Children's Literature to Explore Social Essay

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Because schools matter so greatly in shaping the destiny of each child, they have always been the focus of intense, often unfriendly, attention. Criticisms of the system have always been abundant, and the targets of dissatisfaction have remained virtually the same over generations (13).

By properly utilizing children's literature to identify and then to address social issues, more equity can be engendered within a social system in which those from "privileged backgrounds" are favored.

An analysis of present and previous literature on the methodology of most prudently employing children's literature to address social issues readily indicates that the most successful, thought-provoking manner for doing so lies in utilizing an approach of cultural literacy. This principle denotes an active exploration on the process of both children and their teacher to bring their viewpoints to the literary works they are engaged in, in order to "construct meaning" (Responding to Literature, 419). Critical literacy revolves around constantly questioning literature, such as determining who the author is, what his or her reason for writing the text may have been, why certain events took place and what their significance is, etc. This process of questioning literature is referred to as interrogating texts (Responding to Literature, 420), and allows for children and their teachers to be able to understand the underlying social significance of literary works, and allows them to more readily apply them to their own lives by drawing necessary parallels between the two.

An integral component in enacting cultural literacy, of course, is selecting the proper literature with which to edify child readers with. Part of the process in selecting appropriate materials is finding stories with which children find interesting as well as can identify with. There are a number of methods that can be used to do so, the most salient of which have been summarized by the following quotation.

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The most important things teachers can do when engaged in selecting reading materials are to be aware of their own biases and values; to stay current with issues, themes, and book publications and reviews; and to maintain files of policy statements, useful resources, procedures for dealing with challenges to materials, and guidelines from recognized authorities (Responding to Literature, 414).

While keeping this advice in mind, teachers can find a number of excellent pieces of children's literature relevant to Canada's burgeoning population developments in a number of publications, not the least of which are CM: Canadian Review of Materials -- which offers book reviews as well as author profiles of Canadian writers -- Canadian Children's Literature, which contains articles about children's literature with a Canadian slant, Teacher Librarian, The Horn Book, The Reading Teacher, as well as Language Arts. Catalogues and books on the subject include Canadian Book Review Annual and Our Choice, while a website that is helpful is known as School Libraries in Canada (Responding to Literature, 414). By conducting research via these media, and utilizing a text interrogation teaching style that typifies cultural literacy, teachers can sufficiently use childhood literature to confront social issues, whether children are engaged in shared reading or performance reading, which is the reading aloud of pleasure for oneself or for others (Pinnell, Fountas, 47)......

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