David Castillo edrg3321

Describe how to effectively evaluate books for Children. Is it Value based?

Teachers, Librarians and Parents have a difficult task in selecting appropriate books. In making these selections they must select books that provide balance in a school or public library. A literature program should include five objectives:

1. A literature program should help students realize that literature is for entertainment and can be enjoyed throughout their lives.


2. A literature program should acquaint children with their literary heritage and allow its transmission to future generations.


3. A literature program should help students understand the formal elements of literature and lead them to prefer the best that our literature has to offer.


4. A literature program should help children grow up understanding themselves and the rest of humanity.


5. A literature program should help children evaluate what they read.

It is also important for teachers to help students learn how to compare, question, and evaluate the books they read.

Anita Silvery a literary critic provides both a list of qualities of a reviewer and questions for the reviewer to consider. We actually applied this in our classroom among our home groups and personally i thought this was a great exercise. We had a great book and the entire group agreed with the evaluation criteria. If children's books were selected strictly based on values, we would have to many selections. There are so many values that can be intertwined and many people with many different beliefs so this would be impossible. Again, we used the "evaluation criteria" in our chapter three and our home group agreed it was an excellent and appropriate book for children.

Why do character/setting analysis on children’s books? What did it accomplish?

Characterization analysis is one of the most powerful of the literary elements, whether the story is a contemporary tale in which characters face realistic problems or an adaptation of classic literature. A believable and enjoyable story needs main characters who seem lifelike and who develop throughout the story. This allows children to experience the readings by sharing the characters main roles.

The setting of a story, such as the location in time and place helps readers share what the characters see, smell, hear, and touch, and also makes the character's values, actions and conflicts more understandable. The setting is very important part of a story that the characters and plot cannot be developed without an understanding the time and place. The majority of the time settings are used to create moods that add credibility to characters and plot. Therefore; without the characters and settings we would not have an enjoyable book for children to experiencethe characters and settings.