1. The Elements of Style and Tone by Katy Gladden
Many people enjoy
reading and
analyzing selections of fiction.
Why is this?

2. Studying the writing style and tone used by an author helps us to interpret the story.

3. Writing Style
In the class text, A Critical Handbook of Children’s Literature by Rebecca J. Lukens, the author defines the literary element of writing style as:
“…how an author says something as opposed to what he says.” (Page 189).

4. Style and Story
The author mentions that the type of style is selected to best suit the needs of the story.

5. Writing Style
In the following presentation, the story, No, David! is discussed to show how the writing style functions to support the story line.

6. Story Summary
No, David! is the story of a mischievous little five year old boy who is constantly pushing behavior limits with his mother.

7. Story Summary
In the opening page of the book, David is precariously reaching for the cookie jar on the top shelf of the kitchen cabinet while standing on top of a chair. He has a determined look on his face and his mother admonishes, “No, David!” (Page 4).
The rest of the story is a series of similar challenging incidents until finally David finds his limits and seeks refuge into his mother’s loving arms.

8. Characteristics of Writing Style
As an example, Mr. Shannon uses child like vocabulary to accentuate the young age of main character called David.
In this story, David is approximately five years old.
The vocabulary is simple, limited in content, and easily understood by a young child.

9. Writing Style
The words of the story are printed in a juvenile style font as if to appear written by a young child.
Limited text is written on each page.

10. Tone
Most of the sentences are spoken by the mother in a didactic style (command form) of tone to show how the mother is instructing her son about proper behavior.
Further, the mother uses a type of condescending tone with her young troublesome child.
“Go to your room!” (Page 14 ).

11. Tone Through Illustrations
The tone is further reinforced by the illustrations.
The author draws David looking mischievous, determined, and with expressive body language.

12. Tone Through Illustrations
The illustrations also include vivid colors, simple lines, and humorous facial expressions.
The text is large and usually portrays a single scene for every one or two pages.

13. Book Award No, David! also received the Caldecott Honor Award in 1999.
No, David! also received the Caldecott Honor Award in 1999.

14. Summary
One can see how the author cleverly uses the style and the tone of the story to create empathy between the reader and the main character in this story.
For this reason, this book is very popular with young elementary school aged children everywhere.

15. Works Cited
Bolle, Sonia. "David Shannon: A Merry Prankster." Publishers Weekly (1999): 168. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 July
Carpenter, Susan. "At 51, David Shannon stays in touch with his inner child - latimes.com." Los Angeles Times - California, national and world news - latimes.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 July <
Lukens, Rebecca J. A Critical Handbook of Children's Literature. Boston: Pearson Allyn and Bacon, Print.
Shannon, David. No, David! . New York: Blue Sky Press, Print.
Smith, Robin. "David Gets in Trouble." Horn Book Magazine 79.1 (2003): Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 8 July 2011.