Essentials of Children's Literature

by Kathy G. Short, Carol M. Lynch-Brown, Carl M. Tomlinson

In the new edition of this widely popular resource, the well-known, highly respected author team presents a brief compendium of information about and resources for helping future and new teachers share literature with children. Essentials of Children s Literature, 8/e is designed to awaken and motivate readers to the joy of reading. It presents a rich array of available trade books that can be used effectively to teach children s literature, while also ensuring coverage of the most important knowledge about literature and about teaching literature to children. Clear, concise, and direct, the book uses recommended book lists, examples, figures, and tables in combination with narrative and prose to empower teachers to free classroom time to involve children with literature."

Genres: Nonfiction, Library Science, School, Textbooks, Education, Reference, Read For School

432 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1993

Reviews

[Elisa Tomlinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book my final semester in college for a Children's Literature course. I signed up for the class as an elective, and found it so enlightening that I ended keeping the textbook (the ONLY one that I kept after a class ended!) The book has literally HUNDREDS of examples of each genre of children's literature, along with authors, award winners, and publication information. The format made it so easy for me to locate children's books for reports or projects I was working on. But mostly, the text facilitated my learning of the types of literature. Chapters and subchapters are divided into different branches of lit, and each has so many examples that the reader quickly learns to categorize different works. Additionally, now that I work in the printing and publishing world (writing and editing), I use this book as a great tool to gauge what appeals to children at different ages. I highly recommend this book to anyone in elementary education or creative writing.

[Brittany Tidwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book very helpful in reminding you of all the key elements of the genres. In addition to that, it gives you suggestions for read a louds and activities to incorporate into a mini lesson. The story suggestions range from emergent reader to late middle school. I gave the book three stars because as a resource it is only helpful in the things that I named, but not in any other aspects. For that kind of information you could use Google, but if your internet didn't work I'd point you toward this book.

[Susan Whitehead · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Teachers using a literature-based approach to reading structure a classroom environment to immerse children in good literature"

As a librarian and a dyslexic, this sounds like taking a bunch of pre-swimming children and pushing them into the deep end of the pool. Water immersion is not the same as evidence-based swimming instruction. The results are tragic. 5-10% of children with fine-detail, phonetic processing brains (who become librarians and teachers and repeat the process) have a magical time in the pool. However, the majority of children slowly drown, and the dyslexic kids are already on the bottom of the pool turning blue.

The national literacy crises in the US has many causes, but a key contributor is the use of ineffective and insufficient literacy methods in schools and libraries.

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned a TON. I’m feeling equipped and excited to teach my children’s literature high school class this year! (I actually ready the newest version, the 10th edition, but GoodReads doesn’t have it listed)…

[Jerryll]

good

[Cadence Messenger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for a class. Not too bad

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

* Side note: Carol Lynch-Brown, Carl M. Tomlinson, and Kathy G. Short co-wrote the 7th edition of this book.

I skimmed this book and assisted in the development of chapter quizzes for a college Children's Literature course.

[Heidiann]

This book looks very helpful for teaching literacy.

[Kimberly]

Winter 2009

[Maryanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dry, but informative.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another required library school textbook, but it's a good one.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Text book

[Jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dry, Dull, and Biased. What more can I say?

[Bethany Erickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for a new teacher or someone with little experience working with children's lit. I got the most use out of the title recommendations at the end of each chapter.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved all of the info in this book