they could emulate our use of quality literature in their own classrooms.

A final comment summed up most students’ overall opinion of their experiences with hearing quality children’s books in their post-secondary classrooms, “You don’t have to be young to enjoy children’s literature.”

We have long believed time spent reading children’s picture books to students enrolled in early childhood courses was an effective way to enrich our teaching and students’ experiences and expand their learning. We have now heard the voices of some students indicating they also view this practice as beneficial and a worthwhile enhancement to lectures and other class presentations. We hope the rationale we have provided, along with the titles we suggest below, will encourage you to read to your adult students and to explain to any skeptics why you have included these carefully selected children’s books in your teaching repertoire.

Suggested Books for Use in Early Childhood Teacher Education

These are some of the books we have found to be effective teaching tools. You will probably find that this list includes titles and authors that are old friends. Perhaps you will see a new way to use them in your teaching by thinking about how they can illustrate child development, curriculum, working with families, or another topic you cover when you teach. Other books are likely to be unfamiliar. We hope this list will inspire you to explore some new titles and think about how they can enrich your work with pre-service and in-service teachers of young children.

The Early Childhood Profession

These titles spotlight the value of sticking to a hard task, address the role of the community/society in early childhood education, and illustrate the historical roots of early childhood education:

Teachers and Teaching

These are some of the books we have found effective in illustrating the impact of teachers, the importance of nurturing children, the value of reflective practice as you create your own teaching style, and the importance of accepting individual differences:

Child Development

Early childhood educators need to be experts in child development. These titles provide glimpses of particular aspects of development in ways that bring sometimes-abstract ideas to life:

Relationships and Guidance

One of the most important things children learn from early group experiences is how to get along with their classmates. These titles remind adults of some of the struggles and challenges children face as they form friendships and negotiate the inevitable bumps in the road they encounter along the way:

Observation and Assessment

Keen observation skills can help early childhood educators resist the tremendous pressure they face to assess children in inappropriate ways. Some of these titles highlight the importance of careful observation and others illustrate some of the dangers of inappropriate assessments:

Practicum/Lab

These titles remind the reader of the fears and reluctance children sometimes bring to the first days of school:

Early childhood educators have the opportunity to turn everyday events into meaningful curriculum for young children. These titles provide inspiration and have the potential to launch hands-on learning across the curriculum:

Working with Families

Developing positive working relationships with children’s families is an important part of an early childhood educator’s responsibilities. Some of these books celebrate parenthood, others illustrate diverse families, and there are titles here that are reminders of the challenges families face on a day-to-day basis:

Children with Special Needs

Children with special needs are children first, with their unique needs, interests, and abilities. These titles portray children with special needs in a positive light. The focus is on their gifts and abilities.

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USC Child Development and Research Center, University of South Carolina, USC CDRC Rm 225, 1530 Wheat Street, Columbia, SC, 29201, USA

Nancy K. Freeman

University of Hawaii, Portland, OR, USA

Stephanie Feeney

Honolulu Community College, Honolulu, HI, USA

Eva Moravcik

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Correspondence to Nancy K. Freeman .

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Freeman, N.K., Feeney, S. & Moravcik, E. Enjoying A Good Story: Why We Use Children’s Literature When Teaching Adults. Early Childhood Educ J 39 , 1–5 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-010-0439-4

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Published : 15 December 2010

Issue Date : April 2011

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-010-0439-4

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Date : August 5, 2020

Literature in early childhood is a critical part of a child’s education – and for more reasons than you might think. Access to a wide range of quality literature helps a small child to develop critical cognitive skills, an appreciation for their own culture and the cultures of others, the development of emotional intelligence and empathy, and the development of their personality and social skills. In essence, what your child reads in their early years helps to give them the tools necessary to become intelligent, thoughtful, successful people. 

Develop critical cognitive skills

Quality literature does not always tell the reader everything they need to know, and this allows young children to learn to evaluate and analyse the illustrations. Wordless picture books like those offered by Jeannie Baker or Aaron Becker are particularly effective stimuli for oral and written language. Young children can use the pictures to develop their own plots and dialogue. Conversations about these books between parents and their children or educators and children can develop, which offers a rich learning experience. This also helps to strengthen their cognitive function and language skills, and allows them to express themselves. 

