CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

LITERATURE
 Used to define the excellence in
writing.
 Writings in which expression and form,
in connection with ideas of permanent
and universal interest are
Characterized or essential features
such as poetry, romance, history,
biography, essays and etc.
 Came from the Latin word “ Littera”
meaning Letters.
DID YOU KNOW?
 At least a third of Children’s Literature
derives from the same sources as does the
literature of the adult world.
 Children versions of Beowulf, King Arthur, Noli
Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo are given to
children in less complex form.
 The difference between literature for
chuildren and literature for adults lies in
choice of subject matter rather than the
depth of feeling or quality of writing.
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
 The body of written works intended to
be read by the young.
 Good quality trade books for children
from birth to adolescence,
covering topics of
relevance and interests to children of
those ages,
through prose and poetry, fiction and n
onfiction
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE LITERATURE FOR ADULTS

 Within their experiences  fast-paced

 Background  variety of genres and
 Attitudes subjects
 Abilities  Optimistic and
 Interest
characters make worthy
 Satisfy their basic needs accomplishments.
 deals with real
emotions.

DISTINGUISHING CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND

LITERATURE FOR ADULTS
THE CHILD AND HIS BOOKS
1. The need for security.
 Intellectual
 Material
 Emotional
 Spiritual
2. The need to love and to be loved.
3. The need to belong
4. The need to achieve
5. Play: The need for change
6. The need for aesthetic satisfaction
A) THE PERSONAL VALUE B) THE ACADEMIC VALUE

- enjoyment - improving reading skills

- Imagination and - developing writing voice
inspiration and style
- vicarious experience - learning content-area
- understanding and knowledge
empathy - promoting art
- cultural heritage appreciation
- moral reasoning
- literary and artistic
preferences

VALUE OF LITERATURE IN CHILDREN

AGES 0-2 
 Sensorimotor period
 nursery rhymes for reading aloud
 brief, plotless, concept books with
brightly colored pictures
 interactive books (e.g. touching and
opening little doors)
 often in the form of heavy, nontoxic
cardboard or cloth books
AGES 2-4
 pre-conceptual stage
 simple-plot picture storybooks and
folktales for reading aloud
 nursery rhymes for them to memorize
 concept books including numbers,
letters, and more complex concepts like
opposites (e.g. counting books, word
books, and illustrated dictionaries) 
AGES 4-7
 Beginning   readers
 intuitive stage
 easy-to-read picture storybooks, folktales, and
rhymes for reading aloud, storytelling, and “play-
reading”
 informational books for beginning readers that help
children find out about the world and how it works
 they begin to understand the notion of stories,
letter-sound relationship, left-to-right and top-to-
bottom progression of print on the page, and a
slight vocabulary
AGES 7-9
 Transitional readers
 Period of concrete operations (7-11)
 longer picture books and short chapter
books with simple, straightforward
plots and writing styles
 their interest in folktales begin to fall
off by age 8; they show more interest in
realistic stories and adventures of
young characters
AGES 9-12
 Competent  readers

 sophisticated picture storybooks and novels

(chapter books) with more complicated plots,
including realistic fiction (survival stories, peer
stories, animal stories, mysteries, and
romances), historical fiction, and science fiction
 series books containing similar topics, recurring
characters, and formulaic patterns of plots 
CRITERION FOR BOOK SELECTION

1. Plot
2. Quality of Content
3. Theme
4. Characterization
5. Style
6. Format
PLOT
 Does the book tell a good story?
 Does the plot have action and
suspense?
 Is it plausible and credible?
 Is the plot well-constructed?
CONTENT
 Is the story worth telling?
 is the content appropriate for children?
 How might the content fit into the
curriculum?
 Does truth and justice prevail in the
end?
THEME
 What is the theme?
 Is the theme worth imparting to young
people?
 Is it a natural part of the story?
 Does it avoid moralising?
 What development values are
illustrated?
CHARACTERIZATION
 Are the characters convincing and
credible?
 Do we see their strengths and
weaknesses?
 Does the author avoid stereotyping?
 Is there any character development or
growth?
STYLE
 Is the style appropriate to the subject
of the book?
 Does it present the story with clarity
and simplicity?
 Is the dialogue natural and suited to
the characters?
 Is the book well-written?
FORMAT
 Is the appearance of the book
attractive?
 Do the illustrations enhance the story?
 Is the print clear and appropriate to the
age level?
 Is the paper of good quality?
 Does the book have a durable binding?
 LITTLE MISS MUFFET

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
And sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
 The origin of “Little Miss Muffet” is most
commonly attributed to Dr. Thomas Muffet, a
notorious physician and entomologist from the
16th century, the author of a scientific illustrated
guide about insects. “Little Miss Muffet” is about
a girl named Patience, who was Dr Muffet’s
stepdaughter. The lyrics probably tell the story of
an incident when Patience ran away from her
breakfast, being frightened by a spider from Dr.
Muffet’s collection. However this speculation was
never proved.
DIFFERENT FORMS
 Mother Goose Rhymes
 Nonsense
 Poetry
 Picture Books
 Fables
 Folktales
 Fantasy
 Epic and Romances
 Biography
 Fiction
MOTHER GOOSE
 The children who experienced the
hardships of colonial life had access to
the nonsense and gaiety of Mother
Goose.
 often cited as the author of hundreds of
children’s stories that have been
passed down through oral tradition and
published over centuries.
NONSENSE
 https://youtu.be/3SUU1f3Mgpc
POETRY

 is a form of literature that uses

aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of
language—such as sound symbolism,
and meter—to evoke meanings in
addition to, or in place of, the prosaic
ostensible meaning.
PICTURE BOOK
  is a book, typically for children, in
which the illustrations are as important
as—or more important than—the words
in telling the story.
 In picture books, there are
illustrations on every page or on one
page of every pair of facing pages
FABLES
Are brief narratives which attempt to
make abstract ideas of good or bad,
wise or foolish behaviour concrete and
striking enough to be understood and
remembered.
Parables
Is like a fable that it tells a brief story from
which moral or spiritual truth may be
inferred.
 The Panchatantra Tales is one of the
best known classics of ancient India.
The stories were composed in Sanskrit
about 1600 years ago. It was a unique
contribution of India to the world of
literature. These fables have carved a
prominent place for themselves in the
World of classics
 The Greek fable forms a literature by
itself. The fame of Aesop’s Fables has
spread far and wide and has in it all the
elements of the traditional fable. The
characters are all beasts and birds but
personified to suit the themes.
FOLK TALES
 stories in the oral tradition, or tales
that people tell each other out loud,
rather than stories in written form.
They're closely related to many
storytelling traditions, including fables,
myths, and fairy tales.
FANTASY
 Children use the term fairy tales to
describe stories of marvels and magic.
 Tales that are set in an unreal world.
EPIC AND ROMANCES

Epic
 Is a poem of extended length made up of
traditional stories clustered about a central
hero or group of heroes.
Romance
 Stories in the oral tradition, or tales that

people tell each other out loud, rather than

stories in written form. They're closely
related to many storytelling traditions,
including fables, myths, and fairy tales.
BIOGRAPHY
 is a literary genre that portrays the
experiences of all these events
occurring in the life of a person, mostly
in a chronological order.
FICTION (REALISM)
 May be defined as stories told in a
setting of reality without the
interference of magic and supernatural.