I disagree with all of the arguments made against children’s literature (especially argument number nine). Argument number nine states that children and Young Adult lit entail “silly and simple-minded stuff about dating and trivia like that?” First of all, I personally wouldn’t consider dating and trivia to be simple-minded stuff. It is all stuff that we all will face at some point in our lives so it is a good thing to gain knowledge on. Plus, I do not know a single person (both young and old) who does not like to read about dating and trivia. Both of these activities are a time of questions and discovery that helps our brains gather information. And what is so bad about reading about dating and trivia?
For this question, I am going to be arguing the book Brown Girl Dreaming. The school board would say something along the lines of “Why have kids spend time in class reading something they can easily read on their own?” To that I would respond with Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir told in verse. Many children nowadays are either scared of reading poetry or are unknowledge about this beautiful writing style because more and more teachers are hiding away poetry. Children need to read this book in class so they fully understand all that entails poetry. By no means are Jacqueline Woodson’s poems hard to understand but they contain so much figurative language and imagery. Having your students familiarize themselves with poetry and figurative language will only help to better their own writing. Writing is an important part of life as it is a pivotal form of communication, as well as many jobs, require their employees to engage in some act of writing (whether it be writing up reports or sending out emails). The school board may also say that Brown Girl Dreaming has no heritage and no respectability. To that I would respond with this book written by Jacqueline Woodson is about how she grew up during a time where she, her family, and the African American population were not welcomed with open arms. This book talks about the civil rights movement, Jim Crow laws, the black power movement, sit-ins, and important activists such as Angela Davis. This is all so important to know about as it was a time in our life where social and economic mobility for African Americans improved and racial discrimination was banned. Brown Girl Dreaming has also won many awards such as the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Coretta Scott King Book Award, and an NAACP Image Award for outstanding literary work. These are all major book awards that are not easy to obtain. In conclusion, I think that having Brown Girl dreaming be a part of middle school classrooms would be beneficial.
Children and Young Adult literature are for those individuals who are not yet through their schooling years (though adults enjoy reading these books as well). The two genres though are not the same in my opinion. Children’s literature is short, simple, and colorful stories that have one or more morals to the story. These books are kept short because young children do not have the attention span to sit and listen to a book that takes an hour or more to read. They like books that are straightforward and to the point. Children also love looking at colorful pictures in the books they read as it helps them connect what they see in the books they read to real life. The colorful drawings in children's books also help to create building blocks for children to use later in life. Books are also a great activity to calm down children. At work, I often suggest reading a book to my preschoolers after coming in from outside time. The transition from outside playtime to inside playtime is often very hard for these children so a short read-aloud helps tremendously. Lastly. Children's literature is a great confidence booster for young minds as it helps them learn vocabulary. Books are interactive which means they require their audiences to think. This will get children curious about what each word means and will ask an adult what the word means. For example, last week a child came up to me after reading a book and asked me what the word explored meant.
Now on to Young Adult literature. This genre is intended for teenagers though it can be read by adults as well. This genre tends to cover deep topics such as suicide, bullying, sexual abuse, and LGBTQ issues that teens may find hard to discuss with others. A book that stands out to me when I think of young adult literature is Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. This book would have helped me as I too had felt distanced from my parents. I remember when my parents divorced, I had the hardest time expressing to others how I felt. My little brother had always asked me when we would see our father again. I did not want to break his heart so I told him the simple answer of I don’t know even though deep down I knew we would never see him again. Lying to my little brother broke my heart and my mood swings worsened. My mood would change from being happy to being sad to then being mad so I turned to books. Books helped me organize my thoughts and made me realize that I was not the only teen going through hard times in life. One book that helped me out a lot was My Parents Are Divorced Too: A Book for Kids by Kids by Melanie Ford, Steven Ford, Annie Ford, and Jann Blackstone-Ford. This was actually a gift from my mother since she knew I was having a hard time. Young adult literature also contains imaginative storylines combined with the exploration of emotions that feature in our everyday lives. This means that young adult literature is a wonderful tool to discover the complex and sometimes daunting society that we live in. Young adult literature has grown in recent years and dominates bestsellers lists. I think it is safe to say that this genre is highly successful.
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