Learn about their own cultural heritage and the cultures of others

Picture books like I’m Australian Too by Mem Fox or I Love Me by Sally Morgan provide a way for young children to learn about the multiculturalism of their own country, and the cultures of other people. Learning to appreciate their own culture and the cultures of others is a critical skill for young children to develop, as this aids in the development of their empathy skills. It’s also a necessary part of their social and personal development. It is especially critical in this instance that parents and educators carefully choose books written sensitively and don’t rely on cliché. Other books that are appropriate include Under the Love Umbrella by Davina Bell or Colour Me by Ezekiel Kwaymullina , or else this is a great resource for helping you to choose what to read to your child. 

Develop emotional intelligence

Reading quality literature is also a fabulous way to help young children develop emotional intelligence. Stories have awesome power when it comes to promoting emotional and moral development. Children’s literature is uniquely qualified to provide numerous moments of crisis when characters make decisions based on their own morals while contemplating the reasons for those decisions. This helps young children to think deeper about their own feelings, and to develop their own sense of morality. 

For more information on literacy in early childhood, this University of Melbourne article is especially helpful. For more articles on early literacy, visit May Gibbs’ informative site today!

Librarian Bec Right now, Librarian Bec’s hard at work at your local library, sharing a passion for reading with little people and big. Bec writes about inspiring little readers and embracing lovely literature.

purpose of children's literature

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  • Why children's literature is important to a child's development

The purposes of children's literature are varied: they play an important role in budding readers’ linguistic, social, emotional and intellectual development, not to mention the foundational development of their interpersonal relationships. Choosing what, when, and how to read to your little ones is therefore of greatest importance. We’re here to help you answer those questions! 

Language is central to human development. For the first three years of their lives, children are especially susceptible to external forces they encounter every day in their development of language – in most cases, this means parents, guardians, and other people they see often. Of course, language practice starts with the foundational basics, but reading books to your children from as early as possible has many long-term positive benefits too. While they might not – just yet! – understand every word, it is still the perfect opportunity to bond with them, all the while modelling language practices via reading. 

Reading regularly with children from a young age stimulates patterns of brain development and strengthens parent-child relationships. This, in turn, builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that will set them up for life. Not to mention, they do as we do, not as we say, so observing adults reading books around or to them from an early age is likely to create young book lovers further down the line. This is where children’s literature comes in! 

When should I read to children?

It’s never too early to start! Research has found that reading to your baby in the womb promotes brain activity and can promote early literacy skills and language development – isn’t that amazing? So while reading to your unborn child might feel a touch too much, it actually has the potential to help them register language – and your voice – better from an early age. The roots of language are developing in a baby's brain even before they can talk. Therefore, it’s best to get into the habit of reading something every day with your little one, from the moment you know they’re there, and of course even more so once they’re here. 

Whether you like to incorporate reading books into your children’s night time routines, morning calm, or as part of a fun-filled day, they will hugely benefit from “reading books with you” from a very young age. Not only in their language development and future love of reading, but in their connection to you too. 

How should I read to children?

Now, you might be thinking, “I know how to read!” But reading as a solitary, individual, quiet activity is different from reading together with a young one, aiding their language development. There are a couple of things that you can do to ensure that you both get the most out of your time with your noses in books. 

Set yourself up for success by finding a comfortable space to read together

This might sound obvious, but creating a routine around reading builds anticipation and a sense of safety required for calm, focussed reading. Whether that’s in an armchair before going to sleep, in the garden after lunch, or on public transport on the way to the park, structured routines set you up for success in the long run.

Make reading a two-way conversation 

While reading to children might be about reader and listener, reading with children will ensure that your little ones get the most enjoyment and benefits out of the experience. Make sure you ask questions about the story, the characters, and talk about their relationship to real life. This can be as easy as asking what colour a flower is in a book versus out in the garden, or using a character’s experience – say, with sharing – to talk about instances where your little one might’ve had to share something of theirs. The more they are part of the “storytelling”, the more they’ll feel like a contributing, equal family member not just in reading, but otherwise too. Not to mention the many language and cognitive benefits of this practice! 

