Understanding Children's Literature: Benefits and Development

Children and Literature

Definition

Children's literature is the body of written works addressed to children from birth to adolescence, covering topics of relevance and interest to children of those ages, through prose and poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Children's books are about the experiences of childhood, both good and bad. The content of children's books includes diverse topics that are of interest to children, such as dinosaurs, Egyptian mummies, world records, and fighter planes.

The manner helps to define children's books. Forthright, humorous, or suspenseful manners are appropriate for young readers.

Quality in writing has to do with originality and importance of ideas, imaginative use of language, and beauty of literary and artistic style.

The Personal Value of Literature to Children

These are the most important gains:

• Enjoyment: The most important personal gain because such positive early experiences often lead to a lifetime of reading enjoyment.
• Imagination and inspiration: By seeing the worlds around them and by considering ways of living other than their own, children increase their ability to think divergently.
• Vicarious experience: It can be a good mental exercise for children, since they are asked to view situations from perspectives other than their own.
• Understanding and empathy: Literature helps young people gain an appreciation of the universality of human needs across history.
• Heritage: Knowing the tales, characters, expressions… that are part of our cultural heritage is part of being culturally literate.
• Moral reasoning: Young readers naturally consider what they would do in such a situation. This type of story can help young people formulate their own concepts of right and wrong.
• Literary and artistic preferences: Children who read regularly from a wide variety of children's books soon develop their own personal preferences for types of books and authors. The more children know about their world, the more they discover about themselves.

Children's Development and Literature

• Age 0 to 2: Infants can enjoy and benefit from good literature. We have to consider how well they can see the illustrations and how long they will sit for a book experience. Common features of these book types are: clearly defined, repetitive text, brightly colored, physical durability…
• Age 2 to 4: Nursery rhymes can be committed to memory; concept books can now include letters, numbers, and more complex concepts such as opposites. At this age, they can also enjoy folktales.
• Age 4 to 7: Stories in which children interact with other children, spend time away from home, begin school, and learn interesting facts are popular with this age group. Picture storybooks, folktales…
• Age 7 to 9: Children begin to understand and accept others' perspectives, recognize that life and people don't fit into neat good and bad categories. With these skills, they can read or listen to books about the lives of other children of the past, present, and future in picture books, transitional books, and novels.
• Age 9 to 12: They are ready for more complicated story plots, including such devices as flashback, symbolism, and dialects. Historical fiction and science fiction can be understood and enjoyed.