Cherina's comments (member since Aug 29, 2008)

Cherina's comments from the Children's Literature Awards, LLED Fall 08 group.

October 30, 2008

Ms. Jamie Lee Curtis
HarperCollins Children’s Books
1350 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10019

Dear Ms. Curtis:

Congratulations! You have been awarded The BIG Words Award in recognition of your outstanding children’s literature book, Big Words for Little People. What is The BIG Words Award? This award was created in September of 2008 to honor the author of a picture book that challenges children’s verbal communication, embraces complex language and encourages children to expand their spoken and written vocabularies. I established The Big Words Award as part of an assignment for my Language and Literacy Education course at Pennsylvania State University. Each student was required to develop an award for a specific group of children’s books. Once the awards were generated, students in the class nominated texts for one another’s award, based on the provided requirements. After the nominations were submitted, the award creators carefully selected the winning text.

I chose to base my award on “big words” because it is my belief that many picture books today are dumbed down for our youth in order to make a sale and please publishers. Instead of setting high expectations, authors choose to lower their standards of the vocabulary utilized in their books. “The more we believe that children are limited in various ways, the more we deprive them of experiences that might make them less limited…If we believe that [children:] cannot understand complicated language, we will give them only books with limited vocabularies…Deprived of the experience of anything more than the little we believe them capable of, children often do learn to be inflexible, intolerant of the complex and the unconventional” [Perry Nodelman:]. By creating this award, I wanted to honor those authors brave enough to incorporate big words in their stories.

I chose Big Words for Little People to receive The BIG Words Award for several reasons. First of all, complex language is the focus of the text. Not only do you use complicated terms in your story, but you provide their definitions and examples of how one would utilize these words in their everyday speech as well. This book promotes a child’s interest in reading while still educating him or her. The overall message is one of love and family, concepts that are slowly being undervalued in our society. Most importantly, Big Words for Little People is entertaining for readers young and old.

Congratulations,



Cherina A. Strait

And the winner for the Big Words Award is...Big Words for Little People, written by Jamie Lee Curtis, which was nominated by Lisa Ickes.

Brothers and Sisters

This book is full of examples of siblings with special needs. Each family introduces their brothers and sisters and describes how they help each other out. There are so many disabilities listed; readers get an opportunity to learn a little about each one mentioned. Most importantly, the book demonstrates how these families participate in typical activities, like other families in America. This book brings hope to families with special needs children and offers encouragement when it may be difficult to find.

You're Not My Real Mother!

A little girl claims that her mom is not her real mother because the two individuals look nothing alike. The mother goes on to describe all the characteristics that she possesses as a real mother. The daughter realizes that, even though the two are not biologically connected, the mother loves her just as much as any other mother would love her child.

I really like this book because most children can connect with the description of a real mother. While this story would be great to introduce to an adopted child as a way to convey understanding, I believe that all children would enjoy reading this text and compare the little's girl mother to their own. Students would apply the book's message to their own lives and identify with the characters in an intimate way.

Thistle Princess, The

In this story, a thistle in the royal garden sacrifices herself in order to produce a child for the king and queen. The thistle disregards her own safety and comfort so that others may be happy. She demonstrates the true qualities of a hero and puts others before herself. Her sacrifice is provided not to bring her glory , but humbly given to benefit others.

[b:The Wolf Who Cried Boy Modern Gem|72660|The Wolf Who Cried Boy [Modern Gem |Bob Hartman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170817292s/72660.jpg|1112025]|72660]

This is a spin-off of the original story, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. In this book, the little wolf is tired of the same old dinners. He would much rather have boy for supper. The wolf decides to trick his parents, telling them that he has seen a boy and sending his parents on a wild "boy" chase. When his parents caught on to their son's scheme, they ignore his cries, even though he actually sees a boy. The wolf learns his lesson and never fibs again.

This classical tale teaches children the importance of telling the truth. The wolf learns his lesson at the end of the story and regrets his prior misbehavior. This text provides an important life lesson while still incorporating fun and humor into the story.

Max

Max is born into a superhero family. When he doesn't show the ability to fly, his family becomes concerned. One day, Max looks out his window and sees a baby bird fall out of its nest. Max must overcome his inability to fly in order to reach the falling bird in time.

Max is a shining example of a child overcoming his inability. Throughout the text, Max never gets disheartened. He demonstrates perseverance in life and continues to hold his head up high through his struggle. Once Max overcomes his inability, he uses his new skill to help others. Max is a cute story with a good lesson for children.

Milo's Hat Trick

Milo the Magnificent is a struggle magician. He is given an ultimatum by his boss to perform a hat trick by the next performance. Milo enlists the help of a large brown bear to wow the audience. By the end of the story, Milo has perfected his one-of-a-kind hat trick.

Children will get a kick out of this silly magic story. The text inspires imaginative thinking and allows children to dream of the impossible. Milo's Hat Trick will leaving students saying "bravo!"

Roller Coaster

Facing a roller coaster for the first time can be a scary thing. The vertical plummet and the upside-down loops intimidate even the most experienced riders. The character in the story works up enough nerve to ride the roller coaster. Even though she is terrified at first, the little girl confronts her fear and ends up absolutely loving the ride.

This is a wonderful book about confronting your fears. The story demonstrates that everyone gets scared and motivates children to face their worries head on. The illustrations and text work together in the book to simulate the movement of the roller coaster. Readers can actually get a sense of being on the ride. This story is fun for children and adults alike.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

This is simply the best ABC book of all time. This story features the alphabet races up to the top of a single coconut tree. When the tree cannot hold another letter, the alphabet comes tumbling down.

This book lists the alphabet, not once, but twice in the story. The author uses fun rhymes and silly illustration to entertain children. Students will fall in love with this text and learn the alphabet without even realizing it. This is a must read for all classrooms and a wonderful book to introduce to children.

Little Blue Truck

Little Blue Truck is puttering down the road, waving to all of his friends, when Big Dump Truck comes barreling through. Dump's aggressive speed results in him getting stuck in the mud. It takes Little Blue and the rest of his farm animal companions to free the truck from the mud.

This text provides children with a wonderful example of teamwork. All the characters must work as one unit to accomplish their goal. The book demonstrates how each person is vital to the success of the mission. This story also provides a good life lesson about being kind to other. Children will love the plot and the use of onomatopoeia throughout the text.

Too often these days, authors are forced to revise their wording in texts so that the vocabulary used is less intimidating for children. Publishers don’t want to scare off potential buyers by making the language in young children’s books seem too difficult. They prefer to publish literature with easy words that are thought of as appropriate for children. In many cases, the revisions made to word choices in these books dumb down the content for children. Instead of setting high expectations, authors choose to lower their standards of the vocabulary utilized in their books. In Interpreting Literature with Children, Shelby Wolf makes a similar argument by quoting Perry Nodelman. “The more we believe that children are limited in various ways, the more we deprive them of experiences that might make them less limited…If we believe that [children:] cannot understand complicated language, we will give them only books with limited vocabularies…Deprived of the experience of anything more than the little we believe them capable of, children often do learn to be inflexible, intolerant of the complex and the unconventional.”

“Words are the writer’s primal tools…A rich vocabulary allows a writer to get a richness of thought onto the paper…But anyone who tries to write English—child or adult—immediately gets caught in a kind of linguistic stranglehold that makes it difficult to use those tools” (Fletcher, 1993). Instead of limiting children's vocabularies, we should be encouraging them to take on challenging terms and to grow in their knowledge of communication.

The Big Words Award was created to honor authors and literature that incorporate more complex word choices within the text. The award will be given to a picture book that challenges children’s verbal communication, embraces complex words, and encourages children to expand their spoken and written vocabularies. Nominated books should be written approximately for children ages three to seven and include at least three words that are considered more challenging for children in that age range.

The deadline for book nominations is October 13th.