Resumen Literatura Infantil

Unit 1: Introduction to Children’s Literature

History of children’s literature
Emerging from Oral Tradition
Just as other forms of literature, children's literature grew from stories passed
down orally from generation to generation. Irish folk tales can be traced back as
early as 400 BCE, while the earliest written folktales are arguably the Pachatantra,
from India, which was written around 200 AD. The earliest version of Aesop's
Fables appeared on papyrus scrolls around 400 AD.
In Imperial China, story telling reached its peak during the Song Dynasty (960-1279
AD). Many stories from this epoch are still used to instruct students in China today.
No such equivalent exists in Greek and Roman literature. However, the stories of
Homer and other storytellers of the era would certainly have appealed to children.
Then as Europe became a cultural centre of the world, instructive texts became
increasingly common. These books were mostly written in Latin, with the purpose
of instructing children. During the Middle Ages, very little literature was written
for the sole purpose of entertaining children. Hornbooks, textbooks containing
basic texts like the Lord's Prayer and the alphabet would not appear until the
1400's. Alphabet books began popping up around Russia, Italy, Denmark, and other
European countries roughly a century later.
The Advent of Illustration
Chapbooks, pocket-sized books often folded rather than stitched together, were
the first books to be illustrated for children. They usually contained simple
woodcut pictures to go along with their contents--often popular ballads, folk tales,
or religious passages.
Meanwhile, during the 1600's, the concept of childhood was evolving. Rather
than being seen as miniature adults, children were seen as separate entities with
their own needs and limitations. Thus, publishers throughout Europe began
printing books specifically intended for children. The purposes of these texts were
still frequently didactic, although several collections of fairy tales were published
with varying success.
The trend of illustrating children's books prevailed, and children's literature grew in
popularity throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1744, John
Newbery published A Little Pretty Pocket-Book. The volume was heralded as the
true first book intended for children's pleasure reading. As paper and printing
became more economical, the children's book industry veritably boomed during
the 1800's.
Modern Children's Picture Books
It was in the 1920's that books could be mass produced in colour and literacy
became sufficiently widespread to make children's picture books a true industry
unto its own.
Wanda Gag's Millions of Cats (1928) was one of the most successful of this era,
selling more than a million copies. Other classic children's picture books were
published soon after: The Little Engine that Could (1930); Babar (1931); Madeline
(1933); and Curious George (1941).

Study guide from the chapter developing personal knowledge about

books:
1. Why is it important to be aware of your own personal knowledge about
literature?
2. Read the authors’ childhood experiences and answer: What similarities and
differences are there between the writers?
3. Margaret Clark (1976) mentions common factors she found in the behaviour of
children she considered “young fluent readers”. Explain those factors.
4. Refer to the communities in Trackton and Roadville in the USA and their literacy
events. What was the challenge teachers faced?
5. Why are social and cultural experiences important?
6. Describe the patterns of children’s reading. Why is it important to “build bridges”
when considering reading habits?
7. What is the role of the teacher or adult in encouraging children to read?
8. How can you encourage your students to read?
9. Read some strategies to audit your personal knowledge about books and answer:
Which ideas are valuable to you and which ones would you like to incorporate as a
future teacher?
Answers:
1.
2. They were both readers and read a lot of books from the library or their
relatives. But one contrast is the wider range of types of book that one of the
writers had during childhood.
3. For having young fluent readers some factors are needed: Had parents who
valued education. They guided their children to encounter various books.
They motivate children to read, by reading to them or with them.
 4. The teachers were facing different demands in including literature from the
culture and from their thoughts as teachers, they tried to accomplish
education in literature goals in communities that weren’t interested in that.
5. They are important because they can affect their beliefs about what’s good
literature or worthy texts. This happens because children carry different
previous experiences and cultural expectations about literature.
6. They saw that children were on the whole positive about reading. Girls read
more than boys, in fcat, girls read more horror and ghost stories, romance
and school related books; while boys read more science fiction/fantasy books,
comedy and sport-related books.
Also, ethnicity did not affect the amount of reading, but children from lower
socio-economic groups read fewer books.
The importance of ‘building bridges’ remains in knowing the students you’re
working with, that will help you understand the impact of their homes and
communities on their learning.
7. The teacher must develop the role of the enabling adult, the guide in the
process of choosing something to read, reading and then analysing it. With
that, the children will build up trust and will be tolerant of the introduction of
a broad range of texts.
9. Keeping a journal, labelling books or a book record.

