Children lit 1 - Grade: A PDF

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Children's literature task 1 on the novel, "The Invisible Boy."...

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Running Head: Children’s Literature Review: “The Invisible Boy”

Children’s Literature Review: “The Invisible Boy” Sarah Gibbs Western Governors University

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Children’s Literature Review: “The Invisible Boy” Part A: The Children’s book that I will be analyzing for children’s literature is “The Invisible Boy” by Trudy Ludwig and Illustrated Patrice Barton. This book introduces a new student to a school with a student that believes he is never seen. The two boys meet and share kindness with each other when they seem to need it most. Part B1: In the book “The Invisible boy”, a young boy is introduced as a new student in his class. The new students name is Justin and is Korean. Justin brings his own lunch to school, a dish prepared by his grandmother known as bulgogi, a Korean barbequed beef. In the illustrations of the Invisible boy, the new student is seen eating with chopsticks and the other students are asking what his meal is. Some students are negative and make fun of his meal, but another student, Brian is interested in his lunch. The next day Justin finds a note written to him from Brain about his lunch looking good. (Ludwig, 2013 pg. 20) The next day Justin thanks Brian for the note. This diverse representation and exposure of diversity of students eating lunch provides a positive perspective for understanding different cultures and lifestyles around the world. Students reading this book can see that there are different cultures around the world and that they could be in you school, not in another part of the world. (Ludwig, 2013)

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(Page 20 and 21 of The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig) Part B2: In “The Invisible Boy”, Brian discovers that a small act of kindness can have a profound impact. When Brian leaves the note in Justin’s locker, it is the beginning of a transition in perspective for Brian. The following day when Brian is drawing at recess Justin goes to him and thanks him for his kind note and compliments his drawing. Justin continues noticing and including Brian in classroom activities throughout the remainder of the story. (Ludwig, 2013 pg 21-23) Justin’s responsive kindness to Brian helped show him that being kind to others can have positive effects on both those whom he is nice to as well as himself. Without the use of this characterization of Justin being kind, and the characterization of brian being invisible, the theme would not be as recognizable. On page 3 of “The Invisible Boy”, it says “Can you Brian, the invisible boy?” it starts the book in a negative light towards Brian and that he is the invisible boy. The initial characterization of Brian gives more understanding on how his classmates treat him for the rest of the book. (Ludwig, 2013)

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Part B3: The author of a children’s book must have the ability to quickly develop a character, or more accurately depict a character’s personality, in a short story by effectively using illustrations. According to Zhihui Fang “Since a short story does not normally allow for more fully developed characters, illustrations help develop the characters by depicting situations and emotions immediately familiar and credible to the children.” (Fang, 1996) The short story “The Invisible Boy” doesn’t have enough text or pages to properly show how Brian feels, or how Justin’s kindness to him changes these feelings. The author uses expressions and colors in the story’s illustrations to help portray these feelings to the reader.

Page 20 and 21 of The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig On page 22 and 23 (shown above) of The Invisible Boy Brian is illustrated as half colored and half invisible for the first time. This illustration can be seen in the image above. On this same page Justin is convincing Emilio to allow Brian to be their second partner for a group project by saying “C’mon Emilio let him work with us.” (Ludwig, 2013 pg 23) As the kindness

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of Justin is shown to Brian he is literally portrayed as becoming less invisible. As the kindness from Justin continues throughout the text Brian is portrayed in full color, showing that kindness has made him feel included and no longer invisible. It is important to have these illustrations so that the story makes sense for children and help develop the plot. Without the illustration of Justin reaching out to Brian and him becoming alive and in color, it would not be as impactful as just dialog. The illustrations in the book tell just as much of the story as the words do. It is important to have children's books just for this reason, children cannot always rely on words to understand the story, children need pictures to better understand things. (Ludwig, 2013)

Part B4: “The Invisible Boy” is a realistic fiction children’s book. Two components of this book that proves that the genre is realistic fiction is that the characters are realistic and change over time as well as the description of universal human emotions and experiences. Characters in realistic fiction books need to change over time so that it portrays real life, although it is not based off of true facts or events, it is still possible to happen. When it describes human emotions and experiences it is showing that same aspect of realism. Being able to relate with the books characters emotions and experiences makes the book seem more realistic and relatable. On Page 23 of the Invisible Boy, it shows the main character changing from “invisible” to in full color. The action of his new Korean friends showing compassion and kindness to him, makes him change and shows his change of emotions. This emotion and warm feeling is comparable to feeling accepted and welcomed, showing these emotions by illustrating in color shows emotions of the main character as well as his experiences of going through the change of acceptance. Therefore, it also makes a great example for showing the change over time. The experiences that

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Brain is going through shows that the change of the characters is happening. Brain is feeling more accepted and Justin is making friends in his new school. (Ludwig, 2013)

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Resources:

Fang, Z. (1996). Illustrations, Text, and the Child Reader: What are Pictures in Children's Storybooks for?. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 37 (2). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol37/iss2/3

Ludwig, T., & Barton, P. (2013). The invisible boy. First edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf....