Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

To Be Or Not To Be: A Portrayal Of William Shakespeare In Children's Literature, Kathy S. Grout

Graduate Research Papers

This study analyzed how accurately authors of historical fiction portray William Shakespeare, the man and events of his life. An attempt was made to locate 25 books that contained Shakespeare as a character or dealt with events from his life. Twenty-two books were chosen that were written for children, young adults and adults with recommendations for young adults. Each book was read, summarized, reread and examined by completing a content analysis checklist designed to evaluate the portrayal of William Shakespeare and events of his life. Four hypotheses relating to known facts about Shakespeare's life, the fictionalization of his character, the …

Trends, Patterns, And Characteristics Of Young Adult Horror Fiction, Melissa A. Buelow

Graduate Research Papers

The characteristics of young adult horror fiction include literary conventions, incidents and patterns that are unique to the genre and appealing to the reader. This researcher investigated the trends, patterns, and conventions of young adult novels which make these novels appealing to the reader. This researcher made this investigation using a quantitative content analysis of the young adult horror literature. The researcher chose the books based on the availability of the book, by using the keywords horror, supernatural, occult, gothic, and vampire. The whole book was then analyzed for the trends, patterns, and conventions which it contained.

Raising Cultural Awareness In The Elementary Classroom Through African-American Children's Literature, Kirsten Seebeck

Graduate Research Papers

This research project topic was selected because of the need for raised cultural awareness in elementary classrooms, as indicated in current research findings. I chose African-American literature because in this region of the United States, Iowa in particular, the classrooms tend to be largely homogenous. Children who are from African-American descent find themselves to be in the minority in their classroom settings.

These children are not seeing many other children like themselves in their school community. It is therefore important that they see themselves in the literature shared within this community, in order to help them to relate to their …

A Christian Parent’S Guide To Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’S Stone, Gina Louise Burkart

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

A Christian Parent's Guide to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone provides parents with a variety of activities and opportunities for discussing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone through the Christian lens. The guide is founded and supported by educational theorists such as Kohlberg and Piaget and is built on the principle that parents can help their children sort out fantasy and reality and moral issues by discussing literature with their children. Each chapter is broken down into four sections: Bridging the Gap, Talking About It at Home, Scripture Connection, and Activities. Bridging the Gap allows parents and children to …

Portrayal Of Character Pillars Defined By Character Counts! In Children’S Bestselling Literature 1950-1999, Stephanie J. Stocks

Graduate Research Papers

Becoming a person of character is an individual responsibility, yet society uses institutions and media to help guide future generations to obtain virtues and moral values. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the pillars of character depicted in children's literature published in the United States from 1950-1999 reflect the renewal in character education programs for schoolchildren.

A content analysis was used to analyze twenty-five best-selling children's picture books from 1950-1999 that were randomly selected to be in the sample population. This researcher looked for positive and negative instances of the six pillars, trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, …

The Portrayal Of Stepfamilies In Young Adult Literature, Cynthia Buck Tuttle

Graduate Research Papers

This study used content analysis of a selected sample of 25 contemporary young adult fiction books published between 1990-2000, to determine if stepfamilies are portrayed accurately. Contemporary American families are less likely to endure as a traditional biological household. Novels read by young adults may not reflect these new realities. Findings indicate that in a majority of the titles stepparents are portrayed positively and they gave their stepchild time and flexibility to adapt to the stepfamily situation. Findings also revealed that the biological relationship was not more important than the marital relationship. There was insufficient data to prove that the …

Literature Connections To Music, Elizabeth Lynn Wick Mclean

Graduate Research Papers

This project was to produce an annotated bibliography of fiction for young adult readers with important characters or themes relating to music. The music and English departments at Mormon Trail Jr./Sr. High School in Garden Grove, Iowa requested a bibliography of young adult fiction related to music as a theme or important character so that teachers and students could choose a story to read when team teaching music and reading. The 120 books annotated were chosen through criteria selected so as to produce a list of books that would meet the curriculum needs of the teachers and reading levels and …

