Final Conclusion to Children's Literature

Before taking this course in Children's Literature, it had never really occurred to me that there are 'bad' children's books and 'good' children's books to be blunt. As a child, I only read and remembered the books I really enjoyed and now looking back, I am able to understand why those books stood out to me in my younger years. The illustrations have always been an important factor to me and even now, I love looking at the work in children's book. Through this assignment, I have reevaluated books I loved as a child and even ones that I did not particularly enjoy. This course has even helped me reevaluated children's movies and rethink their quality. It is easy to say a book is a good one for young children if it is popular and recommended to you; but I now know that is not the correct way to critique a book. Being a future Early Childhood Educator, I will need to have many different genres of books available to my students; not just books I like or enjoy reading. While that may seem like a simple task, making sure a book is appropriate and beneficial for a classroom requires evaluation of the book. Due to the blogg assignment, I know now know how much time and thought it takes to correctly evaluate children's literature.

As a young child reading a book, you do not really notice if the book is biased, politically incorrect, or scientifically correct. It is the responsibility of the teacher to make sure all of the literature being offered to students is beneficial to their education in one way or another. If a book is biased and it is put into a classroom, then that should be something that is discussed with the students. Characters that are marginalized can provide a good lesson to any age even if it not quality literature. Students should be aware of such social issues and given a wide perspective. All of the old Disney princesses were mainly Caucasian and needed to be rescued by a 'prince'. What does this say to young girls? That to be princess you must be white and since you are a girl you must depend on a man? This should not be the case. Young girls do not benefit from this lesson but since they are popular stories, many people assume they are quality children's literature. I know now this is not true by any means. I am not saying that these books should not be provided for children to read, but there should also be book that have stories that contradict that stereotyping. There are plenty of books with princesses that are not Caucasian and do not need to be rescued by a prince. By reading a classic folktale like Cinderella and two different multicultural and international variations of it, I was able to explore and analyze different ways to bring the same story into my classroom without bringing the stereotype. Adelita by Tomie dePaola is a perfect example of the classic Cinderella story told through a different culture. Young children need to be exposed instead of sheltered and by offering a large variety of text and opening it up for discussion is the perfect way to begin exposing young children to issues of social justice.

The illustrations in children's literature, what captured my attention as a young child, are an extremely important aspect. The illustrations tell half if not the majority of the story and if they are done well, the reader should be able to follow the story just by looking at the illustrations. The illustrations should bring life to the text, establish the setting of the story, and reinforce the emotions of the characters. Going into this course, I though Eric Carle was my favorite illustrator, but now there countless authors and illustrators I have come to love. While Eric Carle is still one of my top, I was overly surprised to find out that some of the information in his books was not scientifically correct. For instance, in the book Hungry Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, he calls the chrysalis a cocoon which is what moths use, not butterflies. Going through all of the different children's books, it was interesting to see the variations in the quality of the illustrations. Some were bright and colorful while other were dull and boring. A few times, the illustrations were too over done and took away from the text while at other times, the illustrations fell short and did not support the text enough.

The quality of children's literature is something I have never given much thought to before now. To realize that there were many different books I enjoyed as a child that are not even in publication today is surprising but also makes sense. There are numerous options for children's books and simple because they are being published and sold does not mean they are worth while or even good books. By looking at books that have stood the test of time and those that will obviously fadeout, I am stumped by the fact that so many poor quality children's books are even published! I will be surprised if anyone can find a Dora the Explorer book within the next 5 years or so being sold in a bookstore. Children need a variety of genres of books brought into their environment to help enrich their literacy exposure. Even though I many not have enjoyed informational text as a young child, I now see their importance in a classroom and will make sure I have them in mine.

Rapunzel : Traditional Fantasy

The book Rapunzel by Paul Zelinsky is a classic story that many know. An older couple finds themselves expecting a child. The mother forms an overpowering craving for rapunzel which is a herb. To satisfy his wife, the father finds rapunzel for her to eat. The problem is that the rapunzel is growing in the garden of a sorceress and the father has to steal the rapunzel. One night, the father is caught by the sorceress stealing her herb. To spare his life and to allow him to have the rapunzel, the sorceress makes him promise he will give her the baby once it is born. The father agrees to save his life and the life of his wife. Once the baby is born, she is given to the sorceress and named Rapunzel after the herb. Rapunzel is cared for and raised by the sorceress until she turns 12. Once she becomes 12, the sorceress locks her in a tower with no entrance except to climb up Rapunzel's hair. This is where Rapunzel stayed, lonely and isolated with the sorceress being her only visitor. One day, the prince was out riding when he came across the tower and over heard the sorceress say "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair." He watched as the sorceress then proceeded to climb up Rapunzel's hair and into the tower. Later, the prince came back and called for Rapunzel to let down her hair. When he climbed up, they fell in love at first sight. They decide to run away so that Rapunzel can be out of the tower and they can be together.

