The ABC of it: Why Children's Books Matter

Last week, I was fortunate enough to go on holidays with my husband and children to New York City. Amongst various other activities that we crammed into our 2 days and 3 nights, was my desire to visit the New York City Public Library. Having lined up to see Santa at Macy's, gone up the Empire State Building, and with two tired children in tow, I was happy enough for us to walk past, and I get my photo and stand and look at a wonderful building that I see as a monument to the importance that libraries should hold in our society. On our last trip to New York, I had wandered the inside of the building, so I was content this time, just to stand in it's presence and soak it in for a minute or two.

Hubby was the one who spotted the banner advertising a current exhibition "The ABC of it: Why Children's Books Matter".

"Oh" I sighed.

And wonderful man that he is, who knows my love of libraries, of children and children's books, said he would take our girls back to the hotel to rest, while I stayed and looked at the exhibition.

Love that man.

And so in I went. And it was wonderful. The first book on display - a rare copy of the New England Primer (and although I was not supposed to take photos here is one anyway!)

and a copy of 'The Pictured World"

There was a copy of beautifully illustrated copy of Aesop's Fables from 1666. It is the only known copy in existence, as all the others burned in the great fires of London that year.

The exhibition examined very early texts such as William Blake's beautifully illustrated 'Songs of Innocence', Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'Wonder Book for Boys and Girls" (as well as a copy of The Scarlet Letter), accompanied by quotes from Rousseau and John Locke  through to early picture books from the 19th and 20th centuries including the Madeleine, The Snowy Day, Goodnight Moon and Harold and his purple crayon by Crockett Johnson. There was a wonderful display of the Dick and Jane earl readers and Dr Seuss.

and our family favourite 'Ferdinand'.

A tribute was payed to Lewis Carroll and 'Alice in Wonderland' with a letter from Charles Dodgson (Carroll) to Alice Lidell on display. Also prominent was a display on Where the Wild Things Are and the contributions authors such as Sendak and Carle made to both the written word and illustrations.

There was a focus area on multicultural literacy and picture books written throughout the world. Beautifully illustrated Japanese pocket books (I can't remember the author!), a copy of a children's book from early last century on Lenin from Russia, written in Islamic and other texts from across Asia, India, and Europe.

Hans Christian Anderson and the Brother's Grimm were displayed as were The Poky Little Puppy from The Golden Books. There was a wonderful area devoted to controversial / banned  picture books such as 'Pippi Longstockings', Judy Blume's 'Are you there God, it's me Margaret', Anne Frank 'A Diary of a Young Girl', 'The Rabbit's Wedding' by Garth Williams and Twain's 'Huckleberry Finn'.

Not to mention seeing the actual Winne the PooH stuffed toys that the story was written around. Awesome!

I was fortunate enough to join a docent led tour and this was wonderful, to have a librarian share additional and interesting information about the books, although I did enjoy the opportunity to also browse at my leisure.  I wish I had had a pen and paper to record more of what I had seen, or been more willing to 'break the rules' and photograph the exhibit.

Still, it was an amazing opportunity to see and explore this wonderful exhibition and walk through that glorious building.

My next goal is now to visit Toronto before the 14th of March to see the 'And then what happened? Series and Popular Fiction in Children's Literature''at the Toronto Public Library.

Palazzo Inverso

"Palazzo Inverso" D.B. Johnson. 2010. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. New York.

In perusing the postmodern picture book section of my local library here in Ottawa, I came across this wonderful book “Palazzo Inverso” by D.B. Johnson (2010).

This book is a wonderful example of the post modern picture book. This innovative story begins with a capitalized sentence that then continues with the text running along the bottom of the page in bold text. At the top of the page there is more text that is muted in colour. This continues on each page.

Initially the reader is confused. The cues for constructing meaning on this page are ambiguous and contradictory. The text at the top of the page is upside down – so where does one start reading? Why is the text at the top upside down and muted in colour? Cleverly, D.B. Johnson has ensured that the final word on the bottom line enables the top line to match up seamlessly and on reading the first page. This non-linear approach, where the text is not following a logical, sequential pattern, has the reader wondering ‘How I am supposed to read this text?’

