From very hungry caterpillars and penguins for every day of the year to the Kingdom of Frogavia, animals rule in children’s literature. Whether used to teach numbers, colors, or more subtle lessons of morality, animals are the perfect vehicles for conveying tangible and intangible concepts in an entertaining way.

The unique not-quite-human yet not-quite-animal characters in the classic Dr. Seuss tales, paired with allegories about honor and even disarmament, set the stage for the next generation of children’s books and entertainment. Endearing creatures from Sesame Street (what is a Snuffleupagus, anyway?) and puppets from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood created a world of make believe that children could call their own.

In children’s literature, the story is often secondary to the lavish illustrations. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” for example, wouldn’t be nearly as compelling without Eric Carle’s illustrations. Likewise, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” is clever, but Felicia Bond’s illustrations make the book a children’s classic.

Kristin Zambucka’s “Frog Knights” and “Frogavia! Frogavia!” are perfect examples of books that consist of both lavish illustrations and compelling tales. In the first book, frog characters live in their own frog world - the big pond known as The Kingdom Of Frogavia. The true frog king is unseated from his ancient throne and banished to a far, distant pond by an evil ruler. As his bullying and tyrannical rule stretch on, the Frogavian people grow increasingly restless and unhappy. Finally, a group of brave young rebels rise up and go in search of their true king. They eventually find him and he dubs them chivalry frog knights in gratitude for their loyalty. The king, along with a frog queen and frog princesses, return to Frogavia and right the wrongs of the evil ruler. In the second book, the story progresses, with one of the chivalry frog knights asking for the frog princess’ hand in marriage, but she marries another. The frog knight joins his friends from the first book to continue on their mission to make good triumph over evil.

Zambucka’s books are more whimsical than, say, Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Tree House series or Tony Abbott’s Secrets of Droon series, but capture the magic of childhood while imparting nuggets of wisdom. The whimsy and appeal of the characters is that they come from the animal kingdom.

There’s no doubt that creatures are central to today’s children’s literature. Whether completely imaginary, such as those in “Where the Wild Things Are,” or real, as are those in “365 Penguins,” or a little of both, as in “Frogavia! Frogavia!”, kids are captivated by animals that cause the imagination to soar.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web.Learn more about Frogavia & Children’s Lit or Majon’s Books and Magazines directory.

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Jacqueline Wilson, born Jacqueline Aitken is a British author of children’s books. Her books have topped the bestsellers list in Britain and have won several prestigious awards. Many of her books have also been adapted for television and stage.

Born in Bath, Somerset in 1945, she initially started working in a Dundee-based publishing company, DC Thomson on a girl’s magazine Jackie. According to a legend, the magazine was named after the author but this was denied outrightly by the once involved with the magazine.

About the style of her writing one can say that her books are typically realistic and take the British children and their problems as the focal point. From the death of a pet to divorce, and from homelessness to abuse, all pertinent problems faced by children in UK are picked up by her in books such as The Cat Mummy, The Suitcase Kid, The Bed and Breakfast Star and Secrets. Majority of the books written by Jacqueline Wilson are in first person narrative. Her books that have been adapted as television series include Girls in Love, Best Friends and The Story of Tracy Beaker.

This noted writer has published great bestsellers and has got many awards to her credit, including Smarties Prize and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award. Her book The Illustrated Mum won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award as well as 1999 Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. Apart from that The Story of Tracy Beaker won the 2002 Blue Peter People’s Choice Award. Her other noted achievements inlcude the conferring of Order of the British Empire for services to literacy in schools. Also, in 2007 her contribution to children’s literature was recognised and she was awared an Honorary Doctorate by Roehampton University.

You don’t have to go too far to buy books by Jacqueline Wilson. Search the World Wide Web and her bestseller collection would be delivered at your door.

Jacob Marshal, a dedicated writer of Rupizcompare.co.uk which provide Jacqueline Wilson with Buy Children’s Books as Buy Books

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Here’s something to bring a smile (or a grimace) to your face as you contemplate the education of young people around the world. Turkey’s State Education Ministry (under direction of the AKP religious-right government) has negotiated the publication of 100 ‘essential’ children’s literary works of Western Literature - which, while being translated into Turkish, are also being Islam-itized.