Use different voices for different characters 

When you read a book aloud, try becoming all of those characters. By giving book characters relevant traits – sadness, anger, excitement – through your acting, you help your children arrive at an understanding between words and their meanings much quicker. Not to mention, it makes reading so much more fun!

What should I read to children?

Ah, the most important question of all. Selecting books to read to children can be difficult – where to even begin? With millions of children’s books already on the market and an incredible amount being published every month, we can see how easy it is to get lost in options. Naturally, the older your children are, the more readily they can express interests and likes: this is the point where book selection becomes easier, as you can cater to their budding preferences. Before that, there are a couple of pointers we think are handy to follow. 

Reading with babies

First off, we recommend starting their book journey with black and white, high contrast board books. For the first couple of months of their lives, babies' colour perception is limited, and the world is still a little blurry. 

Black and white books give them the opportunity to start to experience shapes and patterns from the wider world and help them begin to learn to focus , whilst also providing gentle entertainment and stimulation.

As they grow and begin to show more interest in their surroundings, it's time to graduate to simple board and picture books. What you want to look for are lines that rhyme, interactive elements, sounds to try and mimic together, and repetitive actions. The best children’s literature inspire curiosity and engagement with the content, all the while supporting kids in their development of imagination, empathy, and relation. 

To the library we go!

Once your children begin to take more of an active part in reading and they show more and more of an understanding of the content, the world becomes your oyster! There are hundreds and hundreds of books on any topic imaginable, but if you don’t want to spend a fortune on keeping up with their curiosity, we recommend becoming a member at your local library. Libraries are a wonderful place to introduce children to books and other materials, to join a wide range of programs, activities, and events, but also to find your own bookish community as a parent or guardian. Check out the most amazing benefits of visiting the library here!

Diverse children’s books

Another important element to consider is the diversity of books you expose your kids to. The types of books we are familiar with shape the way we view the world. Especially when we’re younger, these influences can have long-lasting effects – which is why you should consider diversity in children's literature when picking books for them. And if you’re new to the world of diverse children’s books, fear not! Click here to read more about how – and what – diverse books should be a part of your family life.

The purpose of children’s literature 

At the end of the day, parents and adults play an important role in supporting children’s experiences with language and eventually literature, and the sooner you begin, the better their relationship with words will be. Talking and reading to and with them from an early age and introducing books in all shapes and forms can all aid them in the development of early reading skills for later, not to mention a love of storytelling and a deeper connection with you as a parent or adult. It is no wonder then that children’s literature is very important for a child’s development, and choosing when, what, and how to read greatly influences their cognitive and emotional growth. 

The purpose of children’s literature is to aid them on this developmental journey, and to equip them with the empathy, understanding, and critical thinking skills required for a happy, successful life in the wider world. 

Want to take your child’s love of words to a new level? Check out the best children's literature festival in Australia! 

Influence of the Digital Age

History of children’s literature.

There have been many changes related to the publishing of literature for children since the beginning of the 17th century when the only books published for children were school books to teach them the alphabet and spelling, as well as morals, manners, and religion. At that time, the content of school books was influenced by Puritan beliefs that children were inclined to evil and needed to be taught morals. However, during this time, cheaply published books called chapbooks containing popular stories and tales also began to be produced and sold. Since these books did not contain strictly moral stories, they were often criticized for departing from Puritan beliefs (Gangi, 2004). Puritanical thinking eventually gave way to the Enlightenment ideals characterized by the philosophy of John Locke, which marked a shift in the view of children to that of a “blank slate” that could be written upon. During this time, moral tales and fables were still published, but more light-hearted books featuring word play, riddles, rhymes, and games began to appear in children’s books as well. Children’s books also borrowed stories originally written for adults, such as Gulliver’s Travels , Ivanhoe , and Robinson Crusoe .

