Children’s Literature From the Heart

Spring, 2000
The idea that education should be a life-long experience has always prevailed in the College of Education. With the development of the new Children’s Literature Book Club, this idea is expanded into yet another area of continuous learning. The club provides various opportunities for pre-service teachers at Penn State to network, discuss, and critique children’s literature.

Each year in the College of Education, new works of children’s literature are reviewed. Normally this task is performed by a select few. In turn, this can be a long process, which only provides those few individuals with extensive knowledge on the new children’s literature. However, with the development of the Children’s Literature Book Club, numerous pre-service teachers are granted the opportunity of taking part in reviewing the material. By participating, they are not only helping the process, but also gaining valuable knowledge of children’s literature for their professional development.

Created by Mary Napoli, a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum in Instruction, and with the help of Patti Mack, also a doctoral student, the Children’s Literature Book Club offers various advantages to pre-service teachers. The club provides these future teachers with additional opportunities to examine their roles in stimulating and expanding children’s curiosity of literature. It also encourages active participation and multiple perspectives about the use, value, and responses elicited through children’s literature. Through the different perspectives, future teachers can learn various ways to incorporate children’s literature into their classrooms. The club also encourages future teachers to engage in professional development activities at Penn State, and to continue these activities when they move onto their teaching careers. Most importantly, the Children’s Literature Book Club motivates pre-service teachers to rediscover the power of literature to educate the human heart.

A famous quote by Joe Wood states, "The heart after all is raised on a mess of stories; then it writes its own." Perhaps from the Children’s Literature Book Club, future teachers can offer their students more from a book than just its words.

Story by Krista Rae Ohlsen for the Spring 2000 issue of Penn State Education