Annotated Bibliography:
Outcomes Developed in this Assignment:
Identify the major genres of children’s literature and the specific characteristics associated with each.
Demonstrate knowledge of the history of Children’s literature, social influences and trends.
Demonstrate understanding of themes and literary elements (We will cover these in class)
Appreciate and experience multicultural literature for children.
Demonstrate understanding of the literature in written form using MLA guidelines, proper documentation via clear communication.
Assignment:
The annotated bibliography is your chance to explore a wide array of children’s books. Only with this kind of expansive exploration will you get an understanding of the immense subject that is children’s literature. There’s just nothing that beats handling lots of books and analyzing them. Basically, it’s a long works cited page with sizeable annotations under each entry that describe the book, its merit, why it tells an important story or gives useful info and what are the most outstanding things about it.
I encourage you to set out with a plan regarding the types of books you want to explore. For instance, if you are fascinated by nature, think about a collection that looks at nature and biology through all age groups. If you are really passionate about human rights issues, see if you can create an annotated bibliography that selects the best children’s texts on social justice. If you want to create a library for children of a certain age or children who are inspired by nature, do that. If you want to create a list made of entirely diverse texts, do that. If you have a child who loves fairy tales, maybe a 0-YA annotated bibliography of fairy tales is just the thing. You get my gist. I find it’s helpful for students to choose a theme to make the project more cohesive. However, if you prefer a bit of this and a bit of that, that’s okay too When you choose books, be aware of the value of that book. Not all are created equally–so keep your antenna up for Newberry Award Winners, Caldecott Award Winners, etc. See what others are saying about the books you choose. As you learn how to assess poetry and illustration over the term of the course, you will see the depth of your annotations changing.
You must read and annotate no fewer than 30 books. These must be books outside those assigned in class, though you can use the books you chose for your poetry and illustration projects if they work for you for this.
Three of your books must be one hundred pages or more (chapter books)–the rest can be any length, even board books–read what fits your container/theme.
At least eight of your books must represent multiculturalism by featuring members of traditionally underrepresented cultural, ability, or ethnic groups. Feel free to exceed this number or go exclusively with multicultural books if you like.
By annotate, I mean this: beneath each entry in the bibliography will be an annotation. This annotation should provide a small treasure of information–a brief summary of the book, any awards it’s earned, what appealed to you about the book, why you feel it’s worthy of inclusion into your annotated collection. Consider it’s message, it’s style, it’s illustration (if any), all sorts of things. This should not be a rote exercise–get excited about your choices, and if you read a book that winds up not appealing to you, leave it out and choose another.
For each book, you will do two things. You will first include a citation in proper MLA format–that’s the bibliography part. Here’s what I’m looking for when I evaluate these:
1. You have a deep and real knowledge of those books that comes from carefully reading and assessing them.
2. You summarize the book in a nutshell
3. You Analyze the book using literary elements and other means of critical thinking.
4. You remain in the 3rd person while you are discussing the literature. For example Not this: I really love Charlotte’s Web because I read it when I was a kid and I think the story is important for children as they learn about friendship and loss. This: Charlotte’s Web is a story the introduces children to the important life-themes of friendship and loss.
5. You are writing at least one page (250 words)–double spaced–about each of your books plus a short introduction to your overall piece. That adds up to a lot of pages–but over a long time. 25 pages. Pace yourself and do two or three per week and it will feel effortless.
6 You are communicating clearly in your writing and have meaningful things to say about the text in clear written expression.
7. You are considering the value of the book to a child/children.
8. You include a rationale introduction to your collection that explains your theme and its importance. This makes a good introduction to the collection.
9. You are following MLA format for an annotated bibliography–you can find examples on OWL at Purdue online. I’m also pasting in a good student example from last semester below–this is just one entry.
Example of a standard entry:
Witek, Jo, and Christine Roussey. In My Heart: A Book of Feelings. Abrams Appleseed, 2015.
Writer Jo Witek and illustrator Christine Roussey came together to create a meaningful story about emotions geared toward young children. This first-person picture book is about a young girl who expresses how each of her emotions make her feel. This story is meant for younger children, ages 2-6, but could also come in handy with older children who struggle with social emotional skills or other delays because it uses smaller words and clever strategies to help children understand emotions. It can often be hard to describe emotions to young children, however this book uses tools such as similes to help children make connections between emotions and things they can understand such as “My heart is like a house, with all these feelings living about” (3). One of the main qualities of this book is its illustrations. At first glance, this book has a large heart cut out of the middle of the page, and with each following page, the cut-out heart becomes smaller and smaller until it fully closes, just in time for the final page. This book also has a strong relationship between the words and pictures to help fully demonstrate the meaning and feeling of the emotion that is being discussed. While it is not saturated in color, Roussey’s use of colored 3 crayon within the pencil highlights key features that help children to focus on the main point of the picture. Children who struggle to identify and acceptably express emotions can face large struggles as they age. Properly handling and expressing emotions is a key factor in a successful road to adulthood and even after. This book can be a great tool for educators and parents alike to help children understand these important concepts. It’s quite likely that use of this book combined with group activities could help children in a classroom of family setting better articulate their emotions and build empathy skills with others.
Please put an asterisk next to your multicultural books.
Listen, this project takes time, so start early. Figure out how many books you can look at per week and make a plan– and take notes. If you wait, it will become overwhelming, but if you start by let’s say week three, it’s simple and fun. In the end, it’s likely that you will find this project to teach you more about children’s books than anything else you do in class–that’s because it requires you to sit with the books and experience them. If you look at and create a short annotation for two books per week, you will find yourself done on time as if by magic. You will also be really intimately acquainted with a wide selection of books and have become expert at assessing them.
Due date is in the course calendar
