While reading the books, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, I noticed several commonalities as well as some differences between the books and how the image of the child is represented in these books. The two books give a sense of what a child is like based on similarities and differences of the characterizations, situations, interactions, themes and questions that a child may think about while reading.
The most important part of any book is the beginning and the end. In the beginning, it is important to gain interest of the reader so the reader continues to read throughout the book. At the end, it is important to understand the theme of the story or what the author is trying to convey. These two books did this in different ways based on whom the author intended to read the book. The book “Tuck Everlasting” starts in deep description that paints a picture of the woods and the “touch-me-not cottage” for the reader. The author, Babbitt, uses such imagery to let the reader know that these places are important and because they are so important, the reader must keep reading to find out why. This book was written for young girls to read because of their interest in magical and romantic dreams. Babbitt uses this to keep the reader’s attention. In chapter two, the impossible begins. One of the characters, Mae, was excited about her children coming home while her husband, Tuck, was not as excited for he was stuck on other issues in which he could not change. Babbitt does not clearly come out and tell what these issues were but she does hint towards them. On page9, “Tuck twitched and the smile vanished. He opened his eyes. ‘Why’d you have to wake me up?’ he sighed. ‘I was having that dream again, th...
... middle of paper ...
...xample, a child might say that Winnie did a bad thing by running away from home. Their reasoning behind that might be because they are breaking the rules and that is wrong. This child would be at the Preconventional level: Punishment and Obedience Orientation (Russell, 25-6).
A sense of what the child is like and how they think or feel about him or herself is conveyed in these two books “The Jungle Book” and “Tuck Everlasting” through characterization, situations, interactions, themes and questions. Depending on what stage they are at in their development will affect how they view the two stories and their themes.
Works Cited
Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting. New York: Square Fish, 2007. Print.
Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Book. New York: Puffin, 2009. Print.
Russell, David L. Literature for Children: A Short Introduction. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2011. Print.
Taking a closer look at the writing styles, it is easy to see why they are perfect reading books for children. Brown uses short sentences with in her writing for each page of the book. This makes it easier for children to focus on the action or story being told. It also helps them to be able to examine sentences one at a time instead of using paragraphs that could confuse them by having so many words present. Brown and Krauss also use small simple words that are taught to children at a young age that helps them work on repetition, for example in “Goodnight Moon”, each time the bunny is talking he always says “goodnight” to everything in the room. This helps to identify objects and better define words with the illustrations. Krauss also uses these short simple words and phrases to help children with their learning to read. For example, in the book “A Hole is to Dig”, the sentence says, “A face is so you can make faces.” This sentence also shows the children repetition by restating the word twice.
year old, is a boy who most can relate to. The book explores most aspects of
Roberts, Edgar V., Jacobs, Henry E. “Literature.” The Lesson. 470-475. Toni Cade Bambara. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 2001
... Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Tom Burns.
Griffith, John, and Charles Frey. Classics of Children's Literature. 6th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. 21-29, 322-374. Print.
Both of these stories served as mile markers in the history of children's literature, and marked turning points in our Society. For the first time, children were allowed to think freely, and learn. They independently formed their own thoughts on life, God, and many of the other highly regulated aspects of their society. Until this time most of the children were taught to think as their parents or feel the wrath of vengeful and often cruel God.
It has always been amazing to realize how well the literature I read as a child has stayed with me through the years. It takes an exceptional writer to compose a narrative that maintains a storyline on the same level of a child's understanding; it takes everything short of a miracle to keep a child's interest. However, that undertaking has been accomplished by many skilled authors, and continues to be an area of growth in the literary world. Only this year the New York Times has given the genre of children's literature the credit it deserves by creating a separate best-sellers list just for outstanding children's books. Yet, on another level, children's literature is not only for the young. I believe that the mark of a brilliant children's author is the age range of those who get pleasure from the stories; the wider the range, the better.
"Reading." The Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence. Ed. Jerome Kagan and Susan B. Gall. Online Edition. Detroit: Gale, 2007.
The long journey on planet earth known as life has it ups and downs, growing up as a young individual in today’s world is an obvious rollercoaster. The characters of Phoebe and Theo, are two young girls who endured completely different lives in the books The Hollow Tree, and Awake and Dreaming although they did encounter some similarities throughout their stories. The two children encountered similar family complications, utilised similar coping mechanisms to escape reality, and both became more assertive over their lifespans in the novels. These two novels offer young females readers a logical view on how tough life can get, and how the readers can overcome similar complications they have in their personal lives, while doing all this generating
Children literature is a term that refers to the texts written for children. The artist uses creative ways to ensure that children are provided with educational books, touching on a variety of themes. This paper will include comparison of two characters from the two texts, “Hana's Suitcase: A True Story,” authored by Karen Levine and “Charlotte’s Web,” written by E.B. White, with the aim of understanding ways in which problems are solvable as indicated by selected characters.
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.
...ia J. Campbell. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996. 39-65. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Scot Peacock. Vol. 82. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
...re imaginative and child friendly. These stories had many of the same dilemmas and faced many of the same challenges. They both had to do with innocence, betrayal, and temptation. C.S. Lewis’s work was defiantly reflective of the Bible, but it fit better with the times, and the people. This trend of using fiction as a device to spread messages, like religion, has been used, is being used, and will continue to be used in the future. In the end the stories are different, but the messages are all the same.
A children book is an extremely substantial and significant form of literature. It educates, affects and amuses at the same time. Although its main audience are the small children, the majority of adults in fact enjoy this type of literature as much as children do. This can be explained by the capacity of children literature to deal with great themes and topics that are too large for adult fiction. (Philip Pullman) For its great importance, the style and technique by which it is produced, is a major concern for both of the authors and critics. One technique has a particular impact in the children book, that is to say, illustration. Bearing the visual nature of children in mind, we understand that their books should be delivered with
Literature has been part of society since pen met paper. It has recorded history, retold fables, and entertained adults for centuries. Literature intended for children, however, is a recent development. Though children’s literature is young, the texts can be separated into two categories by age. The exact splitting point is debatable, but as technology revolutionized in the mid-twentieth century is the dividing point between classic and contemporary. Today’s children’s literature is extraordinarily different from the classics that it evolved from, but yet as classic was transformed into modern, the literature kept many common features.