However, because of the liberties taken by the publisher in translation, the books don’t meet international standards, And they won’t carry any sort of Seal of Approval. The unaccredited publisher, Damla Yayinevi, was able to avoid the need for such Approval by printing abridgements of the books — with page counts of less than the 96 pages required for approval.

The children’s books, which appear on the Ministry’s Recommended Reading list for Elementary School students, contain such unlikely story and character representations as:

A) A Prayerful Tom Sawyer — In the Islam-itized abridgement of that namesake classic (which might set Mark Twain a’turning in his grave), Tom devoutly memorizes prayers that he totes around with him — and receives a gift as reward for his efforts.

B) La Fontaine’s Religious Fox — The wily fox that steals fish right off the fisherman’s line doesn’t forget to offer his victim a pious blessing, “May Allah keep your path free. Haydi bana eyvallah!” before he runs off with the man’s catch.

C) A Reverent Pinocchio — In the translation of Carlo Collodi’s children’s classic, when the wooden-boy becomes real he swoons “Ben eskiden ne kadar komik bir haldeymisim. Simdi ise Allah’a sükürler olsun ki, gerçek bir cocugum.” I used to be in such a comical condition. But now… let God be praised, I’m a real boy.

D) A Moralizing Pollyanna — The condensed version of Eleanor Porter’s children’s tale includes the following dialog between the incapacitated Mr. Pendleton and young Pollyanna…

Pendleton: “I’m going to stay in bed till Doomsday.” (Bildigim tek sey kiyamete kadar yatacagim.)

Pollyanna: “You can’t, because according to the Holy Book, Doomsday will strike when you least expect it. Whether Doomsday can actually strike that swiftly is doubtful, but it surely will occur.”

Robin Hood, Gulliver’s Travels, Heidi, Oliver Twist, Treasure Island, and Andersen’s Fairy Tales are among the other famous children’s books of Western Literature that have also been given an Islamic slant in preparation for the new school year.

[Click following to access a fully illustrated HTML version of
href="http://www.practicalturkish.com/childrens-books--006-08-22.html"
target="_blank">Children's Books Get Islamic Makeover.]

Jim and (co-author) Perihan Masters are a husband and wife team, living on the Aegean Coast of Turkey just 50 miles south of Izmir. Jim was born in Shanghai, China — of American military parentage. Peri was born on the Black Sea coast of Turkey near Trabzon, of Turkish military parentage…Enticed by a Financial Times advertisement, Jim joined a NATO sponsored enterprise in Ankara in 1974 where he met the beautiful and brainy Perihan, a rising young Turkish banking executive. Settled now in the heart of what was once the ancient Ionian Empire — the couple live an idyllic life by the sea.. writing, drawing and painting, teaching English, and providing computing service support to local businesses. They also sponsor the MSNBC award-winning Learning Practical Turkish Website which has built an enthusiastic international following of devoted Turkophiles and inquisitive language students of all ages.

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Many people carry the misconception that children’s literature is easy to create. It is often thought that storylines can be much more simplistic than adult fiction, that language can be unelaborated and that characters don’t have to be particularly three-dimensional. And in many ways this is true. Storylines for children’s fiction do not have to be as complex as those used in adult fiction, language must be construed relatively simply, and characters do not need to come with all the baggage and background life stories that adult literature demands. But what is forgotten is the complexity of the reader for which one is writing for when they write children’s literature.

A child sees the world in a very different light to most adults. That world needs to be captured and represented in children’s fiction. To represent such a world through fiction is hugely challenging, and I take my hat off to all who do it successfully!

As with any form of writing, there are several steps that you need to follow when planning and writing a children’s book. You need to do your research, you need to develop a storyline or plot, you need to create the primary characters and you need to ensure that the ending of the story will be satisfactory to the reader. Alongside these key steps, there are two additional areas that need to be thought about when creating children’s literature:

- Language
- A Contemporary Setting

Let’s discuss these in turn!

Language

The mark of a great writer - their ability to use brevity successfully! Children’s novels are, by their very nature, short. A picture book will be carrying a few hundred words as a maximum; a book for a six year old reader will be coming in with a word count of around 1,000 words. Such a small word count leaves you without any room for error - EVERY WORD COUNTS. Let me say that again, EVERY WORD COUNTS! Every use of punctuation or grammar, every description, every sentence uttered by a character, every sigh, breath, movement, decision or thought has to be 100% correct. When you are working with a word count of 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000 words, EVERY WORD COUNTS.

Contemporary Setting

The need to understand and potentially use a contemporary setting for your storyline does not mean that your children’s book has to be set in the ‘here and now’. Children’s stories based in Medieval Times or in Out of Space (for example) are still hugely popular and successful. But.., a storyline should maintain a contemporary feel. Perhaps the easiest way to achieve this is to focus the text around a contemporary issue that affects ‘Today’s Children’. Think about divorce, same-sex families, bullying, step-families, illness, the internet, drugs, alcohol, sexual relationships, violence, or modern technology, and see how each of these key issues could be brought into the make believe world of your children’s fiction piece.

Summary - The Main Steps to writing Children’s Fiction

1 - Research. Know your market. Read current children’s fiction releases for the age group you are interested in writing for.
2 - The plot or storyline should have a contemporary feel
3 - Use a mixture of creative language and speech to bring your characters to life. They must be instantly visible to the young reader.
4 - Ensure the ending is satisfactory. Ensure all issues are resolved by the last page…don’t leave your poor reader hanging!
5 - Edit and re-edit the language until you are happy with the usage and placement of every single word!

Want to improve your chance of getting your manuscript accepted? Visit Words Worth Reading for Children’s fiction manuscript proofreading and appraisal services or proofreading and appraisal of articles.

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Reading is almost becoming a lost art. Between the video games, children’s DVDs and the endless variety of shows that are geared towards children it’s hard to imagine a time when a child would actually sit down and read a book for enjoyment. It’s kind of a shame, really, because when you read you can be anyone or anywhere you want. There are some children, however that love to read, and they say that this stems from them being read to at a young age, plus having access to some material that they would actually enjoy reading.

I can remember, as a child, when we would have the childrens book of the month club in our school. Ever month we would go home with an order form that would be chock full of the latest and greatest books for children. When that order came in we would absolutely devour those books. It was always an exciting time. I feel sorry for children that do not have that same love for books as I did when I was a youngster. Fortunately some people are not allowing that to happen to their child, or grandchild.

There are plenty of services out there that now offer a book of the month club that is specifically geared toward the younger reader. If you have young children or perhaps know someone that does they can really benefit from having such a subscription. Giving the gift of reading is a very precious thing, and when you watch a child grow up loving books it adds so much more to their lives than when they only have the video games and TV to fill the quiet moments.

Tim has a love for reading and is following a life long dream of being an author.

If you want to share the gift of reading with someone you love, or are looking for some great book clubs for yourself we can guide you to the program that suites you best. Visit us online at http://www.bookclubz.info/

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When I was teaching literature and writing courses at a private liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, members of the faculty were asked to prepare a statement justifying the existence of their major programs. Our vice-president at the time (there was an incredible turn-over in presidents and vice-presidents at that college) seemed to be serious about education* and directed the faculty to answer specific questions regarding the importance of what we were doing. Since I was the coordinator of the English program (a program situated in the Humanities Department which included literature, philosophy, religion, speech, film studies, and media communications), I provided answers which I felt underscored the importance of what we were doing.

