PEARSON EDUCATION Essentials of Children's Literature (with MyEducationKit)

Clear, concise, direct narrative that combines lists, examples, figures, and tables with prose make this brief, affordable, straightforward book the perfect guide to sharing literature with children in the classroom. Written by a well-respected author team, this resource is ideal for pre-service and in-service teachers alike, and much appreciated for its wealth of hands-on suggestions and ideas. Selective, up-to-date lists of recommended books are conveniently organized by sub-genre; multicultural and international children’s literature is integrated throughout; and an up-dated color insert features recent illustrations from picture books (including examples of computer-generated art) and graphic novels.   0137074026 / 9780137074020 Essentials of Children's Literature (with MyEducationKit)   Package consists of:    0132349396 / 9780132349390 MyEducationKit -- Access Card 013704884X / 9780137048847 Essentials of Children's Literature   Review A MESSAGE FROM KATHY SHORT   Children’s books have always been my passion.  I was the kid who read under the covers long into the night to finish a book and who pulled a book surreptitiously from my desk to read when the teacher wasn’t watching. Books were more than a way to occupy my time; they provided me with a sense of possibility for my life.  Literature expanded my life spaces by taking me outside the boundaries of my life to other places, times and ways of living. The hope and imagination that I gained from books encouraged me to dream and to look beyond my immediate world and so transformed my future.   My involvement in this textbook grows out of my belief that connecting children with books opens minds and opens the world.  My hope is that the adults in children’s lives will experience the transformative power of story and bring their passion as readers into their work with children.  To do this, they need to experience lots of books and develop an internal sense of what makes a book memorable for a child, as well as read about the field of children’s literature.  This textbook provides the essential knowledge that teachers and librarians need to understand about the field of children’s literature along with the resources to encourage them to read children’s books themselves.  By keeping the information concise and to the point, students are able to get the information they need and still have time to read many children’s books so that the power of story comes alive in their lives and they can, in turn, bring that passion for reading into children’s lives.  I had used earlier editions of this textbook in my own teaching of children’s literature because of this balance of genre information and literary issues with a wealth of resources for locating significant books and authors, all within a concise and easily accessible textbook.  Carol and Carl approach literature in such a thoughtful and respectful manner and use the conciseness of the text to make careful selections of the content and to prioritize the most significant issues and books. Academics can frequently be quite verbose and so I appreciated finding a textbook that was so concise and yet substantive in its content.  This textbook is brief without a loss of content, current to reflect the most recent literature, and far less expensive than many other textbooks on the market. I was excited to become part of the team that was producing the textbook I found most effective in my own teaching.   Working on this edition of the textbook forced me to focus my own thinking and writing.  I could bring my passion for connecting books with children, particularly in the teaching strategies chapter, where I could share my work with strategies for engaging kids in thoughtful talk around books.  The teaching strategies chapter introduces a curricular framework for thinking about how to encourage students to read widely for personal purposes, read strategically to learn about literary forms and structures, a