Language in Children ’ s Fiction -Overview Kathleen Ahrens Hong Kong Baptist University Class #1 & 2 – January 17 & 24, 2011

Your Background  Focus of area in children ’ s literature?  Visited Bookstore in past month?  Own English picture books?  Interest in teaching English?

Why do we read fiction to children?

Poems with Pictures

Tell us about the world

Teach language

Picture books – for language teaching  For beginning and intermediate learners – to engage and stimulate interest in learning the language  For advanced learners – to practice oral proficiency and to offer opportunities for discussion

Overview: Children ’ s Fiction  Board Books  Toddler Picture Books  Early Picture Books  Picture Books  Easy Readers  Chapter Books  Mid-grade Novels  Young Adult novels

Baby Books/ infant board booksInfant - 2 years  Length varies  Little or no text  Bright art  Nursery rhymes  Includes novelty books such as bathtub books and lift-the-flap  Use: Teaching colors, shapes, object names  Example: Freight Train

Freight Train – Donald Crews

Toddler Picture Books  Under 300 words – 12 pages  Read-alouds that can be completed within ten minutes  Bright art that tells the story  Repetitive language  Happy endings  Example: The Very Hungry Catepillar

The Very Hungry Catepillar

Early Picture Books  Average pages – 1000 words  Art gives details of story  Simple story with beginning, middle, and end  Present tense  Some repetitive language  Example: Where the Wild Things Are

Repetition

Picture Books  Average 32 pages – up to 1500 words  Up to 48 pages and 2000 words for nonfiction  Sentences ten words or under  Simple prefixes and suffixes  Possessives and past tense are okay  Art supports the text  Example: Weslandia

Easy Readers  32 to 48 pages – up to 1500 words  As few as 3 – 5 sentences per page  Vary sentence length up to ten words.  Color illustrations  Trade trim size  Characters have some trait that makes them easy to identify  Controlled vocabulary  Example: Railroad Toad

Easy Readers  Variety of levels  Can be used at any stage, depending on level  Advantages: Inexpensive, well- controlled vocabulary  Disadvantages: smaller size, simpler illustrations

Chapter Books  First novels  Past beginning readers stage  Wide vocabulary  More complicated sentence structure  Ages 5-8  Similar to easy-to-read (short paragraphs, plenty of white space, pictures)

Chapter Books  Similar to novels: Chapter divisions, more extended time frame  May approach a standard 8-12 (mid- grade) novel in look and feel (but not in length  About 6,000-8,000 words  Example: Sarah, Plain and Tall

Mid-grade Books  12,000 – 25,000 words  8-12 years  7-11 years or 9-13 years  Read widely and deeply – not too much homework just yet  Bud, Not Buddy – Christopher Paul Curtis

Young Adult/Teen Books  Teenage protagonist  Range of genres: historical, contemporary, fantasy, science fiction, romance, realism  40,000 – 80,000 words (about 100 pages shorter than an adult novel)  Example: Celine, Brock Cole

Questions?