1

Julia Vostrejs

Mrs. Layton

English IV

26 October 2018

Annotated Bibliography

Crippen, Martha. “The Value of Children's Literature | Oneota Reading Journal.” Luther College,

2012, www.luther.edu/oneota-reading-journal/archive/2012/the-value-of-childrens-literature/.

Martha Crippen is an academic professor who is the author of the article published on the website

of Luther College that describes various aspects of young students’ minds and learning capabilities that

are improved through the reading of children’s literature. These aspects include the development of

worldviews, discovery of heritage, emotional intelligence, and social skills. All of these things are

affected positively by reading these stories at a young age.

This article is fairly recent, as it is maintained by other journalists, and was last updated in

November of 2017. As a professor who had taught in many different grade levels, Crippen is a fairly

reliable source for information about the psychology of young students. This article is also on the website

of an actual Liberal Arts college located in Iowa, so the information had to have been screened before

being posted. However, this college is not exactly the most well-known of places, so I am still somewhat

skeptical of any information I get from them. The author also posted a lengthy list of their references, so

that helps quell any suspicions. For the most part, this article seems truthful/factual, and unbiased.

This article will be a great help in providing evidence for my argument, as it comes from an

academic source, and goes into detail about the impact children’s literature has psychologically on young

children/students. Overall it’s going to be a good source for my argument.

 2

Desai, Christina M. “What's so Important about Children's Literature?: Nostalgia Meets

Research.” College & Research Libraries News, 2014,

crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/9090/9968.

Christina Desai is an academic researcher who focuses specifically on children’s literature, and a

professor at the University of New Mexico. In this article, she goes into the importance of children’s lit in

influencing the worldviews/ideologies children are exposed to. She also goes one step further and notes

the surprising usefulness of children’s literature as a tool for other academics in their research (for

example, sociology and history scholars may analyze notions of family or class in books such as Charles

Dickens’ Oliver Twist to get an accurate representation of views at the time it was written).

This article was written fairly recently, in 2014. It is also part of a scholarly journal, written by

someone with experience in her field, so I am inclined to trust this source. However, 4 years is still a

fairly long time in our fast-moving modern age, so I’m curious if anything about her views would have

changed since when this was written. This article may be slightly biased, since there are some bits written

in that hint at this being a little bit of an opinion piece, but since all academic references are cited and the

facts presented are unbiased, I see no reason to dock this article for that.

This article is really helpful in that it gives me a new perspective for how children’s literature is

not just useful for children, but useful for studying social sciences such as history or sociology. That is an

angle not many people would expect from an argument about this, so it would be a very convincing thing

to add.

Trotter, April. “Story Power! The Impact of Children's Literature.” Penn State University, 2007,

news.psu.edu/story/141114/2007/04/09/research/story-power-impact-childrens-literature.

April Trotter is an academic who works within Penn State, and this article was co-written with

Dan Hade, a professor focused on language and literacy. This article details a speech Hade gave during

Penn State’s Research Unplugged spring lineup in 2007. In it, he details how stories (no matter the

medium) are integral to the development of children and how they make sense of the world. He also
 3

highlights the importance of introducing new voices into children’s lit, as only eight major companies ran

the market of children’s lit at the time the article was written, which is an environment that can ultimately

be harmful to the children.

The article was written in 2007, so it may be a little outdated in some aspects. For example, the

rise of the independent book market didn’t happen until somewhere around 2012. The article comes from

an academic source, and those who wrote it specialize in this field, so I find it very trustworthy. They

might be a bit biased towards their point, but their evidence is convincing, so I don’t see too much of an

issue with it.

I think this article/speech is a good way to mix things up, source-wise, since it comes from

someone who is also a public speaker on the subject. The arguments made are very good, and they will

add some good points to my research paper.

Albers, Peggy. “Why Stories Matter for Children's Learning.” Theconversation.com, The

Conversation, 31 Aug. 2018, theconversation.com/why-stories-matter-for-childrens-learning-52135.

This article details how stories told to children, through traditional/nontraditional means, is an

important part of developing their understanding of social structures, as well as identity and race (the

article cites research into the subject, where it has been found that these things develop in children by age

5). It also details the importance of using these stories to help children grow up more open-minded, and

knowing about just how many different cultures/life experiences are out there, since it is often the best

way to do so. It makes a genuine difference in the minds/lives of children, as they easily identify with the

feelings of characters at such a young age.

This article was written in 2016, and modern issues/perspectives are being brought in for context,

so this article is definitely still relevant. It may be a bit biased towards the more progressive end

politically, but even so I think a lot of people would agree with its overall message about using stories to

teach kids how to be kind, open minded, etc. The article comes from a fairly well-known website, so it

seems very trustworthy overall.

 4

I think this will prove to be an especially important article to use, since it involves the idea of

positive representation of all sorts of life experiences, which is what my senior project is ultimately about.

Overall, it will provide very convincing parts of my argument.