Topic: Young Writers in Children's Books

10-second review: Analyzed books in which young people are writers.

Title: “To Be a Writer: Representations of Writers in Recent Children’s Novels.” LT Parsons and L Colabucci. Reading Teacher (September 2008), 44-52. A publication of The International Reading Association (IRA).

Summary: Asked the following questions about writing in the analyzed children’s books: Why does the character write? What does writing do for the writer? If the writing is taken public, what effect does the text have on the audience?

Why do they write? Want to be known; need to remember; seek to communicate; expose injustice; inspired by a teacher; instinctively like to write.

What does writing do for the character? Helps cope with experience; documents experience; builds relationships; defines identity.

Effect on an audience? Entertains; brings about change; reveals the author; builds relationships.

Concludes that most writing in school “doesn’t count.”

Comment: Interesting study. RayS.

The purpose of this blog, English Updates, is to review interesting contemporary (2008-2009) articles from professional English education journals at all levels—elementary, middle school, junior high school, high school and college.