Qualitative Textual Analysis Of The Portrayal Of Mexican Americans In Children’S Picture Books, Victoria Quijas Navarro

Graduate Research Papers

The Latino population is predicted to be the largest minority in the United States by the year 2005. The largest group in the Latino population is Mexican Americans. Children's picture books portraying Mexican Americans can provide Mexican American children a means of connecting with their culture. Picture books are also a way for nonMexican Americans to learn about the culture. This research investigated three questions. What are the characteristics of Mexican American culture? What qualifies children's books as being representative of a culture? How do children's picture books about Mexican Americans reflect their culture? The researcher used qualitative, textual analysis …

Book Talk In A Thematic Literature Unit, Cathy E. Dickerson

Graduate Research Papers

Discussions of literature may be viewed as a part of the social environment in which students can work together collaboratively to construct meaning. Book talk, or discussion, in a thematic unit encourages students to focus attention on the important ideas in their literature experiences, thus moving them beyond literal comprehension to inferential thinking.

The theme of survival was chosen to promote book talk. A web was created that visually mapped the different aspects of the topic. The book Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, was chosen to introduce the unit and was read aloud to all children. This book became a foil …

The Portrayal Of Native American Women In Fiction Written For Young People, Linda L. Tyon

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to examine how Native American women were portrayed in contemporary fiction written for young children. The study was limited to books published between 1989 and 1999. Content analysis was used to obtain data for this study. Twenty-three Native American female characters from twenty books were included in the population sample. The study was to determine if a majority of books would portray Native American women accurately based on current demographic data. It also sought to determine if the majority of contemporary fiction books would continue to display stereotypic portrayals of Native American women and …

A Narrative Poem Of Iowa’S Immigrants, Ann Gumz

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this research project was to create a narrative poem for children in kindergarten through fifth grade about the immigrants to Iowa. The author began with a literature review of children's poetry preferences, children's attitudes about poetry, and the integration of poetry into the classroom. A bibliography of source material was created using selections from Basic Iowa Materials and the web site, The Ultimate Collection of News Links. The author also used five classic narrative poems as models and the elements of good book design recommended by experts as guidelines. A narrative poem was produced using rhythm and …

Social Class Depiction In Selected Award-Winning Children's Narrative Fiction, Edward L. Starkenburg

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This qualitative content analysis was designed to meet the following three objectives: to build an awareness of the depiction of social class in children's literature, to bolster the literature base on this depiction, and to better inform those who work with children's literature of its content in order to facilitate knowledgeable decisions regarding the selection and discussion of this literature. Eisner's (1991) connoisseurship and criticism heuristic guided the research throughout the data gathering as well as the inductive and deductive analyses of that data. The results of the study facilitate understanding and discerning social class in future experiences with children's …

A Look At Adoption Through Young Adult Fiction, Suzanne K. Duneman

Graduate Research Papers

This content analysis study examines adoptees and their families in nineteen young adult novels. An analysis was made of the adoptees sense of identity, the decision to search for their birth families, and their familial relationships. Sixty-three percent of the adoptees speculated about their birth families. Fifty-three percent of the characters did search for their birth families. Of that group, ninety percent had doubts during the search. In the conclusion of the novels sixty-three percent continued to have a relationship with both their adoptive and birth families, and thirty-seven percent maintained a relationship with only their adoptive family.

Books ‘N Kids On-Line: An On-Line Book Club, Pamela J. Martin

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this project is to create an On-line book club for 4th and 5th grade elementary students that will encourage them to read and interact with other members regarding their thoughts and feelings about particular books. This project, Books 'n Kids On-line, will integrate the reading, writing, and sharing elements of a book club with On-line Web communication.

Poetry For Young Adults: A Textual Analysis Of Poems By Mel Glenn And Paul Janeczko, Lisa Pope

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalent characteristics and elements of young adult poetry by examining a random sample of poems by Mel Glenn and Paul Janeczko. The characteristics and elements include themes, subjects, and other items of apparent relevance to teenagers' lives.

Because poems are the data being studied, a qualitative approach is utilized. More specifically, textual analysis is employed because this type of analysis is focused upon text.

