Blog 5: Children’s Literature Review

I reviewed two of my favorite children’s books and examined them through the lens of a second language learner.  For me the challenge has always been anticipating what exactly will be difficult for ELLs or children who live in non-literature enriched environments to understand.

The first book I looked at was The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg.  This is one of my favorite books and I have read it many times.  It tells the story of a stranger who is involved in an accident with a farmer.   He ends up with amnesia and stays on the farm to recover.  He has strange clothes

Some of the things in this book that might be hard for an ELL student to understand could be:

• ·         Fall and seasons,
• ·         strangers
• ·         urban vs rural
• ·         magic and mystery

Some of students that I have worked with had very strong religious backgrounds and the magic elements of this story may or may not be something that they are familiar with or completely understand.  Additionally, because of the strong religious beliefs, it may not be possible to explain these concepts to them.

Another consideration is the rural components of this book.  In one scene the family and the stranger are all dancing in the living room while people play instruments.  There is also a lot of scenes of farm life.  Students in urban settings might not always understand what is going on in these pictures because of their lack of exposure to

The second book that I reviewed was Flotsam by David Wiesner.   This book is about a boy that finds a strange camera washed up on the beach.  As with Wiesner’s other books, there are no words in this story.  While this is a non-verbal book and would be easy for Ell’s to access on one hand, it would also be very difficult to explain some of the deeper meanings and nuances of the story without language to explain them with.  Images in this book are intricate and when I have used it with kids before, there were many questions about the pictures.  By the same token, it would be an excellent book for studetns to practice asking questions about.

Some of the key topics in this book that I think Ells would have a challenge with would be:

• ·         Magic
• ·         Non-verbal recount
• ·         Ocean (tides and flotsam)

Again, culturally, the magic might pose a problem for Ells.  Depending on where students are from or their experiences, they may not have enough prior knowledge to access a lot of this story.  Visually though, this is a stunning story and students, no matter their level of English, could gain important skills from this book.