I still feel that these are important issues for an English program, whether standing separately as an individual department in a large university or as a part of a humanities division in a small college. I have taught writing and literature in two private colleges, two community colleges, and one major university in the USA. Time has not, despite the current and fashionable interest in technology, eroded the importance of concentrating in writing, literature, and language studies. This belief, therefore, caused me to congratulate my students in at a level-two technological university in Anshan, China– and in Ningbo, China, at a level-three technological university, which is associated with a level-one university in Hangzhou–for majoring in English and for taking literature courses. The reasons I have done so can be found in the answers to the questions put to me below. I have, where necessary, generalized the answers to include a scale that is more global.

A. When students finish an English Language and Literature program, they will be able to do what?

1. These students will be able to realize that literature, like any art, is not created in a vacuum but reflects the culture and times in which it was created. This will cause them not only to realize, but to show the importance of being able to communicate thoughts and ideas in a cogent form so that the authors’ messages and feelings can be understood and appreciated for centuries.

2. These students will be able to write and to speak in a scholarly manner about important issues that not only exist today but have existed for centuries, from before the time of Homer to the present. They will be able to argue effectively because they will have learned how to back up opinion with research findings, which they have learned to, quote and document correctly. They will have learned how to communicate clearly and effectively so that their own ideas do not become lost or ignored.

3. These students will be able to conduct research in many fields because they have learned the correct methods of researching, documenting, and incorporating findings in research papers. Those who have studied creative writing will also be able to create their own literature; this is daring and important because it involves digging deeply into themselves and fashioning into art something that did not exist before.

B. Why should students study with you as a professor?

1. Students should study with me as a professor only if they have a thirst for knowledge and an interest in expanding their horizons, which is what education is supposed to be about.

2. Students should not be caught up in the appearance of learning, trapped only in the superficial rhetoric but should, instead, be aware of the hard work that is needed to take charge of, and take responsibility for, their own education. They should be aware of the fact that education is about life-long learning and life-skills, that it is more than mere job training and that it is not finite.

3. If students study writing with me, they should be willing to face the possibility that writing and publishing is a difficult, painful process, and that creative writing requires digging into the pain and suffering of our memories because that is usually the source of the energy required to be creative. It is an uncomfortable but necessary part of the creative process, and this takes not only honesty but also great courage.

C. Why should students study in an English Language and Literature Program? [or Department of Foreign Languages]

1. Students should study in an English Language and Literature Program because it is essential, particularly in areas of the world where writing skills are reportedly the weakest, that they be able to communicate clearly, correctly, and effectively on the level of intelligent university students and, eventually, the level of university graduates who are able to compete with graduates from universities worldwide. They would become aware of the world-wide importance of the language or vocabulary with which they communicate.

2. They should study literature as well as language in order to realize that literature reflects the times, mores, and philosophies of the authors — that its subject can be as varied as the multiple points of everyday life, with which it is connected, not as talk show topics between covers but as serious analysis of human endeavors and foibles.

3. They would recognize and appreciate the extent of the contributions of literary figures such as William Shakespeare who utilized or created words with a genius unknown before or since his time, whose vocabulary was the largest of any known English writer, and whose First Folio of his plays gave to all speakers of English more new words than any other single source**. With this recognition and appreciation they would, hopefully, build a bridge between the past and the future so that the monumental achievements of the past are not lost in the glitz and glitter of a technology that remains in the service of a transitory, materialistic world but are maintained as a foundation for a future rich with aesthetic and intellectual possibilities.

“Among the most important developments in contemporary global culture is the arrival of Western literary criticism and literary theory in China.” This statement is made by W. J. T. Mitchell in his preface to the Chinese edition of A HANDBOOK OF CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE, printed for China by the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press - a text I am now using for seniors in Research Methods in Ningbo. He adds: “There is arguably no greater force in producing understanding between peoples than the transmission of literary traditions - the great heritage of narrative, lyric, and prose forms that give cultures their distinctive character.” This is why, I believe, that more literature courses are needed in certain universities in China, not only one semester of British literature and one semester of American but two semesters of each. More important, students in all areas of studies should be exposed to world literature and mythology. When I taught literature in Anshan, I had to cram two semesters of information and small snippets from the primary literature into one semester. I complained about this, but to no avail. I tried to change textbooks but was not allowed to do so. This was when I was still naive enough to believe that students were attending the university to receive an education. Many students here in Ningbo have referred to me as a serious professor. Since I often make jokes in class, I assumed that they were not referring to a lack of sense of humor. You see, I had taken it for granted that all professors, foreign or domestic (Chinese), were serious about educating in the classroom. Boy, was I naive.

