Children Literature Task 1

1.
0 INTRODUCTION
American retired neurosurgeon and politician, Ben Carson once said, “If we commit
ourselves in reading thus increasing our knowledge, only God limits how far we can go in
this world”. Frankly, this statement does not only apply to adults but children too as reading
is the way out of ignorance and the road to success and achievement. Reading, however, is
not every child’s favourite pastime activity. Nonetheless, to encourage reading among
students, teachers in school puts extra effort in creating exciting, attractive and bright
reading corners and libraries. Children literature has also been introduced in classrooms as
a further initiative to enlighten children regarding the fun and thrill of reading. Therefore, it is
not an importance but a must for teachers to only select suitable literature materials for their
students.
2.0 CONCEPT OF CHILDREN LITERATURE
Children literature is widely defined as books specifically written for children with a
variety of formats; stories, poems, graphic novels and such. Although almost all written
books are considered as literature, only those that met certain requirements can be
considered as good materials for children literature. To elaborate this issue further, the book
“Three Little Pigs” and haiku “Rain” have been chosen.
3.0 PICTURE STORYBOOK
3.1 ILLUSTRATION
“Three little pigs” is a picture storybook and it is a fable as it conveys a moral

message thru the involvement of animals. The most pertinent characteristic of a picture
storybook is obviously the illustrations used in the book itself, the prettier it is, the more
attractive it becomes to individual of any age. It is frequently said that a picture is worth
hundreds of words. In the storybook, the colours used to describe the story and pigs are
bright and vivid, easily captivating the reader’s attention. According to Greenhoot et. al.
(2014), illustrations yield the ability to scaffold children in enhancing their understanding of
the story. This is because picture subconsciously triggers visual thinking, assisting children
in figuring out the narrative by looking at the illustrations, thus increasing their
comprehension as a whole. In other words, to successfully transfer complex information and
concept, children need pictorial aids (Strouse et. al., 2018). Aesthetically pleasing illustration
also help with children’s artistic growth which promotes self-expression, creativity and even
self-confidence. Hence, it is understandable for illustration to play a big role in children
literature.
3.2 THEME
Besides illustration, the theme portrayed in the storybook must be considered as well
as it promotes children’s self-growth and how they should act in the society. The theme
illustrated in the “Three Little Pigs” is hard work and taking time to do something right will
eventually pay off. In the picture storybook, the first two pigs did not put much effort creating
their homes, but the third pig carried big bricks instead of sticks and straws. He meticulously
piled them into a sturdy structure. The wolf eventually blew down the houses of the first and
second pigs, but the third pig's house remains sturdy without any difficulty. Evidently, the
author is trying to convey the message, taking our time to do something will never fail you in
life.
4.0 HAIKU
4.1 AGE
Haiku is a type of poetry that has been introduced in children literature. Unlike any
other poetry, haiku is unrhymed poetic form consisting of 17 syllables (Britannica, 2021)
whereas each line has respectively 5, 7 and 5 syllables. As haiku is a short and typically
non-rhyming, it becomes suitable for all ages, especially young learners who wanted to start
writing poetry. The haiku that has been chosen for this discussion is called ‘Rain’. As seen in
the example, the words used are simple enough for children to understand, for instance,
‘puddle’ and ‘sleepy’. Even though haiku is recommended for all ages, it is still important for
teachers to consider students’ age when it comes to choosing literature material to ensure
students’ comprehension. A more matured haiku would use vocabulary of higher level and
teachers should never bring this into their classrooms of children. If one does not abide to
the age factor of children literature, it will be difficult for children to understand the text and
eventually results in them learning nothing from the material. Hence, it can be concluded that
it is possible for haiku to be an ideal poetic style with age in consideration when it comes to
selection as children literature.
4.2 LANGUAGE LEARNING POTENTIAL
Furthermore, haiku, in an undebated way, promotes language learning potential too.

In the aspect of reading haikus, students are able to gain the insight that haiku is not just
written for fun but to express meaningful messages in each verse (Smith, 2020). As it
enhances student’s perceiving skills, it is acknowledged that haiku, too, stimulates critical
thinking and creativity in children. As an example, the word ‘splish-splash’ indicates the
elephant playing in the puddles caused by the rain and not simply just a sound. However, in
the same time, ‘splish-splash’ is also an application of the literary device onomatopoeia to
describe a situation in a vivid manner. Despite haiku being considered as a simple poetry, it
is still a must for the writers to choose words that fit just right with the theme of the haiku
written. This ultimately requires them to expand their initial vocabulary knowledge in order to
write a good poem. The theme in the example chosen is obviously about rain or natural
occurrence in general and the author used words like ‘earth’, ‘puddle’ and ‘raindrops’ to
describe the theme perfectly. Therefore, it is unquestionable that haiku encourages
language learning potential in children literature.
5.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the two texts chosen excellently displayed the elements of a good
children’s literature for ESL classes in terms of illustrations, theme, age and language
learning potential. From here, we learn that to fully make use of children literature to achieve
learning objectives, it is important for teachers to evaluate its suitability using these four
criteria. Storybook “Three Little Pigs” and haiku “Rain” have successfully shown their
credibility in the four elements and thus can be labelled as good literature materials for
children. Without considering these and six other elements in children literature, the written
piece will not be acknowledged as a suitable material to be used in classrooms where
English is taught.
6.0 REFERENCE
Britannica. (2021, November 21). Haiku. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 26,
2022, from https://www.britannica.com/art/haiku
Greenhoot, A. F., Beyer, A. M., & Curtis, J. (2014). More than pretty pictures? How
illustrations affect parent-child story reading and children's story recall. Frontiers in
Psychology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00738
Smith, C. (2020, December 10). Reading and writing haiku. Center for Asian Studies.
Retrieved March 26, 2022, from https://www.colorado.edu/cas/outreach/curriculum-
units/middle-school/reading-and-writing-haiku
Strouse, G. A., Nyhout, A., & Ganea, P. A. (2018). The Role of Book Features in Young
Children's Transfer of Information from Picture Books to Real-World Contexts.
Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00050

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1.

2.0 CONCEPT OF CHILDREN LITERATURE

“Three little pigs” is a picture storybook and it is a fable as it conveys a moral

4.2 LANGUAGE LEARNING POTENTIAL

Furthermore, haiku, in an undebated way, promotes language learning potential too.

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