Bullying is a phenomenon faced by students worldwide, and bibliotherapy is one viable classroom strategy to teach students how best to respond to bullying behavior. Although ample research exists on appropriate picture books with bullying themes, few studies have analyzed the content of middle-grade books for effective responses to bullying, despite the prevalence of bullying among middle school students. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was selected due to its accessibility, its instances of responses to bullying, and its reader demographics. Researchers created a coding instrument to document all textual instances of bullying, victim responses, peer responses, and adult responses. Coders used this documentation to tally the frequency of various response types among victims, peers, and adults. Results from this frequency count were used to compare response types in the novel with research on response effectiveness--responses that reduce bullying and/or support the victim. Findings reveal that the most common response among victims, peers, and adults is "no response described."Among textual responses, victims commonly respond ineffectively through revenge-seeking, peers respond ineffectively by participating in the bullying, and adults respond effectively by listening to the victim or giving advice. Therefore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone represents a wide range of effective and ineffective responses to bullying, both of which can be presented in bullying discussions with students. Researchers include a table with bullying response examples from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to aid education stakeholders in using the novel for these bibliotherapeutic discussions

Selma Lagerlöf's story about Nils Holgersson, The wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906-1907), is unique in several different ways. It was innovative for its time and it was the first school book written as a story, which makes it an interesting foundation to build an essay upon. The essay examines Selma Lagerlöf's novel about Nils Holgersson compared to Dirk Regel's film adaptation (2011). Both the novel and the film are divided into two parts and only the first part of the book is compared to the first part of the film. Adaptations are common in today's society, a common type of adaptation is when a novel transform into a film but it can also be when a poem becomes music or a play turns into a film. The essay discusses what happens when a medium is transformed into another medium. The essay also has a pedagogical perspective and asks what happens when a didactic school book is adapted into a film. The view on children in Lagerlöf's time is discussed in relation to the view on children that prevails in today's society. When it comes to characters, I’m interested in seeing how Nils Holgersson is portrayed in the book versus in the film. The method used is Linda Hutcheon's and Siobhan O'Flynn’s adaptation analysis which focuses is on various factors that affect an adaptation. Regarding theory, I will use both Thomas Leitch’s adaptation theory and Maria Nikolajeva's children's literature theory. The results show that Lagerlöf's Nils Holgersson is a character who has few qualities. In the beginning he is bad and at the end of the story he becomes good, he develops through the story and is thus a flat but dynamic character. In Regel's version, Nils Holgersson is a complex character from beginning to end and he does not develop, he is thus a round but static character. The didactic perspective it is not as prevalent in the film compared to the book, but some episodes can be understood as having an educational message, which I interpret as a reference to the source medium.

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Educators are in a distinctive position of influencing children's appreciation for diverse cultures and heritages of the world. A number of exceptional texts are utilized in American libraries and schools portraying the African American struggle for equality. Many of those texts focus on the significant societal and political heroes such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. While these titles are essential to the story of the Civil Rights experience, this article explores lesser known texts, yet they provide gateways to understanding and empathetic perspectives for men who struggled to play baseball in the equal manner to their white counterparts. Rube Foster, Cool Papa Bell and Satchel Paige are some of baseball's most interesting characters; sadly, very few children know about them. This article examines the stories of men with a special page in history: The Negro Leagues, 1920-1960.

Astrid Lindgren is one of Sweden’s most beloved writers of all time and many of her works include many hard topics, such as for example death. It has not always been as common to include such difficult topics in children's literature as it is today. The change in the sociopolitical attitude during the late 1960s brought in a new level of awareness and aspects of reality in children’s literature which is thought to be noticeable in works by Lindgren. This thesis aspires to explain kinds of representations of death prevalent in Mio's Kingdom and The Brothers Lionheart, and what these representations make visible in relation to the theoretical background based on what literary representation is and how it is constructed mostly by culture.Despite the fact that both books share similar representations of death and those feelings associated with it, the overall perception is that The Brothers Lionheart depicts death as a salvation, something to find hope in and not to be scared of to a greater extent than Mio’s Kingdom does, where death is portrayed as dark and inescapable. Furthermore, this thesis concludes that Lindgren has incorporated the standards of social realism into both of these stories and that they originate from personal experiences.

