Discusses the use of picture books of folk tales to develop literature appreciation and cultural awareness in children and the need to select books that retain the style of the original version of the folk tale, rather than loose adaptations of the story. (CLB)

The selections of this annotated bibliography of books for children and young adults that feature biracial or biethnic families are coded according to overall literary and aesthetic quality. Twenty-four books are listed, with a fairly complete review and cataloging information for each. (SLD)

Elementary educators can teach middle and upper level students to be book critics beginning with picture books, thus encouraging poor and reluctant readers and providing all students with practice in reading, writing, and critical thinking. The article provides suggestions for objectives of student critiques, e.g., bulletin board displays for the…

Presents a literary answer to the question of how literary theory informs educational practice. Suggests how professors in education, English, foreign language and library sciences might learn to listen to one another and combine their scholarly experiences to better inform the literary practices in all classrooms. Explores the topic of literary…

Children's writings seem to elicit a somewhat narrow range of adult responses. More often than not, the adult tendency is to read children's fictional writings as autobiographical. The adult critic can, that is, think of the child author as a collection of biographical facts, a series of life experiences with an end point marked by the production…

Based on the premise that the primary ways individuals make sense of the world is through observation, analysis, imagination, and feeling, this work suggests that through the use of graphics, students can experience these functions as they interact with reading and writing activities. Graphics encourage students to read more closely, make visual…

An undergraduate course in children's literature was developed at De Montfort University in Bedford, England, United Kingdom (UK). In a children's literature course for first year students from a variety of backgrounds, age groups, and future intents, it is important to consider the discourse of children's literature, to trace intertextual…

Teacher educators need to take the responsibility for providing future teachers with long-term evaluative skills necessary to select good literature. Educators must also take responsibility for modeling the powerful notion that books or literature aid in everyone's personal search for meaning. The process of analyzing literature is helpful in…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 24 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) humorous children's literature and divergent thinking; (2) the development of children's ability to apprehend and distribute attention to important elements in…

Children's books published between 1910 and 1960 reflect a changing world and new attitudes toward children. In 1910, although some of the moral tales of the earlier Puritan era survived, the didactic period in children's books was nearly over. From 1910 to 1925, a transitional period, writers began to look toward the children's own world. Then,…

Suggests that children, even in early elementary grades, can grasp basic elements of children's literature using a spiralled sequence story curriculum, which helps them examine types of character, such as the trickster; elements of plot, such as the journey; and generally see patterns in the stories they read. (JC)

Separate articles in this journal discuss the treatment of controversial themes in current adolescent novels; literature for teenagers that deals realistically with family life; teaching students to apply the concepts of transactional analysis to the study of literary characters; teaching students how to interpret poetry; and using comic-book…

Ghost stories are most appealing in early adolescence, from the ages of 11 to 14 years. They are a natural for use with gifted children because they depend entirely upon language for their effect. The high interest they hold for a young person because of their subject matter also makes them a possibility for reluctant readers. As a psychological…

GRADE FOUR OF THE NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM EXTENDS AND REINFORCES CONCEPTS INTRODUCED IN PREVIOUS GRADES. AMERICAN FOLK LITERATURE, WITH ITS HEROES EXEMPLIFYING HEROIC QUALITIES OF THE CULTURE, IS STUDIED FOR ITS APPEAL TO STUDENTS AND ITS USE OF DESCRIPTIVE AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. EFFECTIVE USE OF PHONOLOGICAL PATTERNS IS ILLUSTRATED IN…

Reports on a study that found that children who read, write, and discuss whole texts of their own choice show remarkable insights into literature and its making, and that the insights match those of experienced adult literary critics. (SKC)