Children's Literature Basics
Course
Contemporary Realistic Fiction [6:25]
In this lesson, we will discuss contemporary realistic fiction.
They want to read about children who are living lives like theirs, making friends, dealing with families, going to school, pursuing hobbies, growing up, essentially. Just ask Judy Blume, one of the most popular authors ever, about how much children love books that are realistic. That also brings up some problems sometimes because realistic means that these novels include difficulties too and that can be related to family, divorce, death, illness. There can be violence, sexual awareness. Those are some tough issues in books. These are also things kids want to know about but it does often make adults uncomfortable when they think about children reading this material.
We come to a point where children's literature becomes a little bit more controversial and these books are much more subject to book challenges and censorship, which is a whole other topic. I think it's important to know how popular it is with kids and how controversial it can be with adults, and for the same reasons. There are many types of contemporary realistic fiction. Basically, kind of two or three big categories and then many subtypes under there, just to get a handle on where we might fit this when we talk about the curriculum.
For example, probably the most popular, most compelling for young readers are contemporary novels that are about the self, personal identity, the family and your place in the family or your lack of a family, and then friendship, and what our social circle does to influence us and how we fit in or don't. Those are three really important aspects of young people's reading. For example, the very first book of contemporary realistic fiction, which is now almost 200 years old almost, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is considered the groundbreaker.
She was one of the first ones to write about girls in a way that was believable. They weren't saintly, they weren't perfect. They were dealing with real life, with sibling relationships, with a dad who was distant. We've been following in those footsteps ever since. Kids really need that outlet to understand their own growing up feelings and what it's like to be someone else, to be of a different skin color, a different cultural group. That's where contemporary fiction can really be valuable.
When it comes to teaching, reading literature, language, arts, lots of people like novel study as a way for us to explore those issues, as well as how a book is created, the language, the characters, the plot, etcetera. But there also contemporary novels that focus on adventure, mystery, sports, and those are very appealing and popular with young readers too, probably more for recreational reading, but still worth discussing and studying.
For example, Hatchet is a classic now by Gary Paulsen, a survival story but also a story about a boy whose parents are in conflict dealing with some very real contemporary issues. A new sort of hybrid contemporary novel that has emerged is the transitional novel like Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. These are novels that are a step above picture books but they still include some art, some illustrations, and this is designed to help your third, fourth, fifth grade reader who's still not quite as fluent as he/she would like to be but wants to read longer books with substantive plots and older characters, but still like some images, some illustrations to provide information and content.
Series books are also so popular in this genre. Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Ramona Quimby, Joey Pigza, there's so many. Some of them are really good literary quality, some are just comfortable and rely on stock characters and lots of adventures. The best part about series books is that once kids get hooked, they really get lots of reading practice. Graphic novels often also fall on this category although they're not only contemporary, but there's a nice blending of image and text that a lot of young people find very rewarding reading. This is where book talking becomes so important, where we can give a short scoop on a book to get kids excited about reading it.
This is where audio books can become important too where you have students and children listen to an unabridged recording of a book read by a polished professional narrator to have a whole new book experience. Also great for kids with impairments and disabilities, but even gifted kids love to listen to really well-done audio books and double their reading by reading and listening to books.
Readers' theater is another strategy for taking contemporary fiction and getting kids involved in it by reading it out loud in sort of a dramatic way as characters. These novels are so rich for instruction, vocabulary, connecting with authors and responding as readers that we can examine issues of gender and culture, and language and family, all through the lens of a really good book that kids are into and want to discuss.
This lesson takes a shift from the previous lessons' main focus on picture books to an examination of novels. Contemporary realistic fiction, sometimes shortened to "realistic fiction," are novels which are "set in the present time (contemporary), could really happen (realistic), but are still created and imagined by the author (fiction)" (Vardell, 2008, 142). Vardell points to Louisa May Alcott's Little Women as the groundbreaker in this popular genre. The self, the family (or lack of), and friendship are common themes.
Works Cited
Vardell, Sylvia M. Children's Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide. Libraries Unlimited, 2008.
Vardell suggests using reader's theater as a way to engage students in the characters, conflicts, vocabulary, and other nuances of contemporary realistic fiction. Reader's theater is "a group of people reading aloud from a script based on a children's book or story without props, costumes, or a set" (Steinkamp, 2008, p. 143, in Vardell, 2008). Reader's theater differs from a play in that participants don't memorize lines; they perform from a script instead.
Select a grade level for which to design a reader's theater experience with contemporary realistic fiction (probably about grade 4 and up). Choose a book to focus on for this exercise. Find a script online or work with students to write an original script for a selection from the book.
Works Cited
Steinkamp, Mia. "Librarians in Action: The Readers Theater Club." In Vardell, Sylvia M. Children's Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide. Libraries Unlimited, 2008.
Tips and scripts are available at the Read Write Think website: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/readers-theatre-172.html?tab=3#tabs. (See Resources & Preparation tab.)
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Children's Literature Basics: Reader's Theater." School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1960210?learningModuleId=1960216&topicCenterId=2247902.
Entry ID: 2122872
About the Author
MLA Citation
Vardell, Sylvia M. "Children's Literature Basics. Contemporary Realistic Fiction [6:25]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, September 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1960210?learningModuleId=1960216&topicCenterId=2247902.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1960210?learningModuleId=1960216&topicCenterId=2247902
Entry ID: 1960210