Unit 2: Introduction to fiction

Study guide from chapter 2: Narrative
1. Define narrative.
2. Is oral storytelling a sort of narrative? Why?
3. Read about non-fiction. Make a list of as many forms of non-fiction as you can
find.
4. Intertextuality and allusion. Define both terms. Why are these terms important?
5. Elements of narrative fiction. List and explain the main elements of narrative.
6. Identifying the elements of narrative in your favourite tale/story.
Answers:
1. Narrative relates a sequence of events (Hardy 1977). It is a primary act of the
mind because narrative is organizing our thoughts to be clear for others; is
the way in which humans make sense of their experiences, it can be inner
and outer depending if it is for me or for others.
 2. Yes, it is, because from generation to generation people organized events by
telling their relatives stories.
3. Information stories, biography, autobiography, diaries and letters, philosophy,
travel writing, manuals, academic texts, journalism.
4. Intertextuality refers to how books are related to others in terms of structure,
images and themes, and it can be explicit or implicit. Here’s where allusion
comes in, happens when in the text we can find quotations of other books.
They are important because they are one of the ways in which we can
organise stories by genders: all ghosts stories together.
5. Narrative fiction is grown/constructed from the following elements:
● Narration: use of pronouns, person 1st 2nd 3rd.
● Narrative structure: beginning, middle, end.
● Setting: time and place (context)
● Character: main or secondary.
● Language: linguistic choices that can change our thoughts, e.g as with
the wolf.
● Subject: what the story is about.
● Theme: the underlined story.

