Richard Robinson, the President and CEO of Scholastic Inc., the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, said that a great children’s text contains a simple and original idea, is written with humour and makes the world more interesting. Despite being published in 1928, A.A. Milne’s The House At Pooh Corner remains a highly effective children’s text. The text meets the criteria set out by Richard Robinson and it has been able to do so through its good uses of literary elements such as style, themes and characters. Some examples of this can be linked to the works of various developmental theorists such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and Erik Erikson. Most children like humour, and other “funny things” in general. The tone of the text is fairly humorous, however, most of the humour is found in the language and dialogue. There are often misspelt words in the dialogues and this happens when a character learns a new word and tries to use it without knowing the correct spelling and sometimes even the full meaning of it. “‘And it’s no good looking at the Six Pine Trees for Piglet… because he’s been organdized in a special place of his own.’”(P37) The spelling of “organised” is not correct and the second part of the dialogue does not make too much sense either and this is because Pooh only just learnt the word from Rabbit. This is an example of learning via the interaction with others, and is especially mentioned in Lev Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development. Vygotsky believed that knowledge is not formed by one individual, but through social interactions with other people. The made-up, nonsensical words are also funny to children. These words are mostly found in Pooh’s eccentric but amusing poems. “And a sort of s... ... middle of paper ... ... text beneficial for children due to its simple educational purposes. Last but not least, the characters are the “icing on the cake”, they make the text even more enjoyed by children and make everything more interesting. Through the good uses of literary elements such as style, theme and characters, A.A. Milne was able to make The House at Pooh Corner still a very popular and outstanding children’s text. Works Cited Scholastic, Scholastic Worldwide, 2014 http://www.scholastic.com.au/corporate/worldwide.asp [accessed 20/05/14] D. Abrams, What makes a children’s book great? We have some answers, 2012, http://publishingperspectives.com/2012/06/what-makes-a-childrens-book-great-we-have-some-answers/ [accessed 21/05/14] Vygotsky vs Piaget, in-class handout sheet Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development, in-class handout sheet Erik Erikson, in-class handout sheet
I agree whole-heartedly with the conclusions that she drew from her observations. It is very hard to get the whole “picture” from a children’s storybook that has no pictures. The children find it harder to identify with the characters and often find these books boring. Being able to see the pictures helps them to make connections with either the characters or with their personal experiences. For example, all small children can identify with the little monkey, George, in Rey’s Curious George. On page 27 of the book, we see George smoking a pipe because he saw the man in the yellow hat smoking it. At some point in every child’s life, he has seen an adult doing something unfamiliar and wanted to try it, just like George did. This would be a good point at which the child could articulate one of his experiences to a class or friend, helping him to become more comfortable with speaking about and sharing his thoughts.
After a four week survey of a multitude of children’s book authors and illustrators, and learning to analyze their works and the methods used to make them effective literary pieces for children, it is certainly appropriate to apply these new skills to evaluate a single author’s works. Specifically, this paper focuses on the life and works of Ezra Jack Keats, a writer and illustrator of books for children who single handedly expanded the point of view of the genre to include the experiences of multicultural children with his Caldecott Award winning book “Snowy Day.” The creation of Peter as a character is ground breaking in and of itself, but after reading the text the reader is driven to wonder why “Peter” was created. Was he a vehicle for political commentary as some might suggest or was he simply another “childhood” that had; until that time, been ignored? If so, what inspired him to move in this direction?
Finally we get to the book’s legendary character, Winnie the Pooh. Hoff discusses how Pooh does not ponder or think about something, he just goes out and does it. He makes the statement that because of these things always works out for Pooh in the end. He goes on to state that instead of interfering w...
Christopher Robin, the human figure in Winnie-the-Pooh, is the representation of A. A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne. He is a very kind hearted figure that cares for all of the animals. Pooh, along with the others look up to Christopher Robin, and go to him for help and advice often within the literature. Christopher Robin is very mature for his age, and you see a bit of maturing that goes on throughout the books. The only concerning aspect of Christ...
Hollindale, P. (2009) ‘A Hundred Years of Peter Pan’ in Montgomery, H, and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 153-164.
Owl's character as knowledge over amusement may be boring to children listening to his intellectual rambles e.g. Roo's boredom with the encyclopedia. Hence, characters like Winnie the Pooh, who brings amusement, may seem more attractive than Owl. While the character of CR is used to demonstrate the relationship between children and adults by the use of many parallels, speech and actions, it is the animals that represent the author's construction of different types of childhood. In addition to this, the animals are also the providers of amusement and entertainment which draw children's love and interest.
