Special Issue of Character in Children’s Literature

• Character study may be enough for some adults, but it is not enough for children.

more limited his or her awareness of alternatives

a limited understanding of motivation• With maturity, children become aware of

unselfish motives and self-serving motives.

• Although children may have keen interest in character, most want character involved in action and making decisions.

• A character in children’s literature is incomplete without various kinds of protagonists, since characters are not only people or animals, but also be inanimate objects.

• It is the unity of character and action that makes each story live.

• Characterization also provided by picture-book illustrations.

Traditional Literature

• Traditional literature had been told from generation to generation, so that keep the spoken story moving with suspense.

• Folktale relies on stock characters.• Since folktales carry optimistic ending and

make its comment on life, characters need to be mentioned by a class name to be known.

• Stock characters like the wicked stepmother or the charming prince.

• It’s interesting to find that stories from many cultures focus on the lazy but tricky person.

• Not only Anderson and the Grimm have such characters, but we find them from others countries.

Animal Realism

• In a realistic story, we expect animal characters to behave like real animals.

• The temptation for the writer is to imagine and to report what thoughts and feelings the animals are having.

Science Fiction

• Fully developed science fiction characters are becoming more common.

• Science fiction has been called the fiction of change, ‘’future history.’’

• Early science fiction focused on plot and action.

• Unless plot grows out of character, it seems contrived and unimportant.

Classics

• A classic is a book that lasts because it continues to be read.

• Classical novelLittle WomenThe adventures of Tom SawyerThe Ugly DucklingPeter Rabbit• Real characters from classics join one generation

to another.

Summary

• Children can sense differences in humans and are capable of recognizing and responding to well-developed characters.

• Round characters have many traits, while flat characters have limited development.

• Central characters in the action are around• Children need the discovery of themselves as

part of humanity.