Detra Price-Dennis, Marlene Beierle, Maggie Chase, Eun Hye Son, and Jackie Wissman
Abstract:
Quality children’s literature is at the cornerstone of any thriving classroom. Literature that is beautifully written, with multidimensional characters who invite the reader into their lives to laugh, cry, and dream with them, should line the shelves of every classroom library. For this themed issue of Language Arts, Locating Standards, we have compiled a list of award winning children’s literature that exceeds curriculum standards, and embodies characteristics that raise the literary imagination. We selected books that defy the standards, thus crafting a collective set of their own. We compiled titles from the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Geisel, Jane Addams, Newbery, Pura Belpre, Schneider, Tomas Riviera, and award lists from 2007-2009. We then cross checked our list with books that were already reviewed for Language Arts volume 86-87, as not to publish multiple reviews for the same book.
Keywords: Elementary, Literature, Middle, Standard