I have always liked this story as a child and Zenlinsky really makes the story come to life with his illustrations. In 1998, he won the Caldecott Medal for this book. The main issue I have with this story is that the main character is helpless to help herself. She must depend on others to live and on the prince to escape her tower. This doesn't really send a good message to young girls and if read in a classroom, I would bring in another story where the girl is the heroin and saves herself. It is still a fun story though that children enjoy hearing and would make a good read aloud.

Zelinsky, Paul (1997). Rapunzel. New York, NY: Dutton Juvenile.

Cinderella: "Classic Folktale

This version of Cinderella sticks to the traditional story I remember from my childhood with a few different additives. What caught my eye about K.Y. Craft's book Cinderella was the illustrations. I looked through the book countless times before actually reading the text. Craft makes this story fit the princess ideal every little girl has through her incredible paintings. The style of the illustrations is based off of artwork from France during the 17th century. The color and detail was the best I have seen yet in any of the children's books I have read. The boarders are even decorated with detail and color. Each illustration told the story and more for me since I am a very visual learner.

The text of this book maybe a little difficult for children depending on what grade it is brought into. I think I would use this book as a read aloud for all grades under 2nd or 3rd. By the 2nd grade, some students maybe able to read some of the book on their own but I still think they would need assistance. Even still, I think this would be a great book to have available for children of any age to look through. They can make up their own version of Cinderella to go along with the illustrations. The text is close to being as detailed as the illustrations and made the story seem like the perfect fairytale to me. In Craft's version, Cinderella lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters after her father dies. She does all of the chores and house work and is mistreated. Cinderella finds a bird in the woods that she ends up nursing back to health. While in the woulds, this is where she first meets the Prince. The bluebird ends up turning into her fairy godmother. For the balls (there are two in this version) the fairy godmother turns the pumpkin into a carriage for Cinderella and mice into coachmen so that she may attend. It is after the second ball, Cinderella loses the glass slipper. When it is returned to her by the prince, he remembers her from their first encounter in the woods. The one thing I did not like about the text in this book was that the stepsisters were forgiven in the end. I think that is a bit to soft. Children like stories where the bad guys get punished and instead, Cinderella kind of just lets them off. While Craft herself has won numerous awards for her art work, I did not find any that were specific to this book.

Craft, K. Y. (2000). Cinderella. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

Pancakes for Breakfast: Wordless Book

The book Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola is a fun story for children to follow through. There are only two pages that have text in them and that is the page with the recipe for pancakes and the page where the old lady is eating pancakes and there is a sign behind her that reads "If at first you don't succeed. Try, try again." The pictures in this book tell the story of an older lady that wakes up in the morning and decides that she wants to make pancakes for breakfast. She gets out the recipe, figures out what she needs and finds all of the ingredients. Once she has pulled out all of the items she needs, she leaves the room for a minute of so. While she is gone, her dog knocked everything on the floor and she does not have what she needs to make the pancakes. She smells pancakes being cooked at her neighbors. So she goes over to her neighbors house and in the end, she gets to eat pancakes at her neighbors.

Even though this book did not have any text that directed the story, the illustrations made the story line clear as day. Tomie dePaola is an incredible artist and the colors and emotions he puts into his illustrations are incredible. Text is not needed to follow his story and young children are able to 'read' on their own with this book. I like the illustrations because of their quality. As a child, I paid more attention to the pictures even if i could read the text because the pictures held more meaning to me. I think this is a great book for young children to learn left to right progression of a book and prepare for more advanced books with text. I was not able to find any awards this book won.

dePaola, Tomie (1978). Pancakes for Breakfast. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace & Co.

The Counting Story: Counting Book

The book Counting Story by Rolando Merino was created by him and his son, Tommy. It is an electronic book that has the readers be enter active. This book introduces numbers and gives the reading something fun to connect the numbers too. For number one, there is a pink bunny to the side waving and it say, "One rabbit waves Hello." For the number two, it says, "These two rabbits hop and hop" with an animation of two pink rabbits hopping on the side. The number three has rabbits the hop out of a hole, the number four has four rabbits eating carrots, the number five has five bunnies sitting on a log, the number six has rabbits hopping and flipping, the number seven has seven bunnies swinging on a swing, the number eight has eight bunnies coming out of a hat, the number nine has nine bunnies taking a bath, the number ten has ten bunnies brushing their teeth, and the number eleven has eleven bunnies sleeping in their bed. On each page, along with the text, there is the number written and the animation of the bunnies performing the activity described in the text.
This book was a surprise find for me but I really like it. It is something that can be brought into the classroom to help young students become familiar with numbers while using technology. The animations make the book fun and interactive. A teacher can read the text to the students if they are too young to read on their own while they watch the animations of the bunnies on the side. I think it is good to bring in non traditional books to the classroom and this is perfect example. With the amount of technology in our society today, young children need to be familiar with it and how it can be used educationally and not just for entertainment. The book can be read at http://www.magickeys.com/books/count/page1.html

Merino, Rolando (1998). The Counting Story. http://www.magickeys.com/books/count/index.html.