Before the 17th century, children were seen as small adults; however, during the Enlightenment and Romantic periods, childhood was viewed as a time of innocence that was distinct from adolescence (young adulthood) and adulthood (Avery & Kinnell, 1995). These changes in viewpoints created a new market for the writing and publishing of books specifically for children, who were seen as innocent and playful beings rather than mini-adults. During the 18th century, John Newbery, a writer of children’s books, greatly influenced children’s literature by starting the first publishing house dedicated to children’s stories. He published his own stories, as well as the works of other children’s book authors (Gangi, 2004). The idea of a publishing house just for children’s stories reflected a shift in how society thought of children. During the 19th century, greater numbers of books were written for children’s play and enjoyment, including the first picture book, which was written by Randolph Caldecott. 1

This early history of children’s literature illustrates how societal changes influenced writers and book publishers to create and produce books specifically for children. As a market for children’s literature had become firmly established in the 18th and 19th centuries, changes in children’s literature in the 20th century were related to the content of books. For example, the period between World War I and World War II showed a proliferation of books depicting idealism and a pioneering spirit, such as the showcasing of small town life in the Little House on the Prairie series published between 1932 and 1943 by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1971). However, stories from this time period still included some serious and realistic writing, such as the simplicity and down-to-earth style of Margaret Wise Brown’s work for young children, or the realities and hardships of life depicted in stories like Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (1945) that shared the struggles of a poor, working farm girl (Hunt, 1995). 2

The emergence of more realistic stories preceded the onset of a major shift toward realism that accompanied the social and political revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Between the 1930s and 1950s, writers became more willing to address topics related to societal issues and hardships, such as struggles associated with poverty; however, in the 1960s and 1970s, a flood of children’s books emerged centering on realism. Authors such as Beverly Clearly, Judy Blume and Paul Zindel wrote about growing up, death, obesity, and other issues, which marked a shift in the boundaries of what was acceptable, and arguably, even necessary for children to understand. These earlier authors paved the way for the writing of M. E. Kerr, Cynthia Voigt, and Robert Cormier, who wrote about homelessness, race, and sexuality. The realism of children’s literature in the 1960s and 1970s represented a radical shift at that time, similar to many of the other shifts throughout history related to historical, political, and societal influences.

1: John Newbery and Randolph Caldecott are recognized for their contributions to children’s literature through the Newbery Medal and Caldecott Medal, which are awarded to the most distinguished authors and illustrators in American children’s literature. Return

2: Margaret Wise Brown is most known for writing Goodnight Moon (2006) and has also written over one hundred books for children, including The Runaway Bunny (2006) and The Little Island (1993). These books artfully share big ideas, such as testing a mother’s unconditional love or discovering how all things on earth are connected. Return

Vanguard

The importance of children’s literature

  • Brie Barbee
  • June 1, 2015

The books that we give our children to read are incredibly important, perhaps even more important than anything we will ever read as adults. From the very first books that we learn to read (or that our parents read out loud to us), we are setting a foundation for the way we will think and read into our adulthood.

If a book is bad, it will influence (however subtlety) the way we view the world and the books that we will pick up in the future. If the book is really, really bad, it has the potential to turn young readers off of books altogether.

However, despite all the reasons why we should pay close attention to the books we give our children, people are quick to dismiss children’s literature in many ways, simply because the books are marketed toward children. It doesn’t seem like such a big deal if the characters in a children’s book aren’t fully developed or make decisions outside of their character, because children aren’t likely to know the difference.

A young reader isn’t likely to be able to tell if a book is poorly written, includes badly thought-out characters or moral ambiguity, at least not on a conscious level. As long as the book isn’t obviously inappropriate or full of curse words, why should we care?

Some might argue that we shouldn’t be worrying so much about children’s books because kids are smart. It’s not too difficult to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong, and some people would even suggest that a bit of darkness or ambiguity in a child’s book is what makes them more interested in reading.

Children aren’t stupid, but they are still learning the ways of their native language and the society that they live in. Just because they are capable of learning a lot, doesn’t mean we should try to trick them into learning something incorrectly.

