Children's Literature Summer 2018

The book I chose for the Drama genre is, The Polar Express, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg. This book tells of a boy who believes in Santa Claus and Christmas and gets on aboard a train that takes him and many other children to the North Pole. On the train, he goes on a journey that leads him to meeting Santa Claus and receive a very special gift. The meaning of the book is to emphasize that believing is seeing not seeing is believing. When evaluating the components of Drama and this book, this book can be converted into a drama. The book contains several characters with dialogue and a narrative background alongside the characters. The book contains illustrations that emphasize a lot of action in the background and storyline. When evaluating the elements of Social Justice, this book does not effectively address issues of Social Justice but can fit into the criteria for Element 1 of Self-Love and Knowledge. The storyline talks about the boy having a strong belief i...

The book I chose for the Poetry genre is called "Haiti, My Country" This book consists of 15 different poems written by 15 Haitian schoolchildren. The poems were written before the Haiti 2010 earthquake and it is also emphasized in the book that those children live in a remote area of Haiti far away from all the calamities of Haiti prior to the earthquake. The poems showcase their view of Haiti and we can see the beauty in how they see life. As I evaluated the book and the poems written in the book, this book fits into the Poetry genre effectively for their great use of portrait illustration of each schoolchildren alongside the poem. The poems contains content that speaks to readers and provides imagery. The children also use language that enhances meaning of the poem. When evaluating the book using the criteria for Elements of Social Justice, this book fits into the criteria of elements 1 and 2. The poems reflects the children's self-love, compassion, and respec...

The drama book I selected is titled I Really Like Slop! written and illustrated by Mo Willems. This book is one of many ‘Elephant and Piggie Books’ where these friends go on many different adventures together! In I Really Like Slop! Piggie is trying to convince Gerald (the elephant) to try their favorite food: slop. Gerald is hesitate because of how the slop looks and the smell. At first Gerald refuses to try the slop, but once he sees that Piggie’s feeling are hurt, he changes his mind and tries a very small taste. When Piggie asks if he liked it, Gerald answers honestly by saying, “No, but I am glad I tried it. Because I really like you.” I Really Like Slop! is a great mini-drama that young readers will love. The story is told completely told through the dialogue between both characters. On each page Gerald and Piggie have dialogue bubbles that are also color coded (i.e. Piggies’ dialogue bubbles are pink and Gerald’s are grey) so readers are able to easily recognize wh...