Galda et al. — Children's Literature
[Notes: There are many useful databases via Penn State Network Access for doing research in children's literature, which will be discussed more in detail later in the Research Basics lesson. Please go to NetLibrary via PSU LIAS system <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/> in order to locate the following article, "Children's Literature," Chapter 22 in M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research Volume 3 (pp. 361-379). If you have any questions, follow the tutorial here. Also, check out the NetLiberary Guide if you would like to know more about this particular service and its access information.
The authors of this article, Children's Literature in Handbook of Reading Research chose to organize their review of the research around the conventional categories of "text," "reader," and "context."Of course any reading of a children's book will necessarily have a text that is read by a reader in some kind of social situation that shapes the purpose the reader has in reading. They note, pointedly, that previous editions of the Handbook of Reading Research have no discussion of children's literature, a nod to reading scholars' increased interest in what children read. Interestingly, the editors of this recent edition of the handbook chose to put this chapter in the section "Reading Processes."
In the "Children's Literature as Text" section, Galda, et al. distinguish between content analysis and literary analysis. By content analysis they seem to mean criticism that looks at the authenticity of multicultural children's literature. They note that there are too many flavors of literary analysis for them to elucidate, giving just three examples Neumeyer's close reading and historical study of Charlotte's Web, Nodelman's investigation of the semiotics of picture books, and Stephens' work on ideology and children's books.
The authors then go into a much longer section on readers. They first note the early research on children's interests and then follow that into more detailed studies of how children demonstrate their understandings of the books they read.
The final section discusses literature in the classroom and what kinds of classrooms seem to encourage deeper understanding of literature.