this post is to looks at my research so far and pick out the information that will be useful going forward and to link it to my chosen subject. This process should help me to narrow down my chosen area of research and get closer to my essay question. the more I look back at my research I am being drawn towards children's books that have deal with gritty and realistic subject matter. there have been a number of recent studies suggesting traditional children's books don't have the influence we think they do. I looked at an article suggesting that by not including negative emotions and reactions in children's books we stop them from understanding and dealing with them in a healthy way. We all feel anger and jealousy at some point but by leaving them out of children's education we can make them feel like they are the only ones feeling that way leading to shame, secretiveness and insecurity.
http://ierg.ca/about-us/some-ideas-foundational-to-our-work/fantasy-and-reality-in-childrens-stories/
Another article I looked at pointed a recent study that suggests children a drawn more towards factual reading than adults. That when they are being told stories by an figure of authority they are trying do discover ne information to inform their learning and they use their imagination through play to make sense of the information they have gathered.
"If stories are a form of input, imagination and pretence may be mechanisms for elaboration and assimilation."
This could feed into stories with more complex realistic subjects and ambiguous endings, these stories can act as the start of a process not the end. If these findings are correct we should use stories to trigger a thought process and ask questions more than dictate answers. This could encourage children to develop awareness of themselves and an understanding of real world scenarios.
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/10/19/449865847/children-want-factual-stories-versus-fantasy-more-often-than-adults
this next article talks about the opinions of Anne Fine. Anne Fine is a writer that is best known fro her children's books. This is a different perspective on more realistic and ambiguous stories as she feels they offer little hope for the protagonist. She feels that realism may have gone too far and that we should be helping them to develop their aspirations. I don't think her opinion fully takes into account recent findings but it does give some good reasons for exercising caution with when dealing with realistic darker subject matter. I these subjects are not dealt with very carefully or if a child's education becomes saturated with troubling facts about the world it could have negative effects. Dealing with these subjects in a appropriate and beneficial way must be done with a great deal of skill or understanding.
http://www.jackiekemp.scot/index.php/poems/49-articles/arts/152-anne-fine-deplores-gritty-realism-of-modern-childrens-books
this next article talks the about the problems with or even the inability of fiction to influence moral codes successfully or at least in a predictable way. The article talks about fiction being a seed that may grow into something more or may not, that we cannot control how the information is received or how it is interpreted. Again this seems to back up the idea of using children's fiction as a starting point, a spark that can be moulded and deciphered through play and imagination. We may not have as much control over our message as we would like but that does not mean we cannot make work that encourages children to address important subjects and develop their own individual understanding.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/08/moral-fiction/304128/
I have found a few articles that talk about the role of illustrations in children's books, this varies from illustrator, some are just simply reiterating the words of the text but others add context and emotion the narrative through landscape and character. Some can even tell a story that seems entirely separate from the text, the two combining to complete the narrative. I have read interviews with illustrators that stress the importance of drawing what isn't there not what is. In this way illustrators can influence the messages within the story through things as simple as facial expressions, to do this the illustrator needs to have an in depth understanding of the meaning of the narrative and what it is trying to say.
http://ierg.ca/about-us/some-ideas-foundational-to-our-work/fantasy-and-reality-in-childrens-stories/
Another article I looked at pointed a recent study that suggests children a drawn more towards factual reading than adults. That when they are being told stories by an figure of authority they are trying do discover ne information to inform their learning and they use their imagination through play to make sense of the information they have gathered.
"If stories are a form of input, imagination and pretence may be mechanisms for elaboration and assimilation."
This could feed into stories with more complex realistic subjects and ambiguous endings, these stories can act as the start of a process not the end. If these findings are correct we should use stories to trigger a thought process and ask questions more than dictate answers. This could encourage children to develop awareness of themselves and an understanding of real world scenarios.
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/10/19/449865847/children-want-factual-stories-versus-fantasy-more-often-than-adults
this next article talks about the opinions of Anne Fine. Anne Fine is a writer that is best known fro her children's books. This is a different perspective on more realistic and ambiguous stories as she feels they offer little hope for the protagonist. She feels that realism may have gone too far and that we should be helping them to develop their aspirations. I don't think her opinion fully takes into account recent findings but it does give some good reasons for exercising caution with when dealing with realistic darker subject matter. I these subjects are not dealt with very carefully or if a child's education becomes saturated with troubling facts about the world it could have negative effects. Dealing with these subjects in a appropriate and beneficial way must be done with a great deal of skill or understanding.
http://www.jackiekemp.scot/index.php/poems/49-articles/arts/152-anne-fine-deplores-gritty-realism-of-modern-childrens-books
this next article talks the about the problems with or even the inability of fiction to influence moral codes successfully or at least in a predictable way. The article talks about fiction being a seed that may grow into something more or may not, that we cannot control how the information is received or how it is interpreted. Again this seems to back up the idea of using children's fiction as a starting point, a spark that can be moulded and deciphered through play and imagination. We may not have as much control over our message as we would like but that does not mean we cannot make work that encourages children to address important subjects and develop their own individual understanding.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/08/moral-fiction/304128/
I have found a few articles that talk about the role of illustrations in children's books, this varies from illustrator, some are just simply reiterating the words of the text but others add context and emotion the narrative through landscape and character. Some can even tell a story that seems entirely separate from the text, the two combining to complete the narrative. I have read interviews with illustrators that stress the importance of drawing what isn't there not what is. In this way illustrators can influence the messages within the story through things as simple as facial expressions, to do this the illustrator needs to have an in depth understanding of the meaning of the narrative and what it is trying to say.
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