Then, at the end of the first line of text, the reader notices a hand directing the reader to the next page, indicating the text at the top of the page is not relevant – yet. As the reader moves through each page, the flow of the text at the bottom, captures attention, with bold striking illustrations to match. D.B. Johnson has cleverly used his artistic talent to use perspective, 3 dimensional drawing and illusion in each illustration.  The illustrations in this text are inspired by the works of the artist M. C. Escher, and based on one of his works 'Ascending and Descending. Escher was known for his skill at playing with perspective and tricking people into seeing his version of 3 dimensional space. D. B. Johnson has modelled his illustrations on this, and therefore there is a need for a certain level of sophistication in interpreting the visual literacy elements of this story. Readers must be as alert to the illustrations as they are to the text.

On reaching the end of the book, the reader is directed to read text around the side of the page and up towards to the text at the top of the page. At this point, the reader is required to turn the book upside down in order to continue reading the story. The reader then finds themselves reading back towards to the front cover. Once again, the cues for constructing meaning are blurred as the reader, in moving back towards the front of the text, is required to use the exact same illustrations they have just encountered. Cleverly, D.B. Johnson’s illustrations match the text at the top of the page as brilliantly as they did the bottom of the page, demonstrating the continued need for sophistication in interpreting the illustrations in this text.

Finally, once the young reader has reached the conclusion of the story, it turns out that the story does not, in fact, have any closure. It cleverly finishes the text with the final sentence of the story being also the initial sentence, forcing the reader to start the cycle of the story again. This is also a reference back to Escher and his artworks of endless loops that went nowhere. 

From the moment the reader starts this book, the engagement with text and illustration is obvious. Young readers would enjoy the alternative reading style of this text and the unique, playful aspect of needing to turn the book upside down to complete the narrative.  Also enjoyable is seeing the pictures take on a different meaning throughout the story.  There is a lot of visual literacy skill used in this story. It is unusual to come across a text where the exact same illustrations are used for two different parts of the narrative, and young readers would enjoy exploring each and every page, comparing and contrasting the story lines and what meaning can be drawn from the illustrations. 

D.B. Johnson. 2010. Palazzo Inverso. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. New York.

Zipes

(Critics) are not recognising or do not want to recognise that the former traditional approaches to alphabetic literacy through reading print are not meeting the needs of young people who read texts much differently than the generations of teachers and educators who are teaching them.(p. 42)

Zipes, J. (2009). Misreading children and the fate of the book in Relentless progress the reconfiguration of children's literature, fairy tales, and storytelling. London: Routledge. (Chapter 2, p. 27-44)

I disagree with this comment from Zipes. Much of what has been commented on in the research on reading decline in this module, comments on the shift of reading for pleasure by the time students enter high school or college.

So it seems to be incongruous to say that traditional approaches to alphabetic literacy are not meeting the needs of young people.

In order for a person to choose to read for pleasure, they must possess the necessary skills for reading. A significant part of developing those skills is the variety of kills and instructions surrounding the ability to decode ie alphabetic literacy.

I would suggest that it is the skills that build upon decoding – critical literacy, inferential literacy are the ones that are often under taught in classrooms (particularly over the past decade where significant portions of the literacy curriculum has been devoted to the teaching of ‘text types’). If our curriculum does not encourage, nay demand of us to teach beyond the decoding stage, then we are not meeting the needs of young people.

In todays information age, where people are bombarded daily with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of information, it is imperative that we teach our students to be critically literate, to develop skills for interpreting what they read, justify their interpretations, make their own meaning of texts they read, compare themselves and their own experiences with what they read, to read broadly, to develop their own point of view, to respond to what they read

Then we will be teaching young people to be

• avid, self motivated, confident readers
• who feel strongly about what they choose to read
• who justify their reading choices
• who are engaged in the process of reading because they choose to be

Regardless of whether they read in print or digitally.

For the teacher librarian, this means a greater collaboration with classroom teachers to use literature across the curriculum that encourages and explicitly teaches these skills to our students.  

My reading pleasure

I have always been an avid reader of fiction. I remember as a child in late primary school, the thrill I would get at Christmas and birthdays when I unwrapped the new books I received as gifts. They were the most treasured presents. I was enthralled with Trixie Belden books for a really long time. I was an enthusiastic member of both my local and school libraries, often with fines as I often found it hard to part with a book that I had just read, re-reading it several times before returning it.

