Why is children's literature so different from literature aimed at an older audience? Ashling Larkin investigates!
It's no suprise that children's literature is different from any literature written for teens or adults. They're just kids - it'll be awhile before anyone sees a six-year-old picking up a novel by Oscar Wilde. But how are their stories different from the older audiences, and more importantly, why? What differentiates a childs book from an adults book? It's quite simple, really. Young children are constantly learning. Perhaps not in the same way as you or I - but they're learning the basics, the things that adults, or "grown-ups", keep tucked away at the back of the mind, things we don't even realised we've learnt.
Some of these things include conversation, namely adjacency pairs. For a lot of people "adjacency pairs" in language means nothing although we use them all the time. When someone asks a question and you answer, that's an adjacency pair! These are often short sentances in childrens books, as a young child's vocabulary won't be as vast as someone older, but it gets the idea across.
There's also the use of repeated formulae, meaning a certain word will often be repeated. For example, "said"! It's important for a child to learn what "said" is, as they do it all the time. Said-ing, saying, speaking. Instead of varying between said, screamed, laughed, chirped, "said" is repeated constantly as it's less confusing and therefore easier to teach, which is why it's considered childish and not to mention boring if it's mentioned many times in a book made for older generations.
On the subject of repetition, we can't forget alliteration, the finest form of poetry for the young mind! If alliteration is being used in a piece of text aimed for children, chances are the sentance won't make sense. This is because children are learning how to use adjectives, verbs and nouns, so it doesn't matter if the imagery in your head doesn't look right, as long as the sentance makes sense.
Of course, it's not just aspects of language that is taught through childrens books. As previously mentioned, children are learning things they'll forget they had even learned by the time they're adults. This is because adults refer to this information as "logic". Most children's stories end with proverbs or moral lessons that we grown-ups repeat to children all the time - "Never talk to Strangers", "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me". A saying or summary of wisdom that'll stick with them, probably, throughout their entire lives, and that's what makes these moral lessons so important!
In conclusion, childrens books are basically written as a simple introduction to the big scheme of things - a blurb to the book of life! Children aren't thrown into the world knowing everything they need to for the future. It's not a matter of understanding, it's a matter of learning!
It's no suprise that children's literature is different from any literature written for teens or adults. They're just kids - it'll be awhile before anyone sees a six-year-old picking up a novel by Oscar Wilde. But how are their stories different from the older audiences, and more importantly, why? What differentiates a childs book from an adults book? It's quite simple, really. Young children are constantly learning. Perhaps not in the same way as you or I - but they're learning the basics, the things that adults, or "grown-ups", keep tucked away at the back of the mind, things we don't even realised we've learnt.
Some of these things include conversation, namely adjacency pairs. For a lot of people "adjacency pairs" in language means nothing although we use them all the time. When someone asks a question and you answer, that's an adjacency pair! These are often short sentances in childrens books, as a young child's vocabulary won't be as vast as someone older, but it gets the idea across.
There's also the use of repeated formulae, meaning a certain word will often be repeated. For example, "said"! It's important for a child to learn what "said" is, as they do it all the time. Said-ing, saying, speaking. Instead of varying between said, screamed, laughed, chirped, "said" is repeated constantly as it's less confusing and therefore easier to teach, which is why it's considered childish and not to mention boring if it's mentioned many times in a book made for older generations.
On the subject of repetition, we can't forget alliteration, the finest form of poetry for the young mind! If alliteration is being used in a piece of text aimed for children, chances are the sentance won't make sense. This is because children are learning how to use adjectives, verbs and nouns, so it doesn't matter if the imagery in your head doesn't look right, as long as the sentance makes sense.
Of course, it's not just aspects of language that is taught through childrens books. As previously mentioned, children are learning things they'll forget they had even learned by the time they're adults. This is because adults refer to this information as "logic". Most children's stories end with proverbs or moral lessons that we grown-ups repeat to children all the time - "Never talk to Strangers", "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me". A saying or summary of wisdom that'll stick with them, probably, throughout their entire lives, and that's what makes these moral lessons so important!
In conclusion, childrens books are basically written as a simple introduction to the big scheme of things - a blurb to the book of life! Children aren't thrown into the world knowing everything they need to for the future. It's not a matter of understanding, it's a matter of learning!
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