© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Chapter 1 Knowing Children’s Literature

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. What is Children’s Literature? Addressed to children as the audience. The content is limited by children’s experience and understanding. Provides delight and enjoyment to children. Which is first and foremost?

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Fiction Using the Chapter 1 Evaluation Criteria in the textbook as a guide, teachers, librarians, and students can evaluate a book’s literary and aesthetic qualities. Let’s use When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry… by Molly Bang as a model for evaluation.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Literature: Before Reading When Sophie Gets Angry is a picture book by Molly Bang. Anticipate: the dust jacket illustration shows a young girl’s face with furrowed brows and her mouth in a frown. The text looks hand written and is a larger font. The illustrations are bold and bright with strong lines. Age: preschool through third grade.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Literature: Plot Sophie becomes angry after her sister takes away Gorilla. She becomes so angry, she roars and then runs to escape the situation. After she calms down, she returns home where everyone is happy to see her. The quick-moving plot will have readers anticipating how Sophie will handle her anger. Children will immediately relate to Sophie’s quick temper.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Literature: Setting The beginning and ending of the story take place in Sophie’s home. The middle takes place outside, where she finds a calming environment. The outside setting is important for Sophie because it is her place for escape. The setting also affects theme, offering the reader a place to deal with anger.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Literature: Theme Anger management is the main theme in this story. Many times, children are not provided outlets for so-called negative emotions. This story provides children with possibilities. While the theme may seem obvious to adult readers, young children need overt themes to help them learn about abstract concepts.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Literature: Characterization We learn about Sophie through her actions when she becomes angry and when she is calming down. We also learn about her through Bang’s use of color in her illustrations (red when Sophie is angry, blues and greens when she is calm). Sophie is a strong character because she “controls” her anger in her own way without harming others.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Literature: Style The text flows in a way that lends itself to being read aloud. It is very straightforward and easy for young children to understand. The text is also punctuated by words included in the illustrations that help show Sophie’s emotions and her environment.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Literature: Point of View The third-person point of view is highly focused on Sophie’s words and actions. This enables young readers to concentrate on Sophie’s emotions, the main focus of the story. It is important to see that, culturally, this book does not reflect every culture’s views about how children should control their anger.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Literature: Additional Considerations Bang uses bold lines to outline the characters and objects in this story, giving it a stark look. This enhances the reader’s perception of Sophie’s anger.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Evaluating Children’s Literature: Comparisons to Other Books Molly Bang compares the plot of her book to Alexander's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Bang’s book is different because it has a female protagonist. Read more about When Sophie Gets Angry on the author's web site at

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Classics in Children’s Literature Adults often feel nostalgic when reading classic children’s books. Teachers and librarians need to consider modern children and their interests when choosing books. Classics should not be left out of the classroom just because they are well- known.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Book Awards The American Library Association (ALA) and its divisions and roundtables sponsor many children’s book awards, including the Newbery medal and Caldecott medal. Other book awards and book lists are created and sponsored by organizations such as the International Board on Books for Young People or individuals such as Scott O’Dell.

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Other ALA Sponsored Awards Coretta Scott King Book Award –Given to African-American authors and illustrators for inspirational and educational contributions. Laura Ingalls Wilder Award –Honors an author or illustrator whose books have made a substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature over the years. Find out more at

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Other ALA Sponsored Awards (cont.) Pura Belpre Award –Presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of children’s literature. Robert F. Sibert Medal –Awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished informational book published in English during the preceding year. Find out more at

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Hans Christian Andersen Awards Given every two years by IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made an important and lasting contribution to children's literature. –

© 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction Author Scott O'Dell established this award to encourage other writers – particularly new authors – to focus on historical fiction. It is presented to an author for a children’s or young-adult book published in English by a U.S. publisher and set in the Americas. –