Week One: Children's Lit, Briefly

Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.

It was great to read that one of the definitions of a good book is personal taste. I think more teachers need to understand and respect that just because a book is acknowledged as quality material does not mean that their students will enjoy reading it. I understand that there are classic pieces of work that all students will have to read during their education. Ironically, it's these books that most students dismiss as old and boring.  I think the problem lays mostly in a lack of effort to involve the students in the story. A 2 page report on something that was written 75 years ago is not the way to get a student to appreciate a book.

On another subject, the pages in color that were used to supplement the reading in Chapter 4 were extremely helpful. Being able to see examples of the functions and styles of illustrations made the chapter a lot easier to read. It's kinda funny, I'm 25 years old and I still like pictures in my books. There's a line in the textbook that says if all children see in the way of art is Sunday newspaper cartoons, then that will be their standard. With all of the wonderful art in children's books today, how sad that would be.