Finding Susie: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

The book Finding Susie by Sandra Day O'Connor is a book about a little girl that really wants a pet and lives on a ranch. Living in the desert and living on a ranch, she is surrounded by animals but does not have any that she can bring into her house and call a pet. For her first pet, she finds a tortoise and names it Hercules. Sandra, the little girl, keeps Hercules for a while and decides that he is not friendly enough and not a good pet. She realizes that Hercules should be back in the wild with his family and so she and her father take him back into the desert where they found him. The next animal she finds and tries to keep as a pet is a rabbit. She names the rabbit Daisy and is able to even bring Daisy into the house at times. But soon it is clear that Daisy is too fearful to be a good pet and so she and her father took Daisy down to the bushes by the windmill and she hopped away without even a backwards look. The third pet she tries is a coyote that was caught in a trap on the ranch. They took the coyote out of the trap and brought it up to the house in a cage to allow its leg to heal. Sandra tried to turn the coyote into a pet and named him Slim Pickins. No matter how hard she tried, Slim Pickins did not want anything to do with humans and so they took Slim Pickins back into the wild and let him go. The fourth animal she tried to turn into a pet was a baby bobcat and Sandra named him Bob. Bob was good pet until he grew up and became possessive of food and scared Sandra. Two years later after Bob was fully grown, he left in the middle of the night. The last pet that Sandra gets in a dog, and she names the dog Susie. Susie turned out to be everything Sandra was looking for in a pet and she fell in love with Susie and Susie lover her back.

This book is really cute and it great for a young child when they are wanting a pet. Many times, children decide they want a certain animal, whether or not they would make good pets. By giving them examples of pet that are not the best idea, children may understand why their parents tell them no when asking for certain animals. This book is also just a fun read for a read aloud. It could open up discussion in the classroom about what pets all of the students have, what pets they would like to have, and what pets they may be getting. Young children love to talk about their animals and home life and this would give every student a chance to share to the whole class. I like this book simple because I have had many different pet through out my childhood and I think it is a good experience for children. The illustrations are very detailed and give a good picture of Susie's experience going through all of the different pets. I could not find any awards this book has won.

Pohrt, Tom (2009). Finding Susie. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: "Classif" Folktale (Multicultural)

The book Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters is an African tale rewritten by John Steptoe. The story is comparable to the classic story of Cinderella. In this story, the a man named Mufaro lived in a small village with two very beautiful daughters , Manyara and Nyasha. While both daughters are equally beautiful, their personalities are completely opposite. Manyara is very self-centered and mean to Nyasha while Nyasha is very caring of all living things, kind, and sweet. She makes friends with a small garden snake and names him Nyoka. Even when Manyara is cruel to Nyasha, Nyasha only feels sorry for Manyara and does not tell their father. When the king sends out a notice that he is looking for "The Most Worthy and Beautiful Daughters in the Land . . . to appear before the King, and he will choose one to become Queen!" Both daughters will travel to see the king and see if one of them will be chosen to be his new wife. Out of greed, Manyara ran off in the middle of the night to get to the city and see the king before Nyasha in hopes of being chosen to be queen and make her sister work in the palace. One the way she runs into a small boy who is hungry and asks for food, she yells at the boy and continues on her way. Next she came upon an old woman who warned her about a grove of trees that she must be polite too. Instead of taking the old woman's advice, Manyaras yells, "How do you know my name? How dare you advise your future queen? Stand aside, you ugly old woman!" As she came to the grove of tress, instead of being polite, she mocked the trees by laughing at them. The next day, Nayasha left her village with her father to travel to see the king. When she came upon the poor boy, she gave him her food which she had brought for lunch. Next was the old woman, when she appeared and gave Nayasha the same advice, she thanked her and gave her a pouch filled with sunflower seeds. When she came to the grove of trees "their uppermost branches seemed to bow down to Nyasha as she passed beneath them." Once she reached the city and went in to see the king, sitting in the chair was Nyoka which turned out to be the king. He chose Nyasha to be is wife and Manyara ended up working as a servant for Nyasha.

This book has a great lesson in it for children about manners and respect. It is also a good book for diversity since many book have mainly Caucasians as the main characters. The illustrations in this book add a big part to the book. They are colorful and very detailed. The reader is able to see the emotions in the faces of the characters and follow the emotion throughout the book. It would be a great book for read aloud in the earlier grades and a good additive to the library section in grades 1-3rd. I really like the story in this book because of the morals it promotes. Students are encouraged to be polite and nice to everyone and this book provides an example of a character who is very caring to anyone and everyone, even her sister who is cruel to her at times, and is rewarded in the end. This book has received a number of awards including:

• Caldecott Honor Book
• Reading Rainbow Book
• ALA Notable Children’s Book
• Coretta Scott King Award (Illustrator)
• Boston Globe–Horn Book Award
• Horn Book Fanfare

Steptoe, John (1987). Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale. New York, NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books.