Children's Lit Midterm

Execution of poetic justice

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: virtue is rewarded, vice is punished)

Ms. Harris

stern, aloof African-American teacher who keeps her personal and professional life separate, challenges Gilly; "I mean your name Galadriel. It is the name of a great queen in a book by a man named Tolkien"

Agnes Stokes

little red headed girl at school who bothers Gilly and always is up to something; "Wanna come over? My grandma won't care"

Chadwell

Gilly's dead uncle; she sleeps in his room when she goes to live with her grandmother

Trotter

obese, jolly, experienced foster mother of WE and Gilly for a time; "No baby you got to go. Lord forgive me for making it harder on you"

Gilly

troubled, wild, oppositional foster child who really just wants to be loved; "I lie a lot"

The Runaway Bunny

Margaret Wise Brown; mother goes to the ends of the earth to love her child

But Not the Hippopotamus

Sandra Boynton; cardboard book with repetition for littles

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

Simms Taback; emphasizes recycling, creativity, and reinvention; main character keeps making his article of clothing into something else (smaller) when it gets old and tarnished

Abuela

"in this way my love and good wishes will be in the blanket forever"

Jan Brett

intricate borders; European and North American folk stories

trickster tales

a type of folk tale that features an animal or human character who typically engages in deceit, violence, and magic

Granting wishes and long sleeps

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: snow white, sleeping beauty, etc.)

Mrs. Ellis

social worker, cares about first impressions and appearances; "get rid of that bubblegum before we get there"

Mr. Randolph

blind, kind, African-American neighbor of Trotter, loves poetry; "I'm helpless before your cherry pies, Mrs. Trotter"

Courtney

Gilly's mother who is selfish and vain, idealized by Gilly throughout the book; "I told you on the phone that I'd come for Christmas and see for myself how the kid was doing"

William Earnest

trotter's timid foster child who struggles to read and who Gilly eventually takes under her wing and teaches to fight; "Come on, Gilly... Pow! Pow!"

Nonnie

Gilly's grandma who takes her away from Trotter and tries to take care of and connect with Gilly; "she seems to think I got a rather wrong impression of that foster home"

Swimmy

Leo Leonni; story about the value of teamwork (school of fish working together to scare predator) and uniqueness (Swimmy being the 'eye')

Rrralph

Lois Ehlert; plays with shape and color, includes wordplay (my dog can talk. When he sees a tree he says 'bark')

Junk Day on Juniper Street

older book that emphasizes community and recycling while inadvertently displaying tradition gender roles

Hard-Hat Jobs

jobs in the real world; gender roles were pretty prevalent (men have hard jobs with hard hats...)

It's a Book

Lane Smith; emphasizes the benefits and perks of books as opposed to the common modes of entertainment in a digital world; "it's a book jackass!"

When Sophie Gets Really, Really Angry

Molly Bang; colors and graphic styles used to emphasize emotions

Martin's Big Words

Doreen Rappaport; cover emphasizes MLK picture (words/title on the back with MLK's huge picture on front)

Rosie's Walk

Pat Hutchins; example of picture story book showing that pictures can add to (or even change) the story; you need both the text and the illustrations to carry the story

Doctor DeSoto

William Steig; rat dentist and wife who are sneaky and smart enough to outsmart a fox; thick ink lines, never fully fills a page, looks almost like watercolor

Adrian Simcox Does Not Have a Horse

Marcy Campbell; creative use of negative space; emphasis on the value of imagination

Chrysanthemum

Kevin Henkes; mouse who loves her name until she gets bullied and then regains confidence after the music teacher sticks up for her

'I Can't' Said the Ant

Polly Cameron; pattern book with rhyming; reinforcement of words with pictures; for beginner readers

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Arlene Mosel; repetition which helps with sight words and memory for developing readers

Lily's Purple Plastic Purse

Kevin Henkes; talks about Lily's fun teacher who she then views as crabby and mean after he takes away her purse

Caldecott Medal

awarded to artist of most distinguished American picture book for children; started in 1938

Newbery Medal

awarded to author of most distinguished children's book; started in 1922

Pura Belpre Award

Recognition presented to a Latino or Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for children or youth

importance of early reading

shapes worldview; forms unconscious attitudes towards reading and books; associating books with togetherness; scaffolding multiple paths to reading; building hard skills and soft skills; ENCOURAGE INTERACTION

serious business of children's books

imprinting (shaping worldview and teaching in ways that can't be easily undone) and the didactic nature of lit (teaches lessons, morals, etc.); teaches vocab, lengthens attention span, builds imagination, etc.

Katherine Patterson

Author of Gilly Hopkins, fairly bitter and unhappy

1978

Gilly Hopkins Publication date; post-civil rights movement which influences writing

Esperanza Rising

Pam Munoz Ryan; 2000; set in the 1920s the 1930s; given the Pura Belpre award

Sixto Ortega

Esperanza's father; "the land is alive, Esperanza"

Miguel

"my father and I have lost faith in our country. We were born servants and will always be servants"

Tio Luis

"I've come to give you another chance... proposal... rebuilding"

Ramona Ortega

Esperanza's mother; "Our papers were lost in the fire"; "It's alright, Esperanza, because now we are peasants, too"

Esperanza

"Father would never approve of us riding in this car... it's dirty..."

