Textbook Assignments Chapters 1-5

Chapter 1: Why do we share literature with children?

1.      It is fun! It allows children and adults to use their imaginations and experience other worlds. It creates a different experience for us as the reader.

2.      Reading is crucial to a child’s educational success more than almost any other factor.

3.      Becoming a life long reader correlates directly with enjoying to read. Not just reading for school or an assignment, but reading purely for enjoyment and for fun!

4.      The more a child reads the better they will become all around because it deals directly with vocabulary acquisition and language development.

5.      Books teach a variety of lessons that kids can relate directly to. It makes it easier for us adults and teachers to use these mentor texts to help teach these lessons, and it helps the students be able to connect directly with the text.

6.      Reading impacts everything, but what I find that kids lack the most is imagination and reading is key for that. Imagination allows us to grow into creative individuals and critical thinkers. It is important skill that many of the students in today’s generation lack.

7.      We learn about other people and their cultures through various novels. We also learn empathy and how to feel.

Chapter 2: Division’s of Young People’s Literature

1.      Children’s Literature (0-8 years old): Wordless picture books, picture books, easy readers, and illustrated chapter books

2.      Middle Grade/Tween (8-12 years old): Middle school is technically 11-13 years old, but the books for middle schoolers have different issues and tougher topics that are addressed as opposed to the books that are classified as middle grade.

3.      Young Adult (13-18 years old): Some books could cross into middle school, but be mindful of the topic

4.      New Adult (18-30 years old): Appeals to adult audiences. Deals with college experiences, major relationships, sexual experiences, more serious concepts.

Chapter 3: Anatomy of a Book

·        Books are created with various parts it is not only the spine of the book.

·        It includes:

·        Endpapers (Beginning and end of the book)

·        Casewrap (Whatever is underneath the jacket if it is a hardcover book)

·        Book Block (The main text or body of the book)

·        Gutter (The blank space or inner margin that separates the printing area from the binding)

·        Headband (Decorative strips at the top and the bottom of a casebound book to fill the gap between the binding and the cover)

·        Backbone (Connects the front and back covers aka the spine)

Chapter 4: Genres and Formats

·        Fiction and Nonfiction are classified as genres.

·        Every other type of genre is considered a subgenre.

·        Fiction’s subgenres are fantasy, realism, modern, traditional, and historical.

·        Traditional subgenres break down even more into myths, legends, folktales, fairytales etc.

·        Nonfiction subgenres include biography, autobiography, memoir, narrative nonfiction, and informational texts.

·        Not just genres, we also see subjects in literature such as paranormal, action/adventure, war, classics, guy readers etc.

·        Formats include drama, poetry, novels, chapter books, short stories, picture books, and graphic novels.

Chapter 5: What is YA Literature?

·        Main characters are easily relatable to the adolescents that this genre is targeted to.

·        The point of view comes from the adolescent’s view, so we get their thoughts, feelings, and interpretations of all of the events.

·        It has direct confrontation which ultimately forces the main character’s life to significantly change

·        The main character experiences consequences of decisions and actions that are made throughout the text.

After reading these five chapters I have realized that as I am reading YA literature I need to be on the lookout for a very independent main character, and I need to pay close attention to the plot of the story. As I was reading these chapters I was reflecting on novels that I have previously read that would fall into the YA category now that I have been able to look at the differences and the divisions of children’s literature. I also thought it was interesting to see the various genres, formats, and subgenres of text. As I am reading YA literature I now have a better understanding of these things to help me determine the genre, subgenre, and format of the text and say it correctly.