Chapter 7: Genre and traditional stories

The term genre describes texts that are written alike in structure, this helps us
divide texts in types or classes recognized by formulaic use of language and
conventions. E.g. major genres are: epic, tragedy, lyric, comedy and satire.
‘Traditional stories’ is an umbrella term that encompasses all stories that originated
from the oral tradition, the verbal method of cultural transmission. We have some
sub-categories:
Myths:
● What is a myth? What is the role of myths in different cultures? What is the
role of Gods?
● Which are the moral implications of teaching myths? Why should we be
aware of this?
Myths are the oldest stories and their role is to explain how the world came into
being and to account for natural phenomena such as the seasons or the cycle of
night and day.
It also builds realities and provides an explanation of the world and life, while
contributing to establishing social and psychological identities.
God's role is to be the one who brings the world into existence.
While we may no longer believe in the Olympian gods, some myths still hold
spiritual truth for the cultures from which they originate and it is important not to
trivialise them. While teaching myths, we shouldn't treat them as fiction or the
same as other stories as those texts symbolise something important and true to
other cultures elsewhere.
Characteristics of Myths in general
● Myths attempt to explain a natural phenomenon
● Myths have one or many Gods
● The Gods and heroes are superhuman beings
● Gods have human-like emotions
● Myth contain magic
● Gods often appear in a disguised form
● God is rewarded and evil is punished
● Sometimes Gods are beings with powers
● Myths contain violence
● Myths were originally passed orally from generation to generation
● Myths can have several versions
Legends:
A legend is several things. First of all, it is a story based on true historical events.
Even the wildest legends have a grain of truth to them, however small that it may
be. The second thing is that a legend is passed down orally to family members
where the legend takes place, it is a part of the culture, you try to discredit that
legend, to prove it is just that, a legend, you are taking on the entire culture. The
third thing to a legend is that it is mostly just facts made larger, kind of like a white
lie, you stretch the truth for the benefit of others. A legend is a hard thing to define
solely because no two legends are alike. They all have similarities, but they all have
major differences. People are superstitious, and they make legends not only for
entertainment but to explain things that they do not understand. There are
countless things that a legend is, and is not entirely definable in the least.
Some examples of legends are:
● Bigfoot
● Robin Hood (Prince of Thieves)
● Nessie (The Loch Ness Monster)
● The Salt Mill (The story of why the sea water is salty)
● Anahí and the Ceibo Flower
Myths and legends began to be recorded just as soon as humans mastered the
technology of writing. Often the very first texts were hymns to the gods or
collections of mythological stories that became organized into cycles, explaining
how the world was created, how humans came into existence or why Death is
necessary. Such stories are recorded in the Bible – the Fall, Noah’s Flood, for
example – and in Greek myth. Hero-tales are also among the most ancient of
story-types.
In contrast to these very ancient written sources, most of the world’s myths and
legends have been preserved in oral versions, passed on by word of mouth from
one generation to the next. The recording of these tales began only in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries when explorers, scholars and anthropologists
became interested in tradition, and were motivated to learn tribal languages and to
record with pen and ink (and subsequently electronically) the vivid and unfamiliar
tales they were told.
A characteristic of the legend genre is that it can present human characters, but
animals with characteristics typical of people (such as the ability to speak or reason)
and supernatural entities (such as gods, demigods, spectres, spirits, people who
come back from the dead, etc.). Personified natural phenomena (for example, rain or
wind) or any type of animated being that can carry out the action can also
participate, since the supernatural is an important characteristic of the genre.
In any case, the characters that appear in a legend will depend on the theme that is
addressed. Through this genre, the most diverse stories are told: the origin of some
element of nature can be explained, the appearance of some characteristic feature
of an animal species or different types of phenomena that do not find a rational
explanation, among many other options.
Legends always have some features in common, just like:
● It is told like factual human history
● It includes believable miracles
● Evolves over the time
● It has a narrative account of a historical figure or place
● Legends have a specific Setting
● Legends have flexible guidelines, and therefore, can begin with miracles that
are believed to have really happened
● Legends transform over time, facts will change or be stretched
Folk tales:
Modern rewritings:
These are modern versions of old stories that we used to read, love and enjoy as
when we were children but now in new and exciting ways. Modern rewritings come
in all different forms, they can be continuations of the original stories, new spins on
old tales or the same story but told in a different perspective.
These stories are enjoyable for adults and children. They were thought for children
as classic stories but not always addressed to children; As they became popular at
that time also older readers were interested and these stories became a success
with different purposes (instructions, morals, beliefs,etc).
• Why do “new” versions of the same stories appear?
Because stories are meant to be told. Classic important tales and novels are
recommended to be read as they were published, yes, but even for adults they tend
to have difficult words to understand, metaphors that may only make sense in the
context of the time and many other issues. Why do we tell a story and what do we
learn from it? Stories are important because they mean something to people, and
that can be different for each person but there is always something at the heart of
each story: the importance of love, friendship, family, etc.
If we want to, for example, teach an old tale from many years ago about morality
and the journey of self growth, why not make it easier to understand? So that even
children can share this experience.
We also need to adjust these stories to fit today's issues and culture, like Cinderella
from the Grimm Brothers, which has very strong imagery and language but new
versions have appeared and became even more beloved as the original, as they use
the classic story to deal with feminism and overcoming obstacles in life.
For children, stories with big words and ideas can lead to frustration and it may
make them not want to try and read at all, so by simplifying these stories we can
help them build a better language foundation and a love of literature.
There are many benefits of reading an original story but we should have fun with
these texts, transform them, and make them more widely understandable.
Whatever way is most digestible to a given audience, be it children, teens, or adults,
should be celebrated and encouraged.
Literary fairy stories:
• What are literary fairy stories? Which is its main feature?
‘Fairy stories’ is a general term often used to include folk tales. The term originated
in France in 1698 with the publication of Madame d'Aulnoy, Contes des Fees.
Although a fairy tale is rarely a tale about fairy-folk, and does not necessarily
feature a fairy, it does contain an enchantment or other supernatural element that is
clearly imaginary. Also, literary fairy stories follow traditional patterns but are the
imaginative expression of a single writer.
• Who is Hans Christian Andersen?
Hans Christian Andersen (2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author.
Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogs, novels, and poems, he is best
remembered for his literary fairy tales, like the ugly duckling, the little mermaid, the
princess and the pea, etc.
Andersen was a creator not a collector, and his stories are remarkable because of
the colloquial language he used, the direct address narrative voice, and the way he
organized multi-layered stories with everyday objects as protagonists.
• Who is Oscar Wilde?
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish writer whose mother had written many
books about celtic fairy faith. Inspired by this he wrote memorable tales such as The
Happy Prince and The Remarkable Rocket. We can notice a great influence from
other writers in Wilde’s stories, some of them being direct allusions to other tales.
• How do the authors use language in fairy tales?
Andersen uses ironic language, using lots of colloquial expressions which are not
always kept in translations, as well as everyday objects. Wilde on the other hand
uses a more elegant tone, making his stories melancholic.
Fables:
A short story that makes a moral point while at the same time entertaining the
reader. Animal characters and inanimate objects are used to satirize the
characteristics of human behaviour.
How is the fable composed? INTRODUCTION: Where the characters are presented,
their defining features and the starting points of the story. It is usually very short.
DEVELOPING: It leads to a problematic situation, stemming from the initial actions
of the characters. Usually a challenge or an opportunity appears here.
OUTCOME: The end of the fable, whether happy or unhappy, where the
consequences of the choice made in the complication are produced and, finally, the
moral or final teaching of the story is stated.
The best known teller of fables is Aesop, whose own life has acquired legendary
status. A slave in the sixth century BC, he had a misshapen body and was dumb
until given the power of speech by the goddess Isis, after which he acquired an
impressive wit which ultimately earned him his freedom.
Aesop's Fables were very popular in classical Greece, and in addition to being
spread orally, they were used as the first reading book in schools.
Jean de La Fontaine was a French fabulist. He was born on July 8, 1621. In the
seventeenth century, he reworked Aesop’s tales in order to criticize the French court
and bourgeoisie.
Features of fables:
Fables are told in a direct manner.
Fables are fiction.
Fables are short and have few characters.
Characters are often animals with human attributes.
The setting can be anywhere.
A lesson or moral is taught and is sometimes stated at the end of the story.
Trickster tales:
Part of the folktale genre. The main characters are tricksters, clever deceivers,
greedy and selfish, both cunning and stupid. Possesses shape-shifting abilities so
that they may be both human and creature/anthropomorphized.