This paper will study realism in young adult literature, focusing specifically on those books in which young adults accept parenting roles. First, professional literature about realism will be reviewed from a· historical perspective, then criteria for realism will be examined. New criteria will be synthesized and applied to six novels. An annotated bibliography of novels in which young adults accept parenting roles will be presented.

The use of American historical fiction in an eighth grade social studies or language arts class has not been fully explored, so its literary and social science value is questionable. In order to establish its worth and methods for its use, research into desirable 1iterary goals for adolescents, implications and purposes of historical fiction in general and for youth in particular, a bibliography of novels, and an evaluative survey of specific novels written for youth needed to be done. The research indicates that some critics believe that most junior novels have little to offer youth and that they are poorly written. A minority find that they are useful as an example of a literary genre and as a model for the exploration of adolescent problems, frustrations, and decision making alternatives. Opinions on the value of historical fiction also vary. Some writers conclude that it is largely romantic and a reflection of contemporary times in historical dress, while others have indicated that it conveys an emotional and spiritual feeling for an era through its presentation of historical figures and events and student involvement. Many writers on the subject are ambitious when they consider what junior novels and junior historical novels should accomplish. They list a variety of personal, literary, and conceptual goals. They itemize suitable aims for students such as character building, personal problem solving, an understanding of the mechanics of plot and characterization, an understanding of historical events, and the motivations of figures involved in them, a "feeling" for an era, knowledge of our democratic heritage, even an understanding of what history means. This survey and analysis of specific novels chosen from different American historical eras explores the pertinence of these opinions and goals to novels and briefly verifies the historical accuracy. Part Three handles the problem of methods of use and adaptation in the classroom by specifying alternatives for teachers' consideration. The survey determines that junior American historical fiction is useful to study as a literary genre, though imperfect. If it is used, students must be aware of the imperfections; principally shallow character development or inadequate and overly romantic plots. As a model of personal relevance to youth, historical fiction is not outstanding even though nearly half of the novels contain obvious efforts to build character and several have a theme about growing up. The historical value in these novels varies; most are largely romantic with contemporary main characters who cannot control their situations but can control their destinies. Some provide historical data that gives the reader an insight into specific events, historical figures, or the emotional feelings prevalent during an era. The themes in half the novels stress the issues of the times in which they are set. The surveyed novels include examples of political, social, psychological, economic, religious, cultural, and great man interpretations of history. Social and psychological interpretations predominate, and a majority imply that societies rather than people make history. This survey concludes that junior American historical fiction is relevant for classroom use. Teacher familiarity with the novels and his continuing exploration of divergent applications for use by individual students or classes can make them successful, informative, and enhance student interest in history.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

This diploma thesis deals with the representation of gender in children's literature, namely in the book series The Chronicles of Narnia. The theoretical part discusses gender linguistics, characterizes children's literature and discusses the issue of gender stereotypes in this type of literature. The analytical part of the paper focuses on the collocations of proper names of the four main characters (two female, two male) and the pronouns he/she/I referring to them. Attention will also be paid to common names related to gender: girl(s), boy(s). The material consists of 300 examples. The thesis examines both left-side and right-side collocates (mainly adjectives and verbs) of these nouns and pronouns and their semantics. The thesis determines the semantic types of collocates the words under study are associated with and examines the differences between the depiction of male and female characters, i.e. how the characters are described, what characteristics are typically attributed to them, what actions they perform and so on. The thesis provides an analysis of gender-related collocational patterns in children's literature and hopes to contribute to a greater understanding of gender-based language in general, as well as possible stereotyping effects on the child reader. keywords: gender, gender...

The purpose of this study was to examine representations, discourses and constructions of gender in modern children'sliterature aimed at both girls and boys. By using Faircloughs critical discourse as method two discourses was identified, feminist discourse and queer discourse. By using theories by Yvonne Hirdman, Judith Butler and Norman Fairclough the study shows that despite the fact that children's literature contains feminist and queer discourse, prevailing dominant gender discourses are also made visible. This through stereotypical perceptions of gender and what is male or female. Furthermore, the study shows that there is an ambition to include more identities in modern children's literature which can be seen as a sign of a weakening of the dominant gender discourses. Finally, this study can contribute to increasing knowledge about prevailing discourses in children's literature.