Early last year, Patrick Rothfuss—perhaps better known as the author of The Kingkiller Chronicles —posted a review of Roald Dahl’s children’s book Esio Trot . For those of you interested, you can find the review on his Goodreads profile.

In his review, Rothfuss points out that the main character of the book, Mr. Hoppy, tricks his neighbor, Mrs. Silver, into marrying him after he’s also tricked her into getting rid of her beloved pet tortoise of 11 years. This doesn’t even touch on the fact that Mrs. Silver, the only woman in the novel, is a complete idiot. Doesn’t seem like a good example for children, now does it?

While Rothfuss might have gone a bit over the top in his review, he brings up a very valid point regarding children’s literature. The type of literature that fills our children’s heads with is just as important as the food that fills their growing bellies.

Even if the contents of Esio Trot aren’t inherently inappropriate, they do not set a good example for children. We shouldn’t be teaching our children that it’s okay to trick or lie to the people that we love, no matter the circumstances.

Roald Dahl’s book isn’t the only children’s book recently to garner criticism. From Little Zizi by Stéphane Poulin, which tells the story of a young boy who is bullied because of the size of his zizi (aka his penis), to My Beautiful Mommy by Dr. Michael Salzhauer, which follows the story of a young girl’s mother who elects to have plastic surgery, there are plenty of children’s books out there that are sending the wrong message to readers.

Books geared toward children should encourage learning and further interest into more difficult books, not bombard children with situations or ideas that they aren’t capable of handling at such a young age.

We should be putting just as much effort (or perhaps even more) into children’s book that we put into traditional literature. If children are supposedly the future, then we should be providing them with the very best books out there, books that will make kids want to read, encourage critical thinking and provide worthy examples of literature for all those young readers out there.

Children’s books shouldn’t be dumbed down or only talk about positive subjects, either. A lot can be learned from the occasional dark or uncomfortable situation in a child’s book. However, there is fine line between a potential learning opportunity and a situation that encourages unhealthy attitudes or actions.

Just because kids might not notice the books they are reading aren’t perfect doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and make them that way.

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Thank you for this post; I just found it! I totally agree and thank you for your bravery in posting it in a time when so many children’s writers, editors and publishers believe that most anything is okay in picture books. Would you mind if I post this on Instagram, giving credit to you, of course?

Sure! Tag us at @psuvanguard !

I love that you mentioned that how treat children will surely affect them in the future. One of the things I’d like to make sure of as a parent is that my son learns about his faith at an early age. As such, I think it would be best to buy a Christian fantasy children’s book for him.

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  1. Purpose of Children's Literature by Jessica Frances

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  2. What is children’s literature.ppt

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  3. (PDF) Children's Literature

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  4. CHILDREN LITERATURE

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  5. Children’s literature

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  6. Reading Children’s Literature: A Critical Introduction

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COMMENTS

  1. Children's literature

    What is children's literature? How did children's literature start in England? What was the first picture book in children's literature? Do adults read children's literature?

  2. The importance of children's literature

    Children's literature promotes the child in its developmental and socialization process, and in this phase the child's interests are related to sound, rhythm, individualized scenes, books with few texts, many prints and rhymes, dealing with animals and known objects and scenes familiar to the world of children.

  3. Why Do Kids Need Books?

    Books help kids develop basic language skills and profoundly expand their vocabularies —much more than any other media. Books are interactive; they demand that kids think. Fiction and nonfiction books widen our consciousness. They give us new ways to think and new ideas.

  4. Once upon a time: a brief history of children's literature

    Desiderius Erasmus famously produced a book of etiquette in Latin, On Civility in Children (1530), which gave much useful advice, including "don't wipe your nose on your sleeve" and "To fidget...

  5. The Value of Children's Literature

    Children's literature is important because it provides students with opportunities to respond to literature; it gives students appreciation about their own cultural heritage as well as those of others; it helps students develop emotional intelligence and creativity; it nurtures growth and development of the student's personality and social skill...

