Running head: TOP 3 FAVORITE CHILDREN’S LITERATURE 1

ED319-01:

Top 3 Favorite Children’s Literature

Mia Kirsten M. Dulana

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Top 3 Favorite Children’s Literature

I loved reading when I was younger. I was the type of kid who could not put the book

down when I started a book, and I think that these three books are why I fell in love with the

hobby. To add to this, my mom also took the time to read me stories before I was 5. It was an

enjoyable and warm experience that felt like an adventure for me with every book.

The first of the books that I wanted to talk about was The English Roses by Madonna.

The book was released in 2003 and is meant for 7–9-year-olds. It has colorful illustrations, and

the text is not hard to comprehend. The story is about a group of close friends who are jealous of

a girl named Binah because she is beautiful and gets a lot of attention. They ignore her until they

realize that Binah has a hard life where she lives alone with her dad and has to do all the chores.

It was then that this group of girls, the English Roses, befriend Binah to be part of their group. I

really liked this book as an impressionable young kid because I felt as if I resonated with Binah.

I always wanted to find that group of people that made me feel like I fit in. I also had a very hard

childhood like Binah because of my family circumstances. The moral of the story is that we

should not judge people before we get to know them.

The second book that came to mind is Katie Kazoo Switcheroo: A Collection of Katie.

This book was released in 2008 and is meant for 8-10-year-olds. It does have some illustrations,

but they are minimal and in black-in-white. The text spacing resembles that of a normal textbook

rather than a children’s book, showing that it is meant for older audiences. In this book, Katie is

severely bullied by a kid in her school who does whatever she can to humiliate her. She is having

a rough time crying when she wishes upon a star for the ability to be anyone else. Her wish is

granted and she gets to ‘switch’ bodies with various people that she knows, including her bully.

This book teaches a similar lesson of trying to understand other people’s perspectives and why
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they might act that way. When horrible things happen to us as a kid, it is easy to forget that there

is a world that exists outside of us, which is why I think that this book is very important. I was

bullied a lot as a kid for superficial things like my height or my glasses. I cannot trade places

with anyone, but I think I did eventually learn to tell when I should not care about those things

that people said because there is definitely more to life than their comments.

The last of these memorable books is the Dork Diaries Series released in 2010. I

absolutely loved this series. It was like the female perspective of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid for

ages 9 and up. The text style was spaced out like a diary or journal. The illustrations had a lot of

life and detail put into them. The storyline revolves around Nikki, her best friend, a guy she

likes, and a popular girl who likes to pick on Nikki. It was easy to relate to and a fun read, as

Nikki faces a lot of social problems. The book teaches the reader that feeling of being upset, sad,

or even in love, are normal. Things may not always go our way, but that is okay because life

always has a way of working itself out. This narrative helped me navigate through some of the

difficulties that came with school and my relationships with people. Fun fact, I actually read over

10 of the Dork Diaries books when I was hospitalized for months in middle school, so it is a

series that helped me through these hard times. I hold it very fondly in my heart.
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References

Kinney, J. (2007). Diary of a Wimpy Kid. New York: Amulet Books

Krulik, N. (2008). Katie Kazoo Switcheroo: A Collection of Katie. New York: Grosset & Dunlap

Madonna (2003). The English Roses. New York: Callaway

Russell, R. R. (2010). Dork Diaries: Party Time. Great Britain: Simon and Schuster UK Ltd.