When I was an undergraduate back in a small college in Illinois (my home state or, as I like to call it, God’s Country), I heard our instructor state that a college diploma should be handed out with a birth certificate. I never forgot his remark. What I would like to recommend today, therefore, is that those universities on both sides of the Pacific who are more concerned with maximizing profits than they are with providing a real education — who intimidate professors who try to maintain intellectual standards –to take this simple step: eliminate all course work for students, charge the students and/or their beleaguered parents tuition for the equivalent of four years tuition, and hand to them the diploma. No pretenses. No false claims. Then those universities sincerely interested in educating students with real standards can hire the best professors and recruit only the serious students who really. . . really. . . really want to learn for the sake of knowledge. Then knowledge. . . not only virtue. . . becomes its own reward.

So much of literature, and so much of life, is based on the foundations of world mythology and the greatest literature that the geniuses of the mighty word have produced. This is what it means to be educated for the sake of being educated, not just trained for employment. Once we accept this, we might get back to what education and the teaching of literature is really supposed to be about.

We can then get serious.

* This “serious” vice-president later allowed students who had failed courses (one male had failed four courses in our English department and one female had failed two of mine alone) to walk across the graduation stage because, as he admitted to the faculty the next day in a meeting, he was intimidated by their parents.

**[See THE STORY OF ENGLISH: 3rd Revised Edition by

Robert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil

New York: Penguin Book, 2002]

Charles J. Garard is a PhD in literature and film now living in Ningbo, China, where he teaches literature and writing. He taught for 17 years at a small liberal arts college in Atlanta and for two years at a university in Anshan, China. He writes about films (for EzineArticle.com and for Amazon.com) and mythology (such as his recent article about creatures in Indonesia published in a paranormal magazine) and works on his novels about time-travel, vampires, and mainstream topics. He is now working on a fictionalization of his teaching experiences in China.

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Board books are often a child’s first introduction to the world of print. Designed with infants and toddlers in mind, these specialty children’s books are chunky, with thick, study pages perfect for a young child’s exploring touch. Like most children’s books, board books are usually labeled with a target age range by the publisher. Board books are generally intended for children from birth to three years old.

Early children’s books come in many titles. Many classics of children’s literature are available in board book format, from the works of Dr. Seuss to bedtime staples like Goodnight Moon. These titles allow even the very youngest children to enjoy the whimsical stories and colorful illustrations of favorite stories without worry about torn pages.

Pocket sized board books often come in themed collections. Favorite children’s characters often star in collections of board books, which often come in creative packaging, intended to make getting the books out and putting them away just as much fun for your child as reading them. Other collections focus on a theme, such as letters of the alphabet.

Perhaps the most popular style of board book is the simple picture book. Each heavy, cardboard page contains a single word or concept, paired with a matching illustration. Available on subjects from dinosaurs and cars to colors and shapes, these children’s books build familiarity with basic early learning concepts and introduce the idea that words represent things we see around us.

Board books come in a range of different sizes. Small, pocket sized board books are perfect for crawling infants who are just learning to manipulate objects, while larger books are ideal for the toddler who wants a book just like Mommy’s.

The physical construction of board books is designed to withstand the rough treatment of children too young to know better. Unlike traditional bound paper books, the thick cardboard pages of board books are virtually indestructible. They resist tearing and make it easier for clumsy young fingers to turn pages.

Board books are also an exceptionally affordable addition to the family library. Small full color picture books are often priced at just a few dollars per title, while larger, full size full color books are priced around the same as hardcover children’s books. Building a collection of board books for the child in you life is an inexpensive way to provide an early introduction to the importance and enjoyment of reading.

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