Marta

"So you're a princess who's come to be a peasant"; "they don't want us banding together for higher wages or better housing"

Repetition book

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Rhyme

One Fish Two Fish

Chain of Events

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Exploring Figures of Speech

The King Who Rained

Picture-story books

started at beginning of 20th century (Peter Rabit - Beatrix Potter); words and pictures work together to carry story

Illustrated books

story can be carried with words alone but words are added to break up text and add appeal (ex: Little Women)

Molly Bang

When Sophie Gets Angry; uses colors and shapes to help tell the story

Mary Azarian

Woodcuts; focus on rural Vermont themes

Eric Carle

colorful shapes, usually animals; collage and paper cutouts; more abtract

Barbara Cooney

New England themes; gentle but realistic stories (look for carriages, caps, purple flowers)

Lois Ehlert

books especially for the very young (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom); collage; big blocks of color; using real things (Leaf Man) to create pictures; big font

Paul Goble

Native American themes; Plaines Indians, paper doll looking art; white outlines

Kevin Henkes

family and school stories; little mice with big emotions; cartoon style

Trina Schart Hyman

lavish illustrations of classic fairytales; elegant borders; illuminated manuscript; illustrations take up lots of page; fairytale themes!

Steven Kellogg

cartoony style, including many tall tales; folktales, always funny

Leo Leonni

collage style; GOOGLY EYES; simplistic; lots of animals

Arnold Lobel

Frog and Toad; rustic animals in Victorian apparel

Brian Pinkey

scratchboard; often biographies of African American people; colorful; hatching for shading

Jerry Pickney

soft muted watercolors; folktales and sometimes AA themes; colorful

Patricia Polacco

family stories; grandmothers and old people with WRINKLES; exploring progressive topics; Russian and Ukranian dress and themes

Beatrix Potter

mother of modern picture-story book; tiny format of books; realistic animals wearing modest old-fashioned clothing; soft and fantastical style

Allen Say

Asian American themes; realism and white-wash color; Japanese; simple and modest (stillness)

Chris Soentpiet

'glowy' style, often Asian American themes but not always; romanticism; use of lighting

William Steig

cartoon-style animal story; watercolor filling with thick ink (out)lines; bold patterns on clothing

Chris Van Allsburg

charcoal-illustrated fantasy; black and white; kind of weird/creepy; fairly realistic

David Wiesner

strange books; lots of random and weird pictures; animals flying

Paul Zelinsky

classically illustrated fairy tales; realistic; renaissance

usage of 'foreshadowing' images

Jan brett in borders

choice of color

When Sophie Gets Really Mad - Molly Bang

choice of artistic medium

Stranded at Plymouth Plantation - woodcuts help feel the roughness of life back then

Framing of the pictures/variation in framing

Casey at the Bat by Christopher Bing - uses newspaper clippings to portray time period

pourqoui style

folk lit type; explaining something in nature

noodlehead tales

humorous tale in which the character makes the reader feel superior

fable

A brief story that leads to a moral, often using animals as characters

legend

a narrative handed down from the past, containing historical elements and usually supernatural elements (robin hood)

classic fairytale

ex: snow white

tall tale

an outrageously exaggerated, humorous story that is obviously unbelievable (paul bunyon)

myth

A traditional story about gods, ancestors, or heroes, told to explain the natural world or the customs and beliefs of a society.

beast tale

featuring some scary character (animal) that poses a threat to main characters

wisdom stories

bit of wisdom told to audience and characters at the end

Simplistic Characterizations

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: the totally evil step-mother)

Vague setting

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: 'once upon a time')

Magical forces/magical objects

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: fairy godmother)

talking animals

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: Nyoka)

The underdog comes out on top

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: cinderella marrying the prince)

the number 3

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: the three little pigs)

Transformation

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: Cinderella's pumpkin; disguises, trickery)

Refrains and chants

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: 'fee fie fo fum')

Some kind of quest or challenge for main character

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: aladdin, little red riding hood, etc.)

no particular author/multiple versions/generally has oral origins

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: stories gathered by Grimms brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, etc.)

originally not just for children

common characteristic of folk lit (ex: told orally to the family around the fire or things like that)

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Wrote "Little House" books about her life on the prairie- lightly fictionalized memoir; has become controversial very recently since some have claimed that her books glorify traditional family structures and gender roles (although the critical argument is not very strong)

Ways Children read Children's literature

like a scientist (experimenting with what they like/what works and what doesn't)

How academics read Children's literature

like an analyst (ex: 'what do the subtle things in this book mean about culture and bias', 'what are the lessons in this book', 'what demographic does this book appeal to', 'what choices did the author make and why', etc.)