Oral storytelling
Words on Words:
What’s storytelling? It is used for informing, entertaining and teaching people. The
appeal of storytelling is inherent to all human beings. As social creatures, we need
to reachout to other people, to communicate our needs or express our feelings. The
universality of storytelling as a cultural practice cannot be minimised.
That’s why we try to include stories to our curriculum, because it also helps children
become aware of the general feel and sound of the foreign language; but as we
saw, the storytelling experience is practically absent from school life. Because of
that, we as trainees are encouraged to learn and reflect the role of the storyteller.
A storyteller is the mediator to share the magic of the story, using a sequence of
resources: voice, eye-contact, expression, gestures. But mostly they must be able to
feel confident and comfortable with the story they’re telling.
At the time of choosing a story we should bear in mind our students’ interests, its
accuracy with their language level, and most important the purpose we’re expecting
to fulfil.
It’s advisable to build a skeleton of your story to be clear on what your
fundamentals in plot or characters are, for that, try to answer the questions: who,
what, where, when, how, why. This will help at the moment of remembering the
key points at the moment of telling.
After this work, you’ll be able to take care of your listener’s senses. What they can
see, hear, smell, touch and taste while storytelling. This should be accomplished
with a correct use of the pitch, volume, pace and pauses of your voice, using your
diaphragm, or your facial expressions, mimicking, gesturing, and moving around to
complement your oral work. Also performing sound effects (onomatopoeia) for
movements in the story, they all contribute to the inner vision of the story that your
listeners can develop.
Gentle sounds or rough ones:
Easy-flowing sounds like vowels and some consonants mmm or III or nnn contribute
full resonance and are associated with words that sound pleasant and appealing to
the ear: lull. murmur, when. The stops of k p. t or the turbulence of f, s, sh constrain
the flow of air, thus forcing different auditory effects which result in less
gentle-sounding words: crackle, trick, frighten. As a matter fact, the latter sounds
are often involved in onomatopoeia, an indispensable asset in storytelling.
Relaxing yourself for the storytelling:
a. Sit down comfortably, close your eyes, drop your hands to your sides. Take a deep
breath and release the air slowly, rejoicing at the good feeling of breathing. Repeat
this several times.
b. Stand comfortably. Inhale deeply and exhale saying "ahhh" for as long as you
can. Repeat this several times.
Narrating tips before you start:
We want our students to see us playing a new role and engaging affectively with us
and the story. Therefore it would be suitable to alter the usual classroom setting by
tening students sit in a semicircle to establish a more intimate atmosphere between
us.
We can even play some music. While the children get ready let's put up a sign on
the classroom door to avoid unwanted interruptions from outside which will surely
destroy the special atmosphere story students and teller have contributed to create
After a very brief introduction that will give us some seconds to relax, breathe
deeply and connect with our story, we may begin by saying ``Today I've brought a
very special story to share with you. The story is called" or "Have you heard the
story before?
We let the students know they should wait until we finish telling the story to put
questions or comments, otherwise we tell them- we may forget! In this way we
make sure there will be no interruptions. We will not begin until we have
everybody's undivided attention and total silence.
And as you tell, disclose the story little by little, without haste, making sure
everyone is following our account. If you forget to tell something, you can always
say “I forgot to tell you that..”