Born a Scotsman, Alan Alexander Milne spent most of his childhood in London where he grew up to be one of the most well known British authors of his time(Dennis). Today Milne is praised for his 'accurate and sympathetic observations of child behavior, his wit, and his skill with language, especially wordplay and dialogue'; which are easily recognizable in his famous Winnie the Pooh stories(Discovering Authors). Although people today regard Milne's stories as children's stories, Milne did not intend them for children, but rather for the child within every person(Dennis). As Barbara Novak puts it, Milne's work 'captures the gaiety of a child's mind and suggests a positive attitude to life and a fresh appreciation of the smallest things(Novak).'; Not only does Milne show the positive attitudes of people, but he also shows the negative attitudes and characteristics of people which, combined, come to make up the philosophy of Taoism.
When reminiscing on past memories of favorite books, cartoons, songs and stuffed animals, many people will think about Winnie the Pooh. The man behind all of your fun filled childhood adventured with Christopher Robin and his bear friend Pooh is Alan Alexander Milne, more commonly known as A. A. Milne. Besides his creation of Winnie the Pooh short story and poetry books he was a very accomplished man through out his whole life. He showed great affection to family members, friends, and to his wife and child. He was also dedicated to his work and set his mind to whatever task he was facing.
The names such as Professor Pippy Pee-pee poopypants and the turbo toilet 2000 gives a chuckle to the reader. Some the text such as in A adventure of captain underpants have the word farts, poops and stinky feet. It brings the imagination of children alive with adventures such as trying to keep the principal who became Captain Underpants from getting harm. The principal thinks he is Captain Underpants running through traffic in his underwear and the villains they run into. The principal might be mean and heartless but when he become Captain Underpants the boys cared for him. It is funny to see even though the children make pranks to the principal, they don’t want to him to get
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not”, Theodor Geisel once said. Geisel cared for his books and the kids who read them. Theodor Geisel was best known as a famous author for children's books. After taking a closer look at the life and work of Theodor Geisel, It is apparent that he deserves recognition as a profound children’s author.
When my parents read to me, they enjoyed reading Dr. Suess books, which became popular with the publication of The Cat In The Hat. I was only interested in looking at books with color. When the books were colorful they grabbed my attention quickly. I couldn’t wait for my parents to come in my room at night and read to me from The Cat in the Hat. I think that this is one of the popular books that parents should read to their children.
When attending a masquerade, a person is expected to wear a mask. In fact, it’s looked down upon if a mask isn’t worn. But, what if for some people that mask never came off? In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, each character has constructed their own metaphorical mask that they set firmly in place every morning when exiting their bed. Each character: Nora, Torvald, Kristine and Krogstad all have masks that they put in place when speaking to each other. Throughout most of the play, it is clear that all of the aforementioned characters have multiple facades that they use when speaking to one another; often switching quickly as they begin speaking to someone else. Henrik Ibsen’s use of the masquerade serves as an extended metaphor to show the masks that the characters use in their everyday lives.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Voices in the Park were published at either end of the twentieth century, a period which witnessed the creation of the modern picturebook for children. They are both extremely prestigious examples of picturebooks of their type, the one very traditional, the other surrealist and postmodern. The definition of ‘picturebook’ used here is Bader’s: ‘an art form [which] hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning of the page’ (Bader, quoted in Montgomery, 2009, p. 211). In contrast with a simple illustrated book, the picturebook can use all of the technology available to it to produce an indistinguishable whole, the meaning and value of which is dependent on the interplay between all or any of these aspects. Moebius’s claim that they can ‘portray the intangible and invisible[…], ideas that escape easy definition in pictures or words’ is particularly relevant to these two works. Potter’s book is, beneath its didactic Victorian narrative, remarkably subtle and subversive in its attitudes towards childhood, and its message to its child readers. Browne’s Voices in the Park, on the other hand, dispenses with any textual narrative; by his use of the devices of postmodernism, visual intertextuality and metaphor, he creates a work of infinite interpretation, in which the active involvement of the reader is key.
"The Value of Children's Literature | Education.com." Education.com | An Education & Child Development Site for Parents | Parenting & Educational Resource. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. .
At the age when children read Peter Pan, they don’t think that there is anything more than what is written. However, as the reader grows older and wiser, they are able to see elements of some literature, like Peter Pan, that they were not able to comprehend previously. For example, many of the male figures in Peter Pan like the pirates are clearly pedophiles. They spend their time chasing afte...