The findings show that both sets of poetry contain similar elements and characteristics. All poems studied are of high poetic merit, contain imagery, are relatively simple, and …

Portrayal Of Homelessness In Children’S And Young Adult Fiction, Susan J. Myers

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to compare the portrayal of homelessness in children's and young adult fiction books to the findings in known research. This study was a content analysis using a checklist to record the presence of individual characteristics, family background traits, and diversity among the homeless leading characters in each selected book. The portrayal of the homeless leading characters was found to be consistent with known research in the areas of individual characteristics and family backgrounds. Although the data concerning the diversity of gender was found to be consistent with known research, the data representing the diversity …

The Portrayal Of Abandonment By Mothers In Young Adult Literature, Bernie M. Hawley

Graduate Research Papers

This study used content analysis of a selected sample of 33 young adult fiction books published between 1980-1995, to determine if the portrayal of abandonment of children by their mothers is realistic according to social research of those populations. Findings indicate that in a majority of the titles the abandonment is caused by the mother's need to establish her own identity and the abandoned child(ren)'s reactions are characterized by negative behaviors. These findings support the premise that contemporary young adult fiction presents mother abandonment in a realistic manner. It was found, however, that the majority of mothers in these books …

The Portrayal Of Prison Inmates And Their Families In Juvenile Literature, Maleea Dudney

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this paper was to determine if juvenile literature portrays some characteristics of family members of male prison inmates in a realistic manner. Twenty five juvenile books were analyzed and compared to data gathered regarding characteristics of actual family members of prison inmates. This comparison revealed that juvenile literature does not portray the families of prison inmates in a realistic way.

Bat Boy: A Novel For Grades 3-6, Ryan Basye

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this graduate project was to write Bat Boy, a beginning novel for readers in grades three through six. The main character in the story is Ryan Basye, who takes a trip to his great grandmother's house in a small Iowa town during the Fourth of July holiday. On this holiday, the town (Holland, Iowa), has a celebration that includes a fastpitch softball tournament, games of chance, rides, lots of barbecuing and fireworks after the championship softball game. Ryan is the bat boy tor his father's team and learns a lot about camaraderie between teammates and about the …

Promoting Attitude And Amount Of Leisure Reading By Selected Fourth Grade Students, Barbara Navin

Graduate Research Papers

In an effort to determine if media specialists can influence in a positive way the amount of leisure time reading elementary school students do, a study was designed which would test that hypothesis while involving students in two fourth grade classrooms, one of which was the control group and the other the experimental group. Specific activities such as booktalks, story and poetry breaks were performed only for the experimental group. This group also kept a list of books read in gaily decorated reading logs. Both groups kept a count of actual pages read, and actual books completed. Both groups were …

Tillie’S Christmas: Exposition Of A Children’S Book, Jeanne Anderson

Graduate Research Papers

TILLIE'S CHRISTMAS: EXPOSITION OF A CHILDREN'S BOOK, by Jeanne Anderson. In preparation for writing the children's book, Tillie's Christmas, this study explores the craft of writing in general, as well as the process of writing children's books in particular. Since the resulting book intentionally reflects Christmas traditions as celebrated by second-generation German immigrants on the Iowa prairie in 1900, this paper researches those customs. To confirm the commonality of such ethnic experiences on the Iowa prairie in 1900, several interviews with second-generation German immigrants are included in the study.

The Effect Of Booktalking On Fiction Circulation Statistics, Melinda J. Quinn

Graduate Research Papers

Five monthly booktalk programs were presented to the eighth grade reading classes at BGM School. Circulation statistics for first semester of 1992 when these students were in seventh grade were compared to the circulation statistics for the same semester of their eighth grade year in 1993 to determine if the booktalks made a significant difference in this group's reading habits.

An analysis of the data using the chi-square test indicated no significant difference at the .05 level in the circulation statistics for paperback books, hard bound books or total volumes. It seemed, though, that the students reacted positively to the …

Race And The Selection Of Picture Books, Susan Schmitt

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of the study was to investigate preference among kindergarten and second grade children's selection of picture books. The study was conducted with a bi-racial student population of kindergarten and second grade students. The students were given free choice selection of white character books and black character books. Results indicated a difference between kindergarten and second grade students. Kindergarten children significantly preferred books of like-race characters. In second grade, there was no significant difference in the preference of books. The combined data of kindergarten and second grade showed a significant difference in the preference of books.