Unit 3 “Analysing fiction”

Character, setting and themes
Character: Is a participant in the story, they are representations of the
author's values and beliefs (ideology), the author is not a character.
Children are known to respond to characters in fiction, they act out stories in
which they adopt roles from books, television or computer games, this occurs
because characters encountered in childhood reading can have a lasting
impact, thanks to the fact that stories enhance children's understanding of
complex human behaviour and enable them to experience vicariously a
diverse range of characters and relationships. We judge characters in terms
of the values that it represents and the social implications. When a
representation is overworked and formulaic it becomes a stereotype.
In order to evaluate characters in fiction we should ask: What does this image
mean to me? What will it mean to others? Will my students feel identified
with them?
Ideology:
● Explicit: you want children to behave in certain ways.
● Implicit: the writer's unexamined assumptions, shared values by the
culture.
 ● Dominant culture: the story is a product of its time, from the historical
context they belong to.
Our priority should not be to promote ideology but to understand it.
Types of characters in children's literature: animals, toys, children.
When the character is a child, a common concern in children's fiction is
growth of its personality into maturity or significant steps taken into
independence.
But childhood has been perceived differently throughout history and within
cultural contexts. It is a dynamic social-construct, because, as we can see, in
the 17th century children needed to learn how to be good and obedient
through books, but since the 19th century with the romanticism, they are
known as innocent and pure.
The animal story has a long tradition, emerged with Aesop and Pantachantra
in fables, but in the mid 20th century it became popular to write realistically
about animals, for example in Bambi, this is called anthropomorphism, which
can also be found in stories about toys like Toy Story.
Building a character: we get to know characters through:
● Names
● Description, appearance
● Action
● Thought and speech (direct speech, indirect speech, tagged speech,
free speech)
● Placement in a specific setting
● Style, language, vocabulary choice
● Assessment and comment made by other characters
● The author's personal assessment and comment.
Setting: is the time (temporal setting) and place (spatial setting) where the
story occurs. We can identify between incidental setting (works just as a
backdrop) or integral (setting cannot be separated from the story). Setting
can also operate at a symbolic level. E.g in Hansel and Gretel, the forest can
be interpreted as the manifestation of anxiety or a place where the characters
can grow from dependence to independence.
Subject and theme: the first refers to what the story is about, whereas the
theme or central unifying idea, might be described as the meaning that the
story is trying to convey. E.g The boy in the striped pyjamas: subject is a
German boy living near a concentration camp and finding a friend in a Jewish
boy. And the theme is racism, the value/importance of friendship, Holocaust
memorial, etc. The recognition and identification of the theme is largely
contingent upon personal experience and response.