  6. Children's literature to promote students' global development and

    It is known that stories - by reproducing fictional situations that match with children's real problems - allow them to feel comfortable and safe in difficult circumstances, ensuring emotional security and providing healthier ways to deal with internal struggles, life adversities and stressors. 7 Story-tales compensate what young people may lack...

  7. The History Of Children's Books : NPR Ed : NPR

    It might seem totally obvious: Children should read fun, fantastical books in the classroom and outside of it, so they can learn to love to read. But it turns out that this particular view of...

  8. Children's literature

    Some general features and forces The discovery of the child A self-aware literature flows from a recognition of its proper subject matter. The proper subject matter of children's literature, apart from informational or didactic works, is children.

  9. Children's literature

    Children's literature can be traced to traditional stories like fairy tales, that have only been identified as children's literature in the eighteenth century, and songs, part of a wider oral tradition, that adults shared with children before publishing existed.

  10. Introduction: what is children's literature?

    From newspapers and other media to schools and in government documents, it is understood to refer to the materials written to be read by children and young people, published by children's publishers, and stocked and shelved in the children's and/or young adult (YA) sections of libraries and bookshops.

  11. Children's Literature

    What is the purpose of children's literature? The purposes of children's literature have changed over time. Though children's literature was originally composed primarily to instruct...

  12. Enjoying A Good Story: Why We Use Children's Literature ...

    Children's books often capture a child's point of view. They have the potential to provide historical or cultural perspectives on children and families. They also can lead to the examination of universal truths and can facilitate the discussion of sensitive or emotional issues A list of books with suggested uses is included. Do you love stories?

  13. The Purpose of Literature

    - The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance The Purpose of Literature - and Who Cares? A speech delivered by Natalie Babbitt for the Ann Carroll Moore Lecture at the New York Public Library, 1989.

  14. Literature in Early Childhood

    Children's literature is uniquely qualified to provide numerous moments of crisis when characters make decisions based on their own morals while contemplating the reasons for those decisions. This helps young children to think deeper about their own feelings, and to develop their own sense of morality.

  15. The importance of children's literature

    The purposes of children's literature are varied: they play an important role in budding readers' linguistic, social, emotional and intellectual development, not to mention the foundational development of their interpersonal relationships. Choosing what, when, and how to read to your little ones is therefore of greatest importance.

  16. PDF Thinking through Children's Literature in the Classroom

    Children's books have to start with visual stimuli and gradually increase the verbal components—again this is obvious. It is interesting that, despite the recession, in several countries children's book publishing is enjoying great success, partly in the wake of the phenomenon of Harry

  17. Scholarly Resources

    Research on Diversity in Youth Literature. Catalog listings for children's literature scholarly journals compiled by Wally Hastings. Children's Literature Association Quarterly. Children's Literature (annual journal of the ChLA) Children's Literature in Education. The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.

  18. History of Children's Literature

    There have been many changes related to the publishing of literature for children since the beginning of the 17th century when the only books published for children were school books to teach them the alphabet and spelling, as well as morals, manners, and religion.

  19. Author's Purpose in Children's Literature

    The purpose of the text is to persuade the reader to try new things. Readers should be cautious, however, of author's biases when reading persuasive pieces. Persuasive writers develop logical...

  20. The importance of children's literature

    The type of literature that fills our children's heads with is just as important as the food that fills their growing bellies. Even if the contents of Esio Trot aren't inherently inappropriate, they do not set a good example for children. We shouldn't be teaching our children that it's okay to trick or lie to the people that we love, no ...

  21. Children's literature its purpose and use

    Literature greatly satisfies the psychological needs ofsecurity and adventure by providing an atmosphere of joyful living which is an essential requirement for security and by giving full play to the imagination of children in regard to adventurous undertakings.

  22. Purpose of Children's Literature by Jessica Frances

    18) "A Role for Children's Literature" by Michelle Ann Abate states, "the tone and content of children's literature did experience a transformation in the 1960s and 1970s. Fueled by societal beliefs that adults ought to be more honest and open with children, new narratives began pushing the boundaries of acceptable themes and suitable subject ...