LITERATURE FOR

CHILDREN
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
In books for children, CHILDREN are

usually the MAIN PROTAGONISTS.

LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN

Children learn indirectly rather than
directly
 The tend to rely on their ability to “read”
the message
 They can interpret new sounds, new
words and new structures

CHILDREN´S ABILITY TO GRASP

MEANING
Children delight in imagination and
fantasy.
 Imagination provides a very powerful
stimulus for real language use.
Children have an enormous capacity for
finding and making fun.

THE ROLE OF IMAGINATION

Literature for children fosters

IMAGINATIVE THINKING, AND IT IS FULL

OF THE UNPREDICTABLE

Literature for Children

 A fantasy world

An exciting adventure

Relationship with nature

Copying with problems and adults

LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN

Itembraces the whole content of the child
´s imaginative world and that of his/her
daily environment, as well as certain ideas
and sentiments characteristic of it.

SUBJECT MATTER
The population of their world is made up not
only of children themselves but of animated
objects, plants, even grammatical and
mathematical abstractions; toys, dolls, and
puppets; real, chimerical and invented animals;
miniature or magnified humans; spirits or
grotesques of wood, water, air, fire, and space;
supernatural and fantasy creatures; figures of
fairy tale, myth, and legend; grown-ups as
seen through the child´s eyes.

CHARACTERS
It´s the author´s attitude toward his or her
subject matter or toward the audience.
By recognizing tone, a reader can determine
whether a writer views the subject with
sympathy, disdain, humor, or affection.
Is the author ironic, sarcastic, critical,
serious?
Clues to the tone in a work: word choice,
style, choice of images, treatment of
characters and events, even sound.

TONE
It is the overall atmosphere or prevailing
emotional aura of a work.
It answers to these questions: How does this
literary work make you feel? What
images lead to this feeling?
Mood may be described as light, happy, bleak,
tragic, and so on.
An author establishes mood partly through the
descripton of setting and partly through the
people and objects chosen to be described.

MOOD
Authors have many ways to use words
to express their ideas such as:
Use of imagery, figurative language,
allusion, irony, selection of vocabulary,
grammatical structure, symbolism,
dialect, as well as the devices of
comparison, sound and rhythm.
Tone and mood is generated by the
choice of words.

WRITING STYLE
ENID BLYTON
LOPEZ HIPKISS
RHYTHMIC AND REPETITIVE

THEY INDUCE MOVEMENT AND

PERFORMANCE

POETRY- NURSERY RHYMES

POPULAR
RHYTHMIC
HUMOROUS
COLLOQUIAL USE OF LANGUAGE
NAUGHTY

FOLKLORE
APPEALING

THEY TELL MEANINGFUL STORIES ABOUT

UNIVERSAL CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES

NARRATIVE POEMS
POPULAR

INTERESTING SLANG

LANGUAGE DEVIATIONS

SONGS
IT BUILDS ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF HUMOUR

VERBAL HUMOUR

ABSURDITY

EXAGGERATION, RIDICULE, THE

UNEXPECTED

COMIC AND NONSENSE VERSE

FREEDOM FROM SET PATTERNS

POETRY BECOMES AN “AUTHENTIC”

VOICE

IT DISCOVERS EVERYDAY POETRY

FREE VERSE
SEPTEMBER 23: Literature for Children
Poetry for children: Characteristics.
Translation.

SEPTEMBER 30: Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain:

Comprehension and translation.

OCTOBER 7: MID-TERM TEST: ATTENTION!:

Read “Eveline” for the Mid-Term Test.

OCTOBER 14: ORAL ASSIGNMENT: VERA BRITTAIN

OCTOBER 21: POETRY ( Maybe we´ll
start with poetry after the mid-term test)

OCTOBER 28: NO CLASSES

NOVEMBER 4: FINAL EXAM!!!

SCHEDULE