Recently, false accusations of Critical Race Theory (CRT) being taught in elementary and secondary schools have emerged in response to culturally relevant, sustaining, and revitalizing curricula; this pushback makes it difficult for many educators to safely employ culturally relevant literature in their classrooms. This article confronts the…

This article revisits the rich theoretical and empirical literatures that undergird strategy instruction, with the goal of identifying a principled approach to the teaching of strategies to enhance reading and learning with text. Its purpose is to examine the question of why strategy instruction, as enacted in practice, might raise concerns among…

Literature can: (1) humanize children; (2) educate the heart as well as the mind; (3) introduce children to new ideas; (4) develop their imagination; and (5) give them a sense of the just, the beautiful, and the true. Arguments in favor of basing school reading programs on good children's literature are given. (PP)

Examines how researchers can study children's interaction with literature, discussing various perspectives that can be taken on children's literary responses and suggesting lines of inquiry and concepts that might be useful for the continued examination of children's responses. Focuses on the author, the literary text itself, the reader, and the…

Many current criticisms of literature-based curriculum revolve around the use of balance in literacy instruction. This paper challenges these criticisms by sharing a personal history and proposing a curricular framework that provides an alternative view of balance, particularly in relation to the role of guided reading and literature discussion…

Discusses the complex issues related to the canon, reading, culture, and schooling that remain to be explored and debated in the study of children's literature and children's responses to literature. Argues that it may be necessary to reexamine why teachers want or expect children and young adults to read in particular ways, and to what ends. (SM)

Discusses the evaluation of children's literature and children's responses to literature, examining ideas posed by various writers and scholars, offering an example of a critical reading of one text, and noting several themes that are apparent in the text (e.g., gaining access to cultural institutions, refuting stereotypic images, and creating…

Shares the responses of seven urban, male, African-American fifth graders to contemporary realistic fiction, discussing how the tying of this literature to the events in the boys' lives had the potential to move them toward social action. The paper examines the following: literature as a catalyst, reader responses to texts, critical literacy, and…

Describes the concept of radical change, a theoretical construct that identifies and explains books with characteristics reflecting the types of interactivity, connectivity, and access that permeate the emerging digital society. Highlights innovative ways that authors, illustrators, and designers incorporate these features into books for…

Examines contemporary children's books published internationally as a backdrop against which to view the international books available to U.S. children. Representative situations from developed and developing nations demonstrate the constraints involved in publishing children's books. The examples help explain why international fare offered to…

Discusses the advantages of computer technology and digital communication in literacy and literacy education, cautioning that printed books should never be abandoned in favor of digital communication despite its advantages. Examines how digital communication can be used to promote literacy for poor and isolated children in all parts of the world.…