Abstract
Based on an expanded understanding of literacy that recognizes the role of all forms of media in the development of literacy skills, this chapter proposes an “asset model” of literacy and then uses that model as a framework for the analysis of print and film narratives. Through an analysis of the opening scenes of two children’s literature texts, Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White (Charlotte’s Web, Puffin Books, London, 1952) and Wonder by R. J. Palaccio (Wonder, Corgi, London, 2012), and their film adaptations (2006, 2017) the chapter explores the ways in which children are positioned as readers and viewers of the texts, the narrator perspectives they are invited to inhabit, and the literacy skills that are developed, fostered, and scaffolded through the texts and their adaptations and reflects on the ways children experience narratives across media.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arizpe, Evelyn, and Morag Styles. 2003. Children Reading Pictures: Interpreting Visual Texts. London and New York: Routledge Falmer.
Bailey, Chris. 2016. “Free the Sheep: Improvised Song and Performance in and Around a Minecraft Community.” Literacy 50 (2): 62–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12076.
Bergala, Alain. 2010. “Montrer/Cacher (What Is Hidden/Revealed).” Lecture. November 5. Paris: Cinémathèque.
Bordwell, David. (1985) 2014. Narration in the Fiction Film. London and New York: Routledge.
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. (1979) 2010. Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw Hill.
British Film Institute Education. 2007. Reframing Literacy. London: British Film Institute. http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-education-reframing-literacy-2013-04.pdf.
Buckland, Warren. (1998) 2008. Film Studies. Oxon: Hodder Headline.
Bulman, Jeannie Hill. 2017. Children’s Reading of Film and Visual Literacy in the Primary Curriculum: A Progression Framework Model. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Charlotte’s Web. 2006. Directed by Gary Winick. Film. Paramount Pictures.
Clark, Christina, and Anne Teravainen. 2017. Celebrating Reading for Enjoyment: Findings from our Annual Literacy Survey 2016. National Literacy Trust. https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/celebrating-reading-enjoyment-findings-our-annual-literacy-survey-2016-report/.
Cremin, Teresa, Marilyn Mottram, Sacha Powell, Fiona M. Collins, Sacha Powell, and Kimberly Safford. 2014. Building Communities of Engaged Readers: Reading for Pleasure. London and New York: Routledge.
Gavins, Joanna. 2007. Text World Theory: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hilton, Mary (ed.). 1996. Potent Fictions: Children’s Literacy and the Challenge of Popular Culture. London and New York: Routledge.
Iser, Wolfgang. 1978. The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
———. 1995. “Interaction Between Text and Reader.” In Readers and Reading, edited by Andrew Bennett, 20–32. London: Longman.
Kirsch, Irwin, John de Jong, Dominique Lafontaine, Joy McQueen, Juliette Mendelovits, and Christian Monseur. 2002. Reading for Change: Performance and Engagement Across Countries. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). https://www.oecd.org/education/school/programmeforinternationalstudentassessmentpisa/33690904.pdf.
Kress, Gunther. 1997. Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy. London and New York: Routledge.
———. 2010. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London and New York: Routledge.
Mackey, Margaret. 2002. Literacies Across Media: Playing the Text. London and New York: Routledge Falmer.
———. 2016. One Child Reading: My Auto-Bibliography. Alberta: The University of Alberta Press.
Marsh, Jackie. 2005. Popular Culture, New Media and Digital Literacy in Early Childhood. London and New York: Routledge.
Merchant, Guy. 2009. “Literacy in Virtual Worlds.” Journal of Research in Reading 32 (1): 38–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2008.01380.x.
New London Group. 1996. “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures.” Harvard Educational Review 66 (1): 60–91. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u.
Nikolajeva, Maria. 2012a. “Guilt, Empathy and the Ethical Potential of Children’s Literature.” Barnboken 35 (1): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3402/clr.v35i0.18081.
———. 2012b. “Reading Other People’s Minds Through Word and Image.” Children’s Literature in Education 43 (3): 273–91.
Nuttall, Louise. 2015. “Attributing Minds to Vampires in Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend.” Language and Literature 24 (1): 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947014561834.
Onwuemezi, Natasha. 2016. “Children’s 2016 Print Book Market Up 11.7% To Date.” The Bookseller, September 27. https://www.thebookseller.com/news/children-s-book-market-grows-5-399736#.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2011. “Are Students Who Enjoy Reading Better Readers?” Education at a Glance. http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/48630763.pdf.
Pahl, Kate, and Jennifer Rowsell. 2005. Literacy and Education: Understanding the New Literacy Studies in the Classroom. London: Paul Chapman.
Palacio, R.J. 2012. Wonder. London: Corgi.
Pantaleo, Sylvia. 2015. “Language, Literacy and Visual Texts.” English in Education 49: 113–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/eie.12053.
———. 2016. “Primary Students’ Understanding and Appreciation of the Artwork in Picturebooks.” Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 16: 228–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798415569816.
Parry, Becky. 2013. Children, Film and Literacy. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Publishers Association Limited. 2017. “UK Publishing Has Record Year Up 7% to £4.8bn.” The Publishers Association, April 26. https://www.publishers.org.uk/news/releases/2017/uk-publishing-has-record-year-up-7-to-48bn/.
Robinson, Muriel. 1997. Children Reading Print and Television. London: Falmer.
Robinson, Muriel, and Margaret Mackey. 2010. “Film and Television.” In Handbook of Early Childhood Literacy, edited by J. Larson and J. Marsh, 126–43. London: Sage.
Rosenblatt, Louise M. (1938) 1995. Literature as Exploration. New York: Modern Language Association of America.
Stockwell, Peter. 2009. Texture: A Cognitive Aesthetics of Reading. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Sullivan, Alice, and Matt Brown. 2015. “Reading for Pleasure and Progress in Vocabulary and Mathematics.” British Educational Research Journal 41 (6): 971–91. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3180.
Taylor, Lucy. 2019. “We Read, We Write: Investigating the Relationship Between Children’s Reading and Their Writing in Upper Primary School.” Doctoral thesis, School of Education, University of Leeds.
Tyner, Kathleen. 1998. Literacy in a Digital World: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information. Mahwah: Erlbaum.
White, E. B. (1952) 2013. Charlotte’s Web. London: Puffin Books.
White, Hilary. 2005. Developing Literacy Skills in the Early Years: A Practical Guide. London: Paul Chapman.
Whitehead, Marian. 2002. “Dylan’s Routes to Literacy: The First Three Years with Picture Books.” Journal of Early Childhood Literacy (2): 269–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687984020023002.
Wonder. 2017. Directed by Stephen Chbosky. Film. Lionsgate.
Zunshine, Lisa. 2006. Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Taylor, L., Bulman, J. (2019). Children’s Literature on Screen: Developing a Model of Literacy Assets. In: Hermansson, C., Zepernick, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Children's Film and Television. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17620-4_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17620-4_23
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-17619-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-17620-4
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)