In this paper a news site’s potential of meeting conflicting needs is considered. Snacking - hencereading news in a quick selective style - is one trend among young readers which seems to be inconflict with assessing the credibility of news, which in turn depends on receiving multipleperspectives or viewpoints among the issues read. As young audiences neither want to beforced to put more effort into news reading, nor want to receive news in a single-layered way,satisfaction with the news is hampered. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate acurrent news site’s potential in complying with both needs: snacking on the one hand andreceiving multiple perspectives on the other. As research case, the German public service newssite tagesschau.de is investigated in two methodological approaches. In a content analysis thepotential of the news site is assessed by analyzing ways of presenting perspectives in snacknews element. In a reception study this potential is reassessed by a young audience sample. Itwas found that perspectives indeed are presented in snack news elements in direct or indirectforms, often represented by different sources than the journalist’s. However, it shows that thesepresentations of perspectives not always reach the audience. Members of the audience leaveout many elements that could be snacked on, and stick to headlines for the main part. Thisimplies that they miss multiple perspectives offered in elements suitable for snacking, such ashyperlinks. In order to offer multiple perspectives to snacking news readers, more controversyshould be indicated in headlines, comparisons of perspectives should be made easier and linksshould be more relevant by leaving out aspects perceived as unnecessary and by representingsources in a better balance.

This thesis is a theoretical exploration of critical reading in the primary school. It interrogates the term 'critical reading', examines and conceptualises the thinking processes by which readers make texts mean and proposes a description of critical reading as it is evidenced in young children. At the heart of this thesis is an ethnographic study of the reading practices of classes in three contrasting primary schools. It follows and records the reading experiences of one class of children from each school, beginning in the middle of Year Two and continuing until the children near the end of Year Three. The resulting empirical data is reflected in and measured against theoretical understandings of learning and of reading derived from a number of sources. Vygotskian and Bakhtinian theories of the interdependency of thought and language are considered, critical pedagogy is explored and literary theory, especially the ideas of reader response theorists and postmodernists, is examined. From this process of reflection and assimilation, three theoretical positions are achieved: • that the interactions that take place between children, between children and teachers and between children, teachers and texts are of vital importance in the development of children as critical readers. The thesis stresses the central role of the teacher in controlling the possibilities of dialogue in the classroom. It argues that children who are exposed to the heteroglossia (Bakhtin 1981) of Mennipean dialogue and rich and varied textual experiences are better equipped to read critically than those who are not. • that the process of reading can be modelled to show the nature of these interactions. The thesis proposes a series of theoretical models that attempt to map out the dynamic, interactive process by which readers make texts mean. The models chart the pushes and pulls of thinking that a reader must employ during the act of reading in order to shape meaning from an indeterminate text. • that a description of critical reading activity in young readers can be postulated. The thesis proposes a sequence of indicators that seem to be characteristic of the behaviour of children who are developing the ability to read critically. Finally, the thesis stresses the necessity of reading widely to children if they are to take on the heteroglossia that will enable them to read critically, and the need to empower them by encouraging and honouring their own interpretive voices.

This diploma thesis deals with the literary analysis of the theme of a labyrinth which appears in Anglo-American fantasy book series for young readers. The work is divided into two main parts. In the first, theoretical part, the author describes the main features of fantasy literature. The author also focuses on the assessment of the theme of a labyrinth in a wider literary-theoretical and historical context (mythology, Middle Ages literature, gothic novel, Romanticism, Modernism, Postmodernism). The second, practical part of the work, is represented by the author's literary analysis of the theme of a labyrinth appearing in these fantasy book series for young readers: Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Percy Jackson, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. The analysis mainly concentrates on the motifs of the monster, the experience of getting lost, fight and hideout.

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The thesis will focus on the chosen late fiction of Eduard Štorch, an important pedagogue, amateur archaeologue, and an author of a number of books of fiction for young readers, that are mostly set in the pre-historical times and the antiquity. The main topic of the thesis will be two of Štorch's best pieces of fiction forming a loose cycle, i.e. the novels "The Settlement of the Ravens" and "Minehava", but a broader context of the Czech fiction for young readers in the first half of 20th century may also be taken into account. Apart from analysis and interpretation of the novels, the thesis will also search the situation in which the texts were written. This situation is also connected with Štorch's stay and activities in Lobeč u Mšena.