Baseball And Basketball Fiction For Young Adults, Virgil Pixler

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to decide if the current examples of baseball and basketball novels for young adults have a high degree of accuracy. Content analysis was used to determine this accuracy. Description, rules and techniques characteristics and problems and concerns characteristics were developed and listed on a checklist. Fifteen novels on baseball and basketball were read and analyzed using the checklist. All hypotheses were accepted. The fifteen novels all had a majority of "yes" checks in both descriptions, rules and in techniques and problems and concerns categories. Thus, modern baseball and basketball sports novels do seem to …

Silky Ears And Secret Letters, Denise Larae Kuethe-Strudthoff

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this graduate project was for the writer to finish Silky Ears and Secret Letters, a chapter book for readers in grades three through seven. The main character in the story is Marcie Hargate, a sixth grader who does not fit in with her peers and who endures her classmates' taunting. Marcie's only friend is her basset hound, Rutherford. Rutherford is Marcie's confidante; and when she starts to receive letters signed by "Ghost Girl," the basset hound is the first to know. The letters from Ghost Girl worry Marcie because Ghost Girl often suggests in her letters that …

Stereotypes Of The Native American Found In Young Adult Literature, Kim D. Zelhart

Graduate Research Papers

This research investigated the occurences of stereotyping of Native Americans in young adult literature, using the young adult novels available in the Monticello, Iowa, Jr./Sr. High School. Twenty-eight Native American fiction books were read and evaluated. Of the twenty-eight books read twenty-three had 3 or more stereotypes.

Family Structure And Listener Response To The Jazz Man, Deborah Ann Sabotta

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to examine how seventh grade students responded to the oral reading of The Jazz Man (Weik). The researcher attended the four seventh grade language arts' classes in the Marion Independent School District, Marion, Iowa, and the twelve seventh grade language arts' classes in the Linn-Mar Community School District, Marion, Iowa, to read to and question the students. Students identified the adults with whom they live at home (their family structure) and then answered the question, "What do you think happened to Zeke (the main character in the story)?" This study determined what difference, if …

The Effects Of Book Location On The Selection Of First Readers By Elementary Students, Tracy Merfeld

Graduate Research Papers

167 kindergarten, first and second graders at Garfield Elementary School in Boone, Iowa, and 470 first reader books were used to investigate whether justification can be given to shelving first reader books in a separate section. An increase in the number of charges of first reader books might demonstrate a need of students to have this type of material readily accessible.

The study was conducted over two 45 day cycles. During the first cycle, first reader books were identified, marked with a red dot and interfiled with picture books. A first reader section was created for the second cycle. All …

Religious And Spiritual Elements In Young Adult Literature: A Content Analysis, Patricia C. Rosenberg

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to use content analysis to focus on the nature of traditional religious and spiritual elements in young adult fiction books.

Thirty-two books from ALA/s "Best of the Best Books 1966-1986" were read, and eight religious contexfs were checked. The findings revealed over one half of the books included moderate traditional religious contexts. About three fourths of the religious contexts were positive, but over one half of them were also negative. Most of the negatives were applied to religious workers and participants in religion. The one book which had strong religious context was totally negative. …

The Portrayal Of Characters With Behavior Disorders In Fiction Books For Upper Elementary Children, Sue Pedersen

Graduate Research Papers

Our society perceives childhood as a time when children are happy and carefree, learning and growing. For many children, however, childhood is not carefree. In the national school population, 1.2 to 2.0 percent of the students are behavior disordered (Haring, 1987). "Behavior disorders" is used as a term rather than "emotional disabilities" because the State of Iowa has mandated the use of the former term.

This research focuses on the ways in which children's literature portrays the behavior-disordered child. Books with accurate descriptions of the behavior-disordered condition in children help adults and other children understand the disorders.