Final Exam

 

1. I fully disagree with the arguments against children’s literature and personally find this genre to be quite valuable for many reasons. To discuss my disagreement with the arguments, I will focus on The Girl Who Drank the Moon as I explore two of the arguments from above. The first argument I will focus on is “Isn’t it silly and simple-minded stuff about dating and trivia like that?” In response to this, The Girl Who Drank the Moon was far from simple-minded and actually had nothing to do with dating. This book explored a complex, fairytale-like world that had several twists and turns. The book bounced between three main settings where characters lived their own lives. Eventually, the plot braids the three settings together as each of the main storylines overlaps with each other in the end. The second argument I will focus on is  “Isn’t it mostly depressing problems—like suicide, death, abortion, pregnancy? Hasn’t it been censored a lot?” To this, my rebuttal is that while this book does involve a young girl being taken away from her family as a baby, it does not have deeper content than that and has not been censored. The content in the book truly is age-appropriate for kids as the book reads like a fairy tale. I think that the girl is taken from her mother’s arms could be sensitive for some kids but could definitely be handled in the right way to make sure that the book is still appropriate for the kids reading it. The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a great book for kids of all ages to read and would be a wonderful addition to any curriculum because it could work well with a supplementary fairy tale unit, poetry unit, and/or figurative language unit. 

 

2. Children’s and young adult literature are similar to each other in the way that they are written for an audience that is young people. Simply put, if you combine the two genres, you have a branch of literature that is written specifically for individuals under the age of 18, although they often (as we have found in this class) can be enjoyed by an older audience as well. While there is so much more to it than this, which I will explore in the following paragraphs, I wanted to get the simple definition out there before taking a deep dive into my own definition of children’s and young adult literature. 

Children’s literature is different from young adult literature in the way that is written for the youngest of audiences. To me, these types of books include picture books and novels and promote a sense of comfort, fun, or wonder. Children’s literature should be engaging for kids and often there is a lesson being taught through the words and pictures in the book. According to the class PowerPoint called “The Child Responds to Literature,” literature can help to promote emotional intelligence in kids and can teach them how to manage their emotions, motivate themselves, and handle emotions in an appropriate way. One aspect of children’s literature that seems to be present in a lot of work read by kids is a fairy tale feel to a book, whether the book takes place in a fairy tale-type setting or otherwise. One novel that helped me to realize this whimsical feeling in children’s literature is The Girl Who Drank the Moon. While this book had elements of fairy tales within it, it did explore some realistic concepts as well. I find a good example of this crossover when reading page 349 which says “‘Grandmama,’ she sobbed, laying her cheek in her grandmother’s cheek. ‘Wake up, Grandmama. Please wake up.’ Her grandmother drew in a shuddering breath. ‘Your magic,’ the old woman said. ‘It started, hasn’t it?’” (Barnhill 349). I found this to be a really great depiction of the crossover between fairy tales and the exploration of real-world concepts that kids can learn from. There is magic and there is also someone getting older and their loved ones doing everything they can to help out while feeling the intense emotions. 

Young adult literature is a bit more intense in my opinion. Young adult literature explores very realistic situations that teens may or may not find themselves encountering in their lives. These books explore topics such as dating, trauma, family issues, historical time periods, and LGBTQ+, just to name a few. Young adult literature replaces the fairy tale feel from children’s literature with realism. Realism can be more engaging for older readers and gives them real stories to learn and grow from. I have always loved young adult literature and I think that is because sometimes it bounces on the line of adult literature. One place I really noticed the realism and maturity this semester was in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe on pages 348 and 349 when Ari’s dad helps him to realize his love for Dante. Ari’s father is explaining that Ari saved Dante’s life, he risked his own to save him and he is showing Ari that is because he loves him. Ari says “I’m a guy. He’s a guy. It’s not the way things are supposed to be. Mom--” Here, he does not deny his love for Dante but he acknowledges that it is wrong or that his family will no longer love him if he loves Dante (Sanez, 348-349). This is something that teens reading could face personally or they could be watching their friends go through this. It is realistic and conversations like this happen in the real world. But also, it teaches kids a lesson, that it is okay to love who you love and to be yourself. 

Overall, I would like to summarize my combined definition of children’s and young adult literature as literature that teaches readers lessons about life, the world, or themselves. These books are valuable in the way that they form kids into young adults and young adults into adults. Books give kids a place to learn about the world around them from characters and their stories and I think that is really special.