I first read Raymond E. Feist’s book Magician in Year 11. I was drawn to it’s beautiful illustration on the cover – (yes, I confess, I have been known often to choose a book by it’s cover). I was instantly taken away to a whole new world, I was spellbound. I cannot tell you how many times I have re-read that book. It would be well over ten. I re-read it this year, just a few months ago, as Feist released his final book in that series this year. So, I decided that I would re-read everyone of his books prior to reading that new book; immerse myself in the world and cultures that he created.

This book Magician, opened up the fantasy genre to me. Katharine Kerr’s book Daggerspell did the same. I was captivated by her way of telling the narrative involving shifts in time, reincarnation and celtic customs and ideologies. I discovered Guy Gavriel Kay’s book ‘Tigana’ and discovered how genocide can be more than the wiping away of people, of losing one’s history through the wiping of memories, and how strong the love of home and culture can be.

My other love in fiction is that of historical fiction. After reading Clan of the Cave Bear  series the first, second, third times, I became obsessed with growing herbs, vegetables, naturopathy. I have information books that adorn my shelves, purchased when that interest was at it height.

Barbara Erskine, Colleen McCullough, Bryce Courtney , Diana Gabaldon, Ann Victoria Roberts, Ken Follett, Wilbur Smith, Catherine Gaskin, Clive Cussler just to name a few have all contributed to this love of historical (and at times adventure) fiction.

Interestingly, Raymond Feist recently said that he writes historical fiction for a place he invented. In a way isn’t that true of all fiction?


In the classroom, I have aimed to share my love of reading to my students through a variety of novels. I want them to know that books can transport you to another place, entertain you, teach you, show you things you never imagined for yourself and start imagining and dreaming a world different to what you live in. Because every tomorrow is a new world to experience and what you imagine and dream about today can be made true tomorrow. Books give you that and so much more.

What a pleasure to have...

My reading pleasure

I have always been an avid reader of fiction. I remember as a child in late primary school, the thrill I would get at Christmas and birthdays when I unwrapped the new books I received as gifts. They were the most treasured presents. I was enthralled with Trixie Belden books for a really long time. I was an enthusiastic member of both my local and school libraries, often with fines as I often found it hard to part with a book that I had just read, re-reading it several times before returning it.

I first read Raymond E. Feist’s book Magician in Year 11. I was drawn to it’s beautiful illustration on the cover – (yes, I confess, I have been known often to choose a book by it’s cover). I was instantly taken away to a whole new world, I was spellbound. I cannot tell you how many times I have re-read that book. It would be well over ten. I re-read it this year, just a few months ago, as Feist released his final book in that series this year. So, I decided that I would re-read everyone of his books prior to reading that new book; immerse myself in the world and cultures that he created.

This book Magician, opened up the fantasy genre to me. Katharine Kerr’s book Daggerspell did the same. I was captivated by her way of telling the narrative involving shifts in time, reincarnation and celtic customs and ideologies. I discovered Guy Gavriel Kay’s book ‘Tigana’ and discovered how genocide can be more than the wiping away of people, of losing one’s history through the wiping of memories, and how strong the love of home and culture can be.

My other love in fiction is that of historical fiction. After reading Clan of the Cave Bear  series the first, second, third times, I became obsessed with growing herbs, vegetables, naturopathy. I have information books that adorn my shelves, purchased when that interest was at it height.

Barbara Erskine, Colleen McCullough, Bryce Courtney , Diana Gabaldon, Ann Victoria Roberts, Ken Follett, Wilbur Smith, Catherine Gaskin, Clive Cussler just to name a few have all contributed to this love of historical (and at times adventure) fiction.

Interestingly, Raymond Feist recently said that he writes historical fiction for a place he invented. In a way isn’t that true of all fiction?


In the classroom, I have aimed to share my love of reading to my students through a variety of novels. I want them to know that books can transport you to another place, entertain you, teach you, show you things you never imagined for yourself and start imagining and dreaming a world different to what you live in. Because every tomorrow is a new world to experience and what you imagine and dream about today can be made true tomorrow. Books give you that and so much more.

What a pleasure to have...

Defining Children's literature

What key elements do I consider are essential when attempting to define children's literature? This is a question I have found hard to answer.

There is considerable debate surrounding having a exact definition for 'Children's Literature'. Why is it so difficult to define?

If we were to break it down into two parts and separately define them then we would get 

Written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit for those under the age of 18. 
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/literature) 
(as defined by the United Nations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child)

Surely that should be enough? Unfortunately - no!

Determining what works are superior, or having lasting artistic merit is highly subjective. What I consider to be a good book for children will be different compared to others. People enjoy a diverse range of genres, and what appeals to one does not necessary appeal to all. 'Literature is a deep experience that we respond to in many different ways and at many different levels' (Winch, 2006, pg 401). So, perhaps it would be better to say that the literature aspect for children is better defined as works that creates a connection with the reader, that engages people under the age of 18, eliciting an emotional or intellectual response, positive or negative. 'For most adults and children, a good book is one that at a particular moment caused them to feel and to think' (Barone, 2011, pg. 7). This enables a distinguishing between banal home readers for early literacy development, from picture books, novels, poetry, drama, biographies, autobiographies etc written for the purpose of entertaining or informing children.

If we were to consider the age factor, I think that it is valid to say that if an author has the intention of writing for an audience of children, whether it be to entertain, inform, educate children, then the works produced could be considered literature for children. Yet, just because a book has been determined by someone as belonging to a person between a certain age range, e.g. 0-5, does not preclude them from experiencing literature above their level of reading. 'Continual opportunities must be made for all children to be exposed to a wide range of texts from a continuum that is continuously being supplemented and enriched' (Winch, 2006, Pg. 399). 'Children need to be read to and read with, even when that are competent, independent readers' (Winch, 2006, pg. 400).

However, what is written for children is just as important as the intent for writing for children. The content of the work written has always been contentious, as we adults determine in a top down approach what is appropriate for children to be exposed to. Works written for children have always and will always be subject to the perspective, bias and truth of the author, illustrator, editor, publisher, reader and context of the society within which the work is produced (Winch, 2006, pg. 394). This has always been the case e.g. primers written in the 1600's for the purpose of moral and religious instruction. Chapbooks written in the 1700's, written to entertain instead of teach. The banning and censorship of books available to children has driven the content available to children. Even in today's world, concepts and issues surrounding sexualisation, violence, transgender, homosexuality, war have contentiously moved into the realm of child fiction (eg: 'Forever' Judy Blume; 'The Hunger Games' Suzanne Collins; 'Two Weeks with the Queen' Morris Glietzman; 'The Book Thief' Markus Zusak; 'Tomorrow when the war began' John Marsden). How we limit that, or determine age appropriateness, thereby categorising it as a book for children or adults, is again highly subjective and contentious (but always under the guise of protecting the child). Skilled, avid readers of fiction will always find a way to read above their 'age' level, yet it is important that the works that are available to children to choose from are not limiting, yet somehow content appropriate. A challenge! 

And then, just to put the cat amongst the pigeons, I come across Crouch, who states their conclusion that there are no children's books. That all the qualities of a good adult book, are the same in a children's book. The difference being accessibility. Literate adults can access any book. A child can access a book in so far as their understanding and enjoyment allow. 

So currently,  three key elements that I would add to a definition of children's literature would be:

•  works that engages people under the age of 18, eliciting an emotional or intellectual response, positive or negative
• works written for the purpose of entertaining and informing people under the age of 18
• works that contain content that is considered age appropriate according to the context of the reader
• works that are accessible to children at different stages of understanding. 

Whilst no closer to a firm definition of Children's literature, exploring the question has given me a lot of food for thought about what I consider to be important elements. I am sure as the unit progresses my thoughts and beliefs will deepen and it will be interesting to revisit this question in weeks to come. 

Barone, D.M. (2011). Children's literature in the classroom: engaging lifelong readers. New York: Guildford Press.

