Encountering Children's Literature


Book Description

"In this text, Jane M. Gangi gives us a new perspective on how integrating the fine arts and literature fosters the active participation and in-depth understanding that is as important for children as it is for teachers. The heart of the book is a comprehensive treatment of children's literature, with a strong emphasis on multicultural and international literature."--Jaquette.




Diversity in Youth Literature


Book Description

Surveying the landscape of children's and YA literature, this contributed volume shows how books have grown to include the wide range of our increasingly diverse society.




Reading Picture Books with Children


Book Description

A new, interactive approach to storytime, The Whole Book Approach was developed in conjunction with the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and expert author Megan Dowd Lambert's graduate work in children's literature at Simmons College, offering a practical guide for reshaping storytime and getting kids to think with their eyes. Traditional storytime often offers a passive experience for kids, but the Whole Book approach asks the youngest of readers to ponder all aspects of a picture book and to use their critical thinking skills. Using classic examples, Megan asks kids to think about why the trim size of Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline is so generous, or why the typeset in David Wiesner's Caldecott winner,The Three Pigs, appears to twist around the page, or why books like Chris Van Allsburg's The Polar Express and Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar are printed landscape instead of portrait. The dynamic discussions that result from this shared reading style range from the profound to the hilarious and will inspire adults to make children's responses to text, art, and design an essential part of storytime.




Ordinary Hazards


Book Description

Michael L. Printz Honor Book Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book Boston Globe/Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book Arnold Adoff Poetry Award for Teens Six Starred Reviews—★Booklist ★BCCB ★The Horn Book ★Publishers Weekly ★School Library Connection ★Shelf Awareness A Booklist Best Book for Youth * A BCCB Blue Ribbon * A Horn Book Fanfare Book * A Shelf Awareness Best Children's Book * Recommended on NPR's "Morning Edition" by Kwame Alexander "This powerful story, told with the music of poetry and the blade of truth, will help your heart grow."–Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak and Shout "[A] testimony and a triumph."–Jason Reynolds, author of Long Way Down In her own voice, acclaimed author and poet Nikki Grimes explores the truth of a harrowing childhood in a compelling and moving memoir in verse. Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring memoir that will resonate with young readers and adults alike, Nikki shows how the power of those words helped her conquer the hazards - ordinary and extraordinary - of her life.




When Charley Met Emma


Book Description

Winner of the 2019 Foreword INDIES Award Bronze Medal, When Charley Met Emma teaches kids about disability, empathy, and the beauty of friendships with people who are different from you. When Charley goes to the playground and sees Emma, a girl with limb differences who gets around in a wheelchair, he doesn't know how to react at first. But after he and Emma start talking, he learns that different isn't bad, sad, or strange--different is just different, and different is great! This delightful book will help kids think about disability, kindness, and how to behave when they meet someone who is different from them.




Awesomely Emma


Book Description

Fans of When Charley Met Emma will love seeing Emma champion her inner awesomeness in this inspirational sequel that teaches readers about the power of self-advocacy. Emma has limb differences, but different isn't bad, sad, or strange. It's just different! But when some accessibility problems get in the way at the local art museum, it ruins the fun of a class trip...and then Emma's friend Charley makes things even worse! In the middle of a really bad day, Emma has to call upon her sense of inner awesome to stand up for herself and teach everyone a lesson about the transformative power of feeling awesome in your own skin.

Amy Webb's follow-up to When Charley Met Emma, Awesomely Emma will have all kids cheering as they learn to see the inner awesome in themselves and those around them.




A Child's Garden of Verses


Book Description

From the author of Treasure Island, this wonderful book of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poetry for children is brought to life with splendid illustrations by Jessie Willcox Smith. A Child’s Garden of Verses is Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1885 collection of cherished children’s poems. Over 60 lyrical pieces are featured in this anthology, alongside glorious illustrations by Jessie Willcox Smith. The illustrator is known for her beautiful soft lines and colours, and the artwork in this volume brings much joy to Stevenson’s poetry. This volume features the following poems: Foreign Children The Lamplighter The Land of Counterpane Bed in Summer My Shadow The Swing




A Rule is to Break


Book Description

"A Rule Is To Break says: Go ahead and throw your best self a party! So glad it exists."—Kristin Hersh, Throwing Muses "After encountering the lively little anarchist in John and Jana's delightful A Rule is To Break, I will always remember the playful little devil with a mind of her own. A children's book on anarchy seems somehow just right: an instinctive, intuitive sense of fairness, community, and interdependence sits naturally enough with a desire for participatory democracy, self-determination, and peace and global justice."—Bill Ayers, author of To Teach: The Journey in Comics and Fugitive Days Simply celebrating childhood: the joy, the wonder of discovery, the spontaneity, and strong emotions. . . . Wild Child is free to do as she pleases. A Rule Is To Break: A Child's Guide to Anarchy follows Wild Child as she learns about just being herself and how that translates into kid autonomy. It presents the ideas of challenging societal expectations and tradition and expressing yourself freely in kid-terms that are both funny and thought provoking—it even functions as a guidebook for adults to understand what it is to be a critically thinking, creative individual. Wild Child is the role model for disobedience that is sometimes civil. John Seven and Jana Christy's previous collaboration The Ocean Story won Creative Child magazine's 2011 Creative Child Award Seal of Excellence and was shortlisted for the 2012 Green Earth Book Award.




If I Ran the Zoo


Book Description

Gerald tells of the very unusual animals he would add to the zoo, if he were in charge.




Reading in the Dark


Book Description

Contributions by Rebecca A. Brown, Justine Gieni, Holly Harper, Emily L. Hiltz, A. Robin Hoffman, Kirsten Kowalewski, Peter C. Kunze, Jorie Lagerwey, Nick Levey, Jessica R. McCort, and Janani Subramanian Dark novels, shows, and films targeted toward children and young adults are proliferating wildly. It is even more crucial now to understand the methods by which such texts have traditionally operated and how those methods have been challenged, abandoned, and appropriated. Reading in the Dark fills a gap in criticism devoted to children's popular culture by concentrating on horror, an often-neglected genre. These scholars explore the intersection between horror, popular culture, and children's cultural productions, including picture books, fairy tales, young adult literature, television, and monster movies. Reading in the Dark looks at horror texts for children with deserved respect, weighing the multitude of benefits they can provide for young readers and viewers. Refusing to write off the horror genre as campy, trite, or deforming, these essays instead recognize many of the texts and films categorized as "scary" as among those most widely consumed by children and young adults. In addition, scholars consider how adult horror has been domesticated by children's literature and culture, with authors and screenwriters turning that which was once horrifying into safe, funny, and delightful books and films. Scholars likewise examine the impetus behind such re-envisioning of the adult horror novel or film as something appropriate for the young. The collection investigates both the constructive and the troublesome aspects of scary books, movies, and television shows targeted toward children and young adults. It considers the complex mechanisms by which these texts communicate overt messages and hidden agendas, and it treats as well the readers' experiences of such mechanisms.