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Appeal to Pre-schoolers
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From: Kimberly M. King <cc496>
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 08:57:32 -0400 (EDT)
As this is my first message to this discussion group, allow me to briefly identify myself before getting to the main points of this posting. My name is Kimberly King and I am a children's librarian with New York Public Library who lives and works on Staten Island.
On August 8th, Megan Schliesman asked what books we use that work with pre-schoolers and what we think the appeal is. Three titles come to my mind.
*Froggy Gets Dressed* by Jonathan London, *Old Black Fly* by Jim Aylesworth, and
*Chicka Chicka Boom Boom* by Bill Martin, Jr. and Jon Archembault. While these three are certainly not the only "crowd pleasers," they consistently win the
"Can we do that one again?" award bestowed by our Pre-K Picture Book Time crowd.
The appeal of these works is several fold from what I have observed. First, they deal with the familiar...getting dressed to go outside in the winter and the alphabet. Second, with regard to the Froggy title, the kids are able to demonstrate that they know what is going on even when the character doesn't. The third characteristic is something that we as the readers and tellers benefit from first and then bring to the children in our presentation. The language used invites involvement! It invites excitement! Roll the words around and see what a delight language can be! Such skillfull manipulation of language can certainly manifest itself in our delivery. And an involved delivery on our part adds to the appeal to the kids, I think.
This is not to say that stellar performance skills are required, certainly, but rather that intelligent, creative use of language on the part of the author can be another factor in the appeal of a book to its audience.
--Kimberly M. King
Todt Hill-Westerleigh Regional Branch
New York Public Library
Received on Fri 09 Aug 1996 07:57:32 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 1996 08:57:32 -0400 (EDT)
As this is my first message to this discussion group, allow me to briefly identify myself before getting to the main points of this posting. My name is Kimberly King and I am a children's librarian with New York Public Library who lives and works on Staten Island.
On August 8th, Megan Schliesman asked what books we use that work with pre-schoolers and what we think the appeal is. Three titles come to my mind.
*Froggy Gets Dressed* by Jonathan London, *Old Black Fly* by Jim Aylesworth, and
*Chicka Chicka Boom Boom* by Bill Martin, Jr. and Jon Archembault. While these three are certainly not the only "crowd pleasers," they consistently win the
"Can we do that one again?" award bestowed by our Pre-K Picture Book Time crowd.
The appeal of these works is several fold from what I have observed. First, they deal with the familiar...getting dressed to go outside in the winter and the alphabet. Second, with regard to the Froggy title, the kids are able to demonstrate that they know what is going on even when the character doesn't. The third characteristic is something that we as the readers and tellers benefit from first and then bring to the children in our presentation. The language used invites involvement! It invites excitement! Roll the words around and see what a delight language can be! Such skillfull manipulation of language can certainly manifest itself in our delivery. And an involved delivery on our part adds to the appeal to the kids, I think.
This is not to say that stellar performance skills are required, certainly, but rather that intelligent, creative use of language on the part of the author can be another factor in the appeal of a book to its audience.
--Kimberly M. King
Todt Hill-Westerleigh Regional Branch
New York Public Library
Received on Fri 09 Aug 1996 07:57:32 AM CDT
