By Jeanne Giardino-Zanegood
Once Upon a
Time…
I always get
chills when I read these first few words contained in many children’s books.
They bring me back to a simpler time when reading was filled with colorful
illustrations, playful words, and the promise of happily ever after.
My daughters,
ages 7 and 10, are voracious readers and they moved quickly from picture books
to chapter books by 1st grade.
While I would delight in their accomplishment reading books like The Magic Treehouse series it worried me
that they might not recall the joys of reading books that could tell a story in
both illustrations and words. Our weekly
trips to the public library to check out books no longer included time in the
children’s reading room, but instead we sat on the floor in the juvenile
fiction section looking for books by Sunshine State Nominees and Newberry Award
winners for excellence in writing. Would my children ever remember the
Caldecott-awarded picture books of their childhood and the beauty they possess?
Did you know
that children’s literature covers topics such as history/political science,
building and maintaining relationships, coping strategies and even retells the
literary classics? That you can help
children understand the complexities of the human experience all from reading a
picture book. One of my favorite books is
about teaching children about social injustice and the conceptual foundation
for civil rights/animal rights.
In Doreen Cronin’s book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows
that Type, “The animals in Farmer Brown’s barn are unhappy with the way
they are being treated. All day long they post typewritten notes to Farmer
Brown, demanding better working conditions. Ultimately, the cows and hens
threaten to go on strike. Click, Clack, Moo, a Caldecott Honor book, is a
humorous and thought-provoking analogy that demonstrates the importance of
taking action in the face of injustice.”*
This is what you get when you have a trained lawyer
write a children’s book.
Reading
picture books such as, Click, Clack Moo:
Cows That Type, at the different grade levels will solicit a wide spectrum
of responses based on prior knowledge.
Looking at the ever changing landscape of educational standards children
are being asked to master at a young age, picture books open doors to deep
discussion with the support of rich, meaningful text. Parents and teachers can
pull a variety of topics from this beautifully illustrated and cleverly written
book such as life on a farm, fiction vs. non-fiction, and fairness. Click, Clack Moo: Cows That Type is a 2nd
grade level picture book, but with the the import of higher level vocabulary
words in the story such as: compromise,
negotiate, improve and strike; students
can begin to explore historical/current events and dare I say even maybe
cultivate some interesting dinner time conversation with children of a variety
of ages.
I used
Doreen Cronin’s book as it is one of my daughters’ favorite books to read both
independently and as a read-aloud. When they were preschoolers it was a silly
story about farm animals who wanted to use electric blankets in the barn to
keep warm at night. As the girls grew it
morphed into a parable and became a lesson in communication, negotiating,
conflict resolution and passive resistance.
Who knew?
http://education.miami.edu/legacyproject/documents/ClickClackMoo.pdf
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