scholarly journals Introduction

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Editorial Team ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Fountain Of Youth ◽  
The University

This special issue of the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature is dedicated to health fiction.  The concept for the special issue grew out of an interest in using fiction as a tool in health literacy and healing.  Many of us have had the experience of escaping in to a book as a place of refuge when the real world seems too tough or being moved and inspired by a story about someone coping with illness, injury, or disability.  We wondered whether or not fictional works that offer children similar benefits are readily available? The answer is ‘Yes’, to a large extent.  But as we started to read our way through the books in local libraries, we realized that a number of the books may be of questionable benefit. Many had flaws, from obvious content errors to subtle issues that you might not recognize unless you read the book closely or someone brought them to your attention.  We wanted to take the opportunity to use this issue of Deakin to showcase some of the high quality fiction that we would recommend to libraries and parents. The authors of the reviews are librarians or other information professionals, with strengths in children's literature, health librarianship, or both.  Many have children.  Most are experienced reviewers.   Even though we had done some pre-screening, several of the reviewers started reviews and then discarded them when they found that upon close examination, they could not recommend the books. The accompanying article describes the larger study that we undertook to thoroughly review current children's health fiction. The end products of this research were: 1) a checklist for selection of children's health fiction; 2) a list of readily available works in the area; 3) this special theme issue of the Deakin, and; 4) a joint exhibit of the reviewed books, at the University of Alberta’s Education and Health Sciences libraries, to complement the publication of this issue. In addition to the outcomes mentioned above, it is our hope that an additional benefit of this project will be an increased community awareness of the value of children’s health fiction and the knowledge that sometimes a good story is good medicine. Sandy Campbell and Maria TanSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. Maria C. Tan is a medical librarian at the Abdul Khaliq Library in Alberta Health Services’ Cross Cancer Institute and a former editorial team member of the Deakin Review. She firmly believes that children's literature is an essential component in the fountain of youth.

scholarly journals Children's Health Fiction Exhibition, October November 2014

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Tan
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
The University

The Deakin Review of Children's Literature Health Fiction Exhibition is a joint exhibit at the University of Alberta’s Education and Health Sciences libraries. It showcases books reviewed in this special issue.

scholarly journals Happy New Year!

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Desmarais
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Winter Season ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The University

Dear Readers,Our winter issue features many excellent book reviews that cover a fascinating range of subjects and experiences, such as: crossing a harbour to an extraordinary island full of treasure (The Riddlemaster), examining issues such as poverty, racism, addiction, and healing (Dreaming in Indian); and exploring the delightful flora and fauna of Australia (Simone in Australia). There are many more books to choose from and we hope you enjoy the variety.We also take great pleasure announcing that our new issue has book reviews from the recently updated Children’s Health Fiction Titles List, including: Fishing with Grandma, Mon ami Claire, Noni Speaks Up, Saila and Betty, and Tattle-tell. The update includes titles from 2014 to 2016 and we encourage readers to have a look at the full list, A Selective Collection of Children’s Health Fiction 2014 – 2016, in the University of Alberta’s Education and Research Archive (ERA).The Children’s Health Fiction list was created to help libraries and parents looking for high quality stories that help children to better understand and cope with health issues in their lives. Information about the project, a link to the original titles list, and guidance for selecting children’s fictional works on health-related topics, was published in the October 2014 Special Issue of the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature (Vol. 4, No. 2).On a final note in the way of announcements, we are delighted to offer a peer-reviewed article that “describes why and how the University of Alberta Libraries built a Spanish language children’s literature collection.” You will find it under the “Articles” heading of the Table of Contents. All of us at the Deakin Review wish you a peaceful and happy winter season filled with good books and many visits to the library.Best wishes,Robert Desmarais, Managing Editor (with thanks to Sandy Campbell & Maria Tan for an update on the Children’s Health Fiction Titles List) 

scholarly journals Siuluk: The Last Tuniq by N. Sammurtok

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Inuit People ◽  
The University

Sammurtok, Nadia. Siuluk: The Last Tuniq. Illustrated by Rob Nix. Inhabit Media, 2018.This picture book, published in both English and Inuktitut syllabic script, tells the story of the last of the Tuniit, or the giants of the Eastern Arctic. The story is connected to a large rock, near Chesterfied Inlet in Nunavut, which is called Siuluk’s Rock. Nadia Sammurtok who is from Rankin Inlet and heard the story from her father, recounts that people were unkind to Siuluk and teased him because he was different. Through a show of strength by lifting the very large rock, Siuluk convinced the Inuit people that he really was the strongest man and gained their respect.Both the language and the artwork in the book are simple. The clothing pictured is unadorned. Vegetation is suggested, but not detailed. Rob Nix has taken some liberties with the appearance of the individuals. Artwork left by the Tuniit (also known as the Dorset Culture), typically show rounded faces, similar to modern Inuit. Siuluk’s face is depicted as long and angular, with a prominent and high-bridged, convex nose, more common in some European people.Overall this is a good retelling of the traditional story and conveys the message of tolerance of difference. Libraries with children’s collections, and particularly those that collect polar children’s literature will want to include these volumes. Recommendation: 3 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals The Deakin Review Is Grateful to Lynne Wiltse for Her Guest Editorial

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Wiltse
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Visual Culture ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Editorial Team ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Special Issue

***Access the interview with author Shelly Becker by clicking here.*** Dear Readers, It is my pleasure to be contributing the editorial for this special issue of The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature. My name is Lynne Wiltse and I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. I teach courses in language and literacy and children’s literature. This is the third time that the graduate students in my Children's Literature in the Elementary School (EDEL 510) course have participated in writing book reviews for a Special Issue of the Deakin Review; however, this is the first time that they have been joined by undergraduate students from my Teaching Literature in Elementary Schools (EDEL 409) course. This term, I taught a combined undergraduate/graduate course, and the editorial team of the Deakin Review generously agreed to a special issue featuring book reviews by my 10 graduate and 20 undergraduate students. We began our course by reading Kathy Short’s (2108) article, What’s Trending in Children’s Literature and Why It Matters. In her articles, Short identifies the increasing influence of visual culture in children’s books and continuing concerns about the lack of diversity in children’s literature as two recent trends. Regarding the first trend, the opportunity to evaluate picture books was linked to course content about visual storytelling and the design of picture books. In her article, Short makes the point that, because children are immersed in a visual culture, they find books with powerful visual images particularly appealing. This was certainly reflected in the selection of picture books, published in 2018, chosen by the 30 students in the course for review. An example can be found in Ocean Meets Sky, a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature (illustrated books category), by brothers Eric and Terry Fan. You can read about the stunning visual images in this picture book about a young boy who sets sail to find the spot where the ocean meets the sky in Melinda Cooke’s review. Kathy Short notes that the influence of visual culture is evident in the increasing publication of wordless books in which the story is told completely (or almost completely) through visual images. In this regard, our collection includes I Walk With Vanessa: A Story about a Simple Act of Kindness, a wordless book by Kerascