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Children's Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide
The third edition of Children's Literature in Action provides an activity-oriented survey of children's literature for undergraduate and graduate students seeking licensure and degrees that will lead to careers working with children in schools and public libraries. Author Sylvia M. Vardell draws on her 30 years of university teaching and extensive familiarity with the major textbooks in the area of children's literature to deliver something a book that focuses specifically on the perspective and needs of the librarian, with emphasis on practical action and library applications.
Its contents address seven major picture books, traditional tales, poetry, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, and informational books. Each chapter includes practical applications for the educator who shares books with children and who develops literature-based instruction. Chapters are enriched by author comments, collaborative activities, featured books, special topics, and activities including selected awards and celebrations, historical connections, recommended resources, issues for discussion, and assignment suggestions. This new edition incorporates the 2018 AASL National School Library Standards.
Its contents address seven major picture books, traditional tales, poetry, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, and informational books. Each chapter includes practical applications for the educator who shares books with children and who develops literature-based instruction. Chapters are enriched by author comments, collaborative activities, featured books, special topics, and activities including selected awards and celebrations, historical connections, recommended resources, issues for discussion, and assignment suggestions. This new edition incorporates the 2018 AASL National School Library Standards.
343 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
24 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Sylvia M. Vardell
50 books5 followersSylvia Vardell is Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University and teaches courses in literature for children and young adults. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 published articles, more than 25 book chapters and given more than 150 presentations at national and international conferences.
She served as co-editor of the international journal, BOOKBIRD and on several national award committees including the ALA Caldecott Award, Legacy Award, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction, and the NCTE Award for Poetry. She has received grants from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, NCTE, the ALAN Foundation, the Texas Library Association, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has also taught at the University of Zimbabwe in Africa as a Fulbright scholar. She is the 2014 recipient of the Scholastic Library Publishing Award. In her spare time, she loves to travel, shop, all things Star Wars, and sees 100 movies a year.
She served as co-editor of the international journal, BOOKBIRD and on several national award committees including the ALA Caldecott Award, Legacy Award, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction, and the NCTE Award for Poetry. She has received grants from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, NCTE, the ALAN Foundation, the Texas Library Association, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has also taught at the University of Zimbabwe in Africa as a Fulbright scholar. She is the 2014 recipient of the Scholastic Library Publishing Award. In her spare time, she loves to travel, shop, all things Star Wars, and sees 100 movies a year.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 12, 2011
I finished reading this whole textbook within my first month of class in Fall 2011 so that I could get ahead before I have to take my comprehensive exams. I read it for my "Library Materials for Children" class toward my MLIS degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In all, I felt like it was a good overview of the genres, awards, and evaluation criteria of children's literature even though the author of course could not be an expert on every topic. It was also interesting to read, which is a rare thing indeed for a textbook.
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Children and Their Literature
I don't think I've ever been so moved by a textbook. The stories of places where children don't have easy access to books and the positive effects that reading widely at an early age can have on people made me blink back tears on the bus this morning. I guess I saved the best class in my Masters program for last. I've never felt so grateful that I was blessed with parents who read to me early and often. It also makes me feel sorry for all the kids out there who think they're stupid because they're not good at reading... they don't realize that maybe they are really smart, but it's just that their parents didn't support them in early reading. Librarians really do have a huge role to play in encouraging kids. I also liked the Reader's Bill of Rights, especially the last one, "The right not to defend your tastes." I've been derided in some horrible ways for things that I enjoyed reading, and it really hurt me. I don't think it's right to ever make fun of people for enjoying something that they've been able to connect with, even if the writing is poor, the story silly, or the content something you don't agree with. And how much worse to make fun of what a kid likes to read, risking the possibility of turning them off of reading altogether! I guess the lesson here is to enjoy what you enjoy, and ignore the ignorant people who don't understand why.
Chapter 2: Picture Books
I never knew there was this much to know about picture books. Wordless picture books, engineered books, and other types, along with different types of art--"painterly" illustrations which include any application of a pen or a brush to paper vs. "graphic" illustrations using computers, copper or wood block printing, or other materials. Included more about the different kinds of children's book awards. Probably the most fascinating part of this chapter for me was the description of how a librarian working in international schools had to first train children to understand story structure using puppets and acting before they were able to sit through the reading of a book. I'd never realized before how privileged we are in this culture even if our parents don't read to us. We are still surrounded by books and print media, whether it's a book at school or at the library or a magazine at the dentist's office. So, even though all children need experience to understand how a book works, we have it almost by osmosis to some extent in this culture, whereas children elsewhere might never get that experience unless someone intentionally exposes them to it.
Chapter 3: Traditional Tales
This chapter covers Mother Goose and Aesop, and goes over the genres of traditional tales in children's literature such as folktales, myths, legends, fables, tall tales, religious stories, literary tales, and fractured fairy tales. Vardell made a good point about introducing children to other cultures as they exist in the present as a part of studying traditional tales so that they could understand that these other people actually exist right now and not just "once upon a time." I was also glad that she addressed that it's important to include religious stories from all religions despite potential objections from patrons--when I read the whole Bible all the way through for the first time, my thought was that even secular people could benefit from reading it just for the greater understanding of the culture around us that it would give them. Vardell seems to think the same thing about reading Bible stories to children--hearing the tale of David and Goliath probably isn't going to convert a secular child any more than reading Cinderella will, frankly, plus they'll get the added benefit of understanding references to it in our culture. The thing that most irked me about this chapter was the author's inclusion of fairy tales as a subgenre of folktales. After reading Ruth Bottigheimer's Fairy Tales: A New History (2009), I was pretty convinced by her idea that fairy tales as we know them actually originated in the written tradition in Italy rather than in oral folklore, and that in fact fairy tales and folktales are very different genres with distinct characteristics. Vardell doesn't go very deep in separating out the differences between folk and fairy tale, so I can only assume that she was not aware of this research. In any case, I have to curb my frustration with that because Vardell points out that the importance of this chapter was not to nitpick about genres, but rather to introduce the librarian to the richness and variety of traditional literature for children.
Chapter 4: Poetry for Children
I hadn't fully realized before that the reason why a lot of adults hate poetry is because they were forced to analyze it in high school and college and were never given a chance to just experience the sounds and rhythms of it as children. This chapter introduces the genres of poetry for children and several good authors and books to use to help develop an appreciation of poetry in children while they're still young.
Chapter 5: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
It's interesting that this is one of the most controversial forms of fiction for children, but I guess I should have seen that coming--as Vardell notes, it deals with a lot more possible issues than other genres just because it takes place in the present and often focuses on difficult topics. Also important to note that since this genre is supposed to be realistic, even more attention to characters and their authenticity is a must. I really liked the sarcastic "Thirteen Ways to Raise a Nonreader" by Dean Schneider reprinted on p. 169. #8: "Don't expect your children to enjoy reading. Kids' books are for teaching vocabulary, proper study habits, and good morals." Haha.
Chapter 6: Historical Fiction
It's interesting to note that one person's contemporary novel becomes another person's historical novel. I guess I had always thought of the books I read in that way, but I didn't know if that was the typical way to define genres (i.e. if I read something that was contemporary in 1800, I think of it as historical fiction even if it was contemporary at the time). Vardell's discussion on p.192 of negative stereotypes of people in historical novels is especially relevant--personally, I would answer that we need to preserve books that portray groups of people negatively so that we can understand what the attitudes of society were at the time the books were written. Throwing out a book (which basically works out to some sort of historical censorship) does not change the past, and to try to sanitize the past for children doesn't teach them much. I would take my usual approach and talk about the offensive material with the child rather than seek to hide it from them. And I think if it were my family heritage that were "slammed" in a book, I would take it with a grain of salt and the knowledge that it is only one side of the story. This article on someone editing Huck Finn pretty much expresses my viewpoint.
Chapter 7: Fantasy
Generally good coverage of the fantasy genre. I hadn't really considered before that science fiction and horror were subgenres of fantasy, but I can see how that would be as they are all generally referred to as "fantastic fiction." A few nitpicky issues--on p. 204 Vardell refers to "Frank L. Baum" as the creator of the Oz series. Should be "L. Frank Baum." Another thing I was confused about is low vs. high fantasy. From what I understood, low fantasy refers to anything that takes place in our world but has fantastic elements, and high fantasy takes place in another world. Vardell classifies Harry Potter as high fantasy, even though technically it takes place in a magical subsection of our own world. Is there more to the definition of high fantasy than I thought? Does anything that reflects Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey" story type count as high fantasy? Ah, Wikipedia has an explanation--apparently anything that has a "world within a world" such as Harry Potter is also considered otherwordly enough to be high fantasy. That makes more sense now. ALSO... on p. 217 she lists The 10th Kingdom as an example of a "Merlin-related movie," however, The 10th Kingdom has nothing to do with Merlin. She may have gotten her circuits crossed as there is a film called Merlin starring Sam Neill that was also made by Hallmark Entertainment, but they are completely different films. The 10th Kingdom was a TV miniseries combining many examples of fractured fairy tales (very fun and entertaining if you have time to watch the whole thing).
Chapter 8: Informational Books
Mostly what I took away from this chapter is that it's just as important to make sure facts are accurate in a children's nonfiction book as it is in an adult book. Even if the book is written to tell a story, it has to be a true story in this genre and the facts need to be verifiable. Includes a discussion of biography. Now I want to read some of the Orbis Pictus Award winning books.
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Children and Their Literature
I don't think I've ever been so moved by a textbook. The stories of places where children don't have easy access to books and the positive effects that reading widely at an early age can have on people made me blink back tears on the bus this morning. I guess I saved the best class in my Masters program for last. I've never felt so grateful that I was blessed with parents who read to me early and often. It also makes me feel sorry for all the kids out there who think they're stupid because they're not good at reading... they don't realize that maybe they are really smart, but it's just that their parents didn't support them in early reading. Librarians really do have a huge role to play in encouraging kids. I also liked the Reader's Bill of Rights, especially the last one, "The right not to defend your tastes." I've been derided in some horrible ways for things that I enjoyed reading, and it really hurt me. I don't think it's right to ever make fun of people for enjoying something that they've been able to connect with, even if the writing is poor, the story silly, or the content something you don't agree with. And how much worse to make fun of what a kid likes to read, risking the possibility of turning them off of reading altogether! I guess the lesson here is to enjoy what you enjoy, and ignore the ignorant people who don't understand why.
Chapter 2: Picture Books
I never knew there was this much to know about picture books. Wordless picture books, engineered books, and other types, along with different types of art--"painterly" illustrations which include any application of a pen or a brush to paper vs. "graphic" illustrations using computers, copper or wood block printing, or other materials. Included more about the different kinds of children's book awards. Probably the most fascinating part of this chapter for me was the description of how a librarian working in international schools had to first train children to understand story structure using puppets and acting before they were able to sit through the reading of a book. I'd never realized before how privileged we are in this culture even if our parents don't read to us. We are still surrounded by books and print media, whether it's a book at school or at the library or a magazine at the dentist's office. So, even though all children need experience to understand how a book works, we have it almost by osmosis to some extent in this culture, whereas children elsewhere might never get that experience unless someone intentionally exposes them to it.
Chapter 3: Traditional Tales
This chapter covers Mother Goose and Aesop, and goes over the genres of traditional tales in children's literature such as folktales, myths, legends, fables, tall tales, religious stories, literary tales, and fractured fairy tales. Vardell made a good point about introducing children to other cultures as they exist in the present as a part of studying traditional tales so that they could understand that these other people actually exist right now and not just "once upon a time." I was also glad that she addressed that it's important to include religious stories from all religions despite potential objections from patrons--when I read the whole Bible all the way through for the first time, my thought was that even secular people could benefit from reading it just for the greater understanding of the culture around us that it would give them. Vardell seems to think the same thing about reading Bible stories to children--hearing the tale of David and Goliath probably isn't going to convert a secular child any more than reading Cinderella will, frankly, plus they'll get the added benefit of understanding references to it in our culture. The thing that most irked me about this chapter was the author's inclusion of fairy tales as a subgenre of folktales. After reading Ruth Bottigheimer's Fairy Tales: A New History (2009), I was pretty convinced by her idea that fairy tales as we know them actually originated in the written tradition in Italy rather than in oral folklore, and that in fact fairy tales and folktales are very different genres with distinct characteristics. Vardell doesn't go very deep in separating out the differences between folk and fairy tale, so I can only assume that she was not aware of this research. In any case, I have to curb my frustration with that because Vardell points out that the importance of this chapter was not to nitpick about genres, but rather to introduce the librarian to the richness and variety of traditional literature for children.
Chapter 4: Poetry for Children
I hadn't fully realized before that the reason why a lot of adults hate poetry is because they were forced to analyze it in high school and college and were never given a chance to just experience the sounds and rhythms of it as children. This chapter introduces the genres of poetry for children and several good authors and books to use to help develop an appreciation of poetry in children while they're still young.
Chapter 5: Contemporary Realistic Fiction
It's interesting that this is one of the most controversial forms of fiction for children, but I guess I should have seen that coming--as Vardell notes, it deals with a lot more possible issues than other genres just because it takes place in the present and often focuses on difficult topics. Also important to note that since this genre is supposed to be realistic, even more attention to characters and their authenticity is a must. I really liked the sarcastic "Thirteen Ways to Raise a Nonreader" by Dean Schneider reprinted on p. 169. #8: "Don't expect your children to enjoy reading. Kids' books are for teaching vocabulary, proper study habits, and good morals." Haha.
Chapter 6: Historical Fiction
It's interesting to note that one person's contemporary novel becomes another person's historical novel. I guess I had always thought of the books I read in that way, but I didn't know if that was the typical way to define genres (i.e. if I read something that was contemporary in 1800, I think of it as historical fiction even if it was contemporary at the time). Vardell's discussion on p.192 of negative stereotypes of people in historical novels is especially relevant--personally, I would answer that we need to preserve books that portray groups of people negatively so that we can understand what the attitudes of society were at the time the books were written. Throwing out a book (which basically works out to some sort of historical censorship) does not change the past, and to try to sanitize the past for children doesn't teach them much. I would take my usual approach and talk about the offensive material with the child rather than seek to hide it from them. And I think if it were my family heritage that were "slammed" in a book, I would take it with a grain of salt and the knowledge that it is only one side of the story. This article on someone editing Huck Finn pretty much expresses my viewpoint.
Chapter 7: Fantasy
Generally good coverage of the fantasy genre. I hadn't really considered before that science fiction and horror were subgenres of fantasy, but I can see how that would be as they are all generally referred to as "fantastic fiction." A few nitpicky issues--on p. 204 Vardell refers to "Frank L. Baum" as the creator of the Oz series. Should be "L. Frank Baum." Another thing I was confused about is low vs. high fantasy. From what I understood, low fantasy refers to anything that takes place in our world but has fantastic elements, and high fantasy takes place in another world. Vardell classifies Harry Potter as high fantasy, even though technically it takes place in a magical subsection of our own world. Is there more to the definition of high fantasy than I thought? Does anything that reflects Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey" story type count as high fantasy? Ah, Wikipedia has an explanation--apparently anything that has a "world within a world" such as Harry Potter is also considered otherwordly enough to be high fantasy. That makes more sense now. ALSO... on p. 217 she lists The 10th Kingdom as an example of a "Merlin-related movie," however, The 10th Kingdom has nothing to do with Merlin. She may have gotten her circuits crossed as there is a film called Merlin starring Sam Neill that was also made by Hallmark Entertainment, but they are completely different films. The 10th Kingdom was a TV miniseries combining many examples of fractured fairy tales (very fun and entertaining if you have time to watch the whole thing).
Chapter 8: Informational Books
Mostly what I took away from this chapter is that it's just as important to make sure facts are accurate in a children's nonfiction book as it is in an adult book. Even if the book is written to tell a story, it has to be a true story in this genre and the facts need to be verifiable. Includes a discussion of biography. Now I want to read some of the Orbis Pictus Award winning books.
August 8, 2017
The second edition of this text provides a very in-depth look at the elements of children's literature. This makes a great supplement to Kathleen T. Horning's From Cover to Cover; it's a little more academic (read: "dry") than Horning, but also provides a different perspective on a few key issues.
May 6, 2025
Very to the point and easy to read.
May 23, 2017
Textbook for Children's Literature for Library Media Specialist. The textbook provides valuable information and good examples of how books can be used in the classroom. My complaint with this textbook is that it doesn't speak much to the youngest of readers, often neglecting them entirely when covering the different genres. The authors forget that picture books can fall into the genres discussed.
November 4, 2020
I read this as part of my MLIS program. As far as textbooks go, this one was interesting to read and will be useful as a reference in the future.
It helps that the teacher facilitated annotated discussions about each chapter, so we were able to read and discuss rather than just read. It is organized by genre in children's literature with clear definitions for each, sub-genres in those, and ways to introduce these different types of literature to children.
It helps that the teacher facilitated annotated discussions about each chapter, so we were able to read and discuss rather than just read. It is organized by genre in children's literature with clear definitions for each, sub-genres in those, and ways to introduce these different types of literature to children.
December 3, 2020
I read this book for a children's literature class that I took and it was very thorough and perfect for the subject matter. Definitely a book worth updating every year or so because it gave a lot of specifics about books, genres, awards, and websites. However, I highly recommend keeping this book on hand as a valuable resource for librarians.
April 4, 2023
I read this for my "Library Materials for Children" course in library school. I remember it being a great introduction to the world of children's literature.
April 30, 2025
straightforward and very easy to read. great.
December 17, 2015
I was reading this for my Materials, Literature and Collection Development for Children and Youth course. Unfortunately, I had to send this textbook back in since I rented it and I did not get the chance to finish all of the chapters. But what I did get to read from it was seriously beneficial and helped me to learn more about the topic at hand.
November 17, 2016
This has been by far the best graduate school textbook I have had to read. Vardell writes with passion leaving it easy to follow and understand. I never once felt dread because I had to read a chapter from this book. Very informative and awesome ideas to utilize in the library.
September 4, 2017
I am not done reading this book but it is a jewel. So much valuable information in each chapter. If I didn't have to read the additional books that are required for class...I'd be finished by now. This is definitely a good read. Finished reading this summer and it is a keeper.
January 19, 2010
actually pretty interesting, provided a lot of information about different types of children's literature and activities and ideas that I could use in the future.
January 26, 2020
I am enjoying this book. I like the in depth history of children's literature.
Read
May 10, 2011I didn't read all of this, but the parts I did read had great lists of books and ideas for teachers.
July 31, 2012
I'm surprised by how much I'm getting out of this book. It's almost making me feel like I'm getting the wrong degree. Too late! I'm only 1 semester away from graduation!
April 12, 2013
Very informative book on Children's literature and what to look for when evaluating it.
November 30, 2015
Not without its flaws, but definitely one of the better library textbooks I've been assigned over the course of my degree.
December 7, 2015
(I read the 2nd Ed.) Does a good job of discussing different genres/ subgenres of children's literature and providing additional links/references. 3.5*
December 12, 2015
Extremely helpful.
July 8, 2020
Great resource for anyone looking to add more children’s literature into their lives!
July 25, 2011
adequate reading for a textbook. Glad I am finished with my Masters program!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews