Researchers and educators have long argued for the importance of providing time and space for rich conversations around literature. This column draws on research to consider how teachers make room for these discussions inside their classrooms. Particularly, the authors consider different dimensions along which teachers might examine and grow…

When a kindergarten student, after hearing a storybook read aloud by his teacher, proclaims "Now, that was a crappy piece of literature!" his proclamation provides an opportunity for an examination of literacy, identity, agency and power. Critical issues and provocative questions emerge about the importance of "crappy" literature and how we create…

This article describes a project that studied 15 preservice teachers' perceptions of and reactions to responding to children's and young adult literature using a Ning blog. These perceptions and reactions provided insight into various practical aspects of using a social networking blog to facilitate literature response in a teacher education…

In "Reading "Salt and Pepper"" Anderson examines a story written by three third grade girls and their insights about that story as they re-read it during its production and retrospectively, eight years later. Using a frame for understanding children's writing as social practice, the children's interviews, showing their multiple and sometimes…

The relative absence of nonfiction in literature for young readers may have serious implications because nonfiction literacy matters. Nonfiction material is the crucible within which readers can gain the knowledge and skills that enable them to reach sound decisions in all arenas of life, avoid gullibility born of ignorance, and participate in an…

The Nancy Drew books are entertaining for the adolescent, but do not provide them the opportunity to gain insights into the way in which human beings experience life and, in the process, grow.

Describes the qualities which make a good book good to both critic and child and defends the criticism of children's literature. (DD)

Discusses the role and responsibilities of the reviewer of children's books. (DD)

An interview with children's literature author Theodore Taylor and an annotated bibliography of his children's books. (DD)

Analyzes stories which show insight into children's feelings and actions. (DD)

Contrasts the views of poets and poetry in Leo Lionni's "Frederick" and Randall Jarrell's "The Bat-Poet." (DD)

Uses five children's stories to illustrate the pattern of running away from home only to return home once more. (DD)

Discusses the demand for excellence in children's literature and the development of a strong and comprehensive criticism. Examines three categories of criticism for children's literature and lists several findings resulting from a survey of such criticism available today. (HTH)

Examines the relationship between humans and the sea, discusses two types of underwater folk creatures--selchies and merfolk--that populate children's books, and indicates how well a number of stories about these creatures work both within their own literary contexts and within the larger folklore-as-metaphysics context. (ET)