ELEMENTS OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

CharacterCharacter is the mental, emotional, and social qualities to distinguish one entity from another (people, animals, spirits, automatons, pieces of furniture, and other animated objects).

Character development is the change that a character undergoes from the beginning of a story to the end. Young children can note this.The importance of a character to the story determines how fully the character is developed.

Characters can be primary, secondary, minor, or main.

Types of characters

Animal characters

Anthropomorphic(characterizing animals, inanimate

objects,etc

Flat

Round

Static

Plot

• Chronological order• Flashback• Conflicts

Conflict and order make plot. i).Person-against-self: • Eg: Tom Sawyer's fear of Injun Joe and guilt, can't sleep, fear of talking in

sleep, ties mouth shut, struggle with moral responsibility even in the face of danger. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K.

ii). Person-against-person: Meg and IT in A Wrinkle in Time, Michael and his mother in The Hundred Penny Boy by Sharon Bell Mathis, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs Vs. the wolves.

iii). Person-against-society: Child will probably call it "will Wilbur live?", but it is really Wilbur Vs. dinner table, Wilbur Vs. good business. Kit Vs. the Puritans in The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.

iv). Person-against-nature: Julie in Julie of the Wolves by Jean George. Karana in Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.

Patterns of action

Suspense

Rising action

Resolution

Steady action

Cliffhanger

Sensationalism

Foreshadowing

Climax

Coincidence

Sentimentality

Types of plot

Progressive plot Episodical plots

Setting(time & place)

Functions of setting(creates a

frightening environ)

Backdrop

Setting as symbolism

(sunlight: hope)

Setting that illuminates character

Setting as antagonist

(Character to resolve conflict)

Integral(influnecd by time &

place)

Theme(main idea)

• Explicit theme : states the theme openly and clearly, so readers can find it.• Implicit theme: implied themes. Eg – if two such unlikely animals can be friends, then

so can we.• Multiple & secondary themes: contains many other individual themes from a good piece of literature.

Eg. ‘there is beauty in all things.’

• Didacticism: (what is intended to teach) students need time to develop & appreciate, story cannot be too

preachy.

• NOTE: Helps to build a gradual understanding before children can express them.

Point of view(determined by authors’ descriptions of

characters, setting, & events told)

• First person- “I”• Omniscient – all knowing• Objectives or dramatic point of view – no

explanation to the reader but readers see & draw own conclusions.

Style( choice of words & use of lang to add significance)

• Exposition: to provide background• Dialogue• Vocabulary: 2 kinds of words used to add

measning – connotation & denotation• Connotation: emotional meaning• Denotation: Dictionary meaning

Sentence Structure• Imagery - words used to create mental sensory impressions ( sights,

sounds, texture, establishes mood, characters)

• Figurative language – used in non literal context to add intensity of meaning.

• Figure of speech – expression used in non literal context to add intensity of meaning.

• Personification – figure of speech to give human qualities to inanimate objects or abstractions.

• Simile: makes comparisons to communicate a deeper understanding.

• Metaphor – is a figure of speech transfers an idea associated with one word to another word.

Devices

• Hyperbole – uses an extravagant statement.

• Understatement – opposite of hyperbole.

• Allusion – a figure of speech that refers to something in our common understanding of literature.

• Symbol – person, object, situation or action that operates on two level of meaning, the literal & the figurative or suggestive. Eg: Dove: peace, etc

• Puns or wordplay.

Tone(how the author feels about her subject)

• Humor• Unexpected humor – ‘cow jump over the moon’

• Absurd – Winnie the Pooh, sailing off on an umbrella.

• Parody – retains the original form but changes the words and the tone. Eg: ‘ An hour of freedom is worth a barrel of slops, is a parody for “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”

• Condescending tone – when the author looks down upon the reader or treats them as though they are unintelligent or immature.

(From Robert Sweetland)