Crouch, 1988. CSU modules notes located at http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/ETL402_201390_W_D/page/e92933f3-8ebb-4bb1-00ba-d690bf47ec01

Winch, G. (2006). Literacy: Reading, writing and children's literature (3rd ed.) South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

A vision for the future of children’s literature

My vision for the future of children’s literature is influenced by three experiences:

• Myself as an avid reader of a variety of fiction and non fiction
• My experience as a primary school teacher
• My experience as a parent

For myself as an avid reader, I find it hard to comprehend a world where narrative does not exist in both hard copy and electronic form. There are people who believed that television heralded the end of print, yet that was not the end result. There are people who believe that the Information age heralds an end to print publications of books. While there is evidence of significant growth in the ebook market, most people I speak to of my generation or above, still love the feel of a solid book in their hands. That is not to say we don’t embrace the digital book revolution. I own a kindle, and I love being able to download a book at a moments notice. I still love a real book though and will continue to both buy and read printed materials.

I have not had much to do with digital narratives other than the static ebook versions of printed materials, and after reading Madej’s ‘Towards digital narrative for children: from education to entertainment, a historical perspective.” (2003), I realize that I have more research to do in this area. Noting that this paper was written ten years ago, it will be interesting to explore whether much progress has been made in making digital narrative of a higher quality with more complex narrative, rather than just action and games.

As a primary school teacher since the early 90’s, I have witnessed the impact that digital technologies have had on our children. As Prensky (2001) defines, they are digital natives, who instinctively know how to navigate and interact with 21^st century literacies. I know that for most of my students, using a smart device, a tablet, a lap top, a PC is preferable to other forms of communication. And yet! The moment in the classroom that they always clamoured for, demanded on a daily basis and would bemoan the conclusion of, was the reading of the class text, out loud by me to them. We used a variety of digital narrative experiences throughout the curriculum, but this was THE one narrative experience they desired. I believe that today’s children enjoy print media as much as previous generations, despite their relationship with digital technologies. I believe that children today desire good quality narrative experiences as much as previous generations. So I used this opportunity to share good quality children’s books that they were unfamiliar with, to broaden their knowledge and experience of narrative; to build exciting, adventurous, thrilling, emotional narrative experiences based on words and imagination beyond the visual. Based on my experience, it worked and if we can keep it working for our younger students, they will hopefully carry that with them as they grow.

As a parent of two small children, I cringe when they get to choose their own books to buy (as they did at the school book fair on Friday) and we come home with Barbie Mariposa and two Lalaloopsy books. But as I believe in giving them the opportunity to choose, those books are now on the bookshelves and have been read far to many times in the past 48 hours! However, in saying this, a couple of books that I consider non-literature, are well out classed by the volume of better quality books that are read to my children over and over and over again. Reading Barone’s discussion on a brief history of children’s literature, (2011, pg 8-15), I was delighted to realize that we have so many of the narratives she mentioned. 

Narratives that I love to read to my children, that are lovingly located on their bookshelves and made the journey from Australia to Canada with us when we moved. Books my children love and woe betide the tired mother who tries to cut nightly storytime down to just 2 or 3 beloved books! My children demand their storytime, and delight in being read familiar and unfamiliar books. My children, who love TV and smart devices as much as the next kid, also love narrative and the delight and excitement when I announce that I have new books is more than they show for any toy that comes into the house. So, although Barbie and Lalaloopsy came home with is on Friday, I know that the narrative experiences I provide my children on a nightly basis is creating a sound narrative future for them, where they will (eventually) choose narrative texts beyond the scope of TV characters.

And I know I must be doing something right, when faced with no television, I find them tucked away in bed together, reading.

And who doesn’t love a 2 year old who weeps because she didn’t get to go to the library when I took Miss 4?

So, the future of children’s literature? Totally in our hands! As the educators and parents of children today, it is our responsibility to share and promote children’s literature whether it be in print or digital form. We must not sit back and accept the dominance of internet gaming and digital storytelling as the prime literary experience for our children. We need to share with them the depth and variety that can be found in narrative when read and bring to them world’s created with words, not just pictures.

 Barone, D. M. (2011). A brief history of children's literature. Children's literature in the classroom : engaging lifelong readers (pp. 8-19). New York: Guilford Press.

Madej, K. (2003). Towards digital narrative for children: from education to entertainment, a historical perspective. ACM Computers and Entertainment, Vol. 1, No. 1, . doi: 10.1145/950566.950585

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon (MCB University Press) 9 (5)