Children's Literature Collection

     The Callahan Cousins by Elizabeth Doyle Carrey follows a group of older elementary-age cousins spending the summer with their grandmother on Gull Island. This book is from the perspective of 12-year-old Hilar, whose parents are getting divorced. Through her desire to stir up an old family feud to prove her worth to her father, she leads her group of cousins on a variety of misadventures, including a sinking sailboat.      This book falls under the category of contemporary realistic fiction for older elementary-age to early middle-school-age girls (Galda, 2016). Despite the girls being left alone quite a bit and being very wealthy, which is largely unrealistic for this age, most of their adventures are highly plausible for girls their age. The main conflict is between the group of Callahan girls and the Bicket family, a feud dating back to when their parents were children. There are very few illustrations in this book, but the cover is reminiscent of co...

       Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine recently came through my library at work. This work follows the story of Henry Brown, a character based on a real-life man. Young Henry was born a slave and dreams of freedom for himself and his family. He eventually is sent to work in a factory and marries, but his dreams are once again crushed when his family is sold. One day, Henry has an idea while moving crates in the warehouse factory where he works. He is going to mail himself to freedom.      The time period is incredibly important to this story. Without the time period and setting, the plot itself would make no sense. Since this is loosely based on a true story, the characters and plots are very realistic to the time period and the story is full of time period accurate details. The illustrations are representational, as they are all of realistic-looking people in realistic places/situations (Galda, 2016).      One very important part of...

       The story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is fairly well-known among both children and adults alike. There have been numerous movies and retellings made, but nothing beats the original story. Snow White's mother dies soon after she's born, and her father remarries a beautiful, but very vain woman. This woman slowly grows to hate Snow White for her beauty and kindness, to the point of trying to have her murdered. Snow White escapes and finds herself in the home of the seven dwarves, who take her on in exchange for becoming their housekeeper. The queen eventually finds her and tricks her three times in an attempt to kill Snow White herself. These tricks include tight-lacing her dress, a poisoned comb, and eventually the classic poisoned apple. After building her a glass coffin, a prince happens by and sees how beautiful Snow White is. He immediately falls in love with her and asks to take her back to his kingdom with him, and the dwarves consent. As his serv...

      Hungary, the region my family is from, is often overlooked in many matters, and folktales are no exception. The majority of Hungarian folktales were published by  Baroness Orczy, who began translating and writing stories after the birth of her son. Her husband, notable artist Montagu Barston, did all the illustrations for her books (Unknown, 2023). This book, Old Hungarian Fairy Tales, was originally published in 1895 and featured many classic Hungarian folktales such as The Enchanted Cat, The Golden Spinster, The Suitors of the Princess Firefly, and many more that are not very well-known.      The plots of these stories are relatively fast-paced, keeping in standard for folklore (Galda, 2017). The text itself sounded like spoken language, as well, and I could almost picture the story being read aloud to children somewhere. The timeline of publication fits with the reemergence of interest in folktales as well (Galda, 2017).  I, unfortun...

       City of Ember , written by Jeanne DuPrau, is one of the best-known science fiction books for older elementary kids. The story follows 12-year-old citizens of Ember, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, as they navigate a post-apocalyptic underground city that is slowly falling apart. The city is facing chronic supply shortages, power outages, and deadly plagues. All the citizens have been taught that Ember is the last city on Earth, everything and everyone else having been destroyed. The two main characters eventually uncover widespread corruption in the governing body, along with secrets left behind by those who built Ember (the Builders). The children eventually discover the world above is not only safe, but intact and inhabited! The story ends with them leaving a message for their fellow citizens and escaping the city (DuPrau, 2003).      This book takes place in the far future, and the city itself was built by scientists as a safe haven in the ev...

            The Field Guide (book 1) from the Spiderwick Chronicles , written by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, was one of the most popular fantasy books for elementary-age readers. This book follows the lives of the three Grace siblings, twins Simon and Jacob, and older sister Mallory, when they move with their mother into their grandmother's ramshackle old house in Maine. They soon discover that this house is anything but normal. There are goblins, faeries, trolls, and many more fantastical creatures living in the woods. These creatures are invisible to the naked eye but can be seen by looking through a hole in a stone or by having a hobgoblin spit in your eyes (DiTerlizzi, Black, 2003). These children eventually get drawn into a classic battle of good versus evil that spans a total of 8 books.      This book is classic fantasy. It has it all, faeries, goblins, trolls, and even dragons later in the series. There is a very clear...

       A Child's Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll is exactly that. This book gives an overview of many famous poems, complete with a short biography about the author and simple explanations of the poem itself (Driscoll, 2003). These poems include many famous names such as The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, an excerpt from Paradise Lost by John Milton, A Red Red Rose by Robert Burns, and more. Truly all you would need to introduce a young child to the world of poetry (Discoll, 2003).      This book definitely falls under the poetic genre, but also the non-fiction genre (Galda, 2017). Alongside the numerous poems contained, it has biographies of the authors that wrote the poems to help children get a better grasp of the work. The illustrations are representational art, as they all depict either authors, characters from the poems, locations, or other realistic items (Galda, 2017).      One motivational activity for children could b...

  All girls need a strong, female hero to look up to, whether it's in books, movies, TV shows, or real life. Hai Yin of Hai Yin the Dragon Girl by Joy Anderson provides just that. This tale takes place in Taiwan in the 1970s and tells the story of Hai Yin, a girl who wants nothing more than to win the lantern festival competition in her town and prove her brother, who believes all girls are silly and dumb, wrong. She works secretly and tirelessly to create a beautiful dragon lantern, a reminder that she was born in the year of the dragon, and becomes the first girl to ever win the lantern competition (Anderson, 1970).  The illustrations of this book feature a hand-drawn look done by Jay Yang, the illustrator. The style is representational, as all the illustrations are of realistic items (Glada, 2017). The drawings look very similar to pen and watercolor line art. The cultural dress, architecture, food, and even some customs are all featured prominently, giving a full picture ...