2 Children’s Literature in Action of art. When we study it, we can learn a great deal about writing, illustrating, and bookmaking about the stories, themes, and characters that are part of the world of childhood. As children’s literature expert and critic Betsy Hearne put it, “Childhood is the time and children’s books are the place for powerful emotions, powerful language, powerful art. . . . There is no room for cutesy books, dull books, or books that talk down. Children are not inferior. They may be small in stature but not in what they feel, think, listen, and see” (1999, p. 5). In this chapter, we will consider the variables that contribute to creating literate children. We’ll also look at the field of children’s literature itself and how libraries and librarians fit into the bigger picture. BECOMING LITERATE Most people agree that one of our major goals in working with children is to help them become literate citizens. When our children grow up and leave our charge, we hope they can read and write and think for themselves. We hope they can use their reading skills to handle the information they’ll encounter in the workplace and in their daily lives. And we hope we have also planted a seed that will result in a lifelong pleasure in reading for its own sake. Books we read as children shape us for the rest of our lives. Count yourself lucky if there is a special book you remember fondly from your childhood. Consider how it has shaped your attitudes. Think about how you can provide this same anchor for the children you reach. As children’s literature scholars and teachers Tunnell, Jacobs, Young, and Bryan (2015, p. 1) observe, “Engaged reading, like eating, is one of life’s activ- ities that simultaneously yields both pleasure and benefit.” Through reading we learn things, but we also experience good feelings and happy memories through books. To take the food metaphor a step further, we also want to expose our children to a healthy “diet” of literature: to easy books, hard books, beautiful books, simple stories, all the genres and types of books so that all children can discover their favorites and build a lifetime habit of diverse and healthy reading. I would even argue that if children graduate as nonreaders or “aliterate” individuals who know how to read, but choose not to, then it’s partly our fault. Children who watch television after school every day keep watching television throughout their lives. It’s up to us to work with the other adults in children’s lives (families, teachers, other caregivers) to create a read- ing climate. To make reading as much a part of their lives as television or cell phones, for example. To help children make reading a fun part of their often heavily scheduled lives. We may have to broaden our notion of reading to include all kinds of literature (like graphic novels or joke books) or even all kinds of texts (like ebooks, apps, and websites), but we need to help children learn to value reading in their lives, throughout their lives. What’s the key? It is getting to know the children as individuals and keeping current with our knowledge of their literature, so we can match the child with the just-­ right book that she or he will find irresistible. It is often said that a child who doesn’t like to read has just not found a book that really “grabbed” him or her. That’s where we come in. As librarians, we have the privilege of working with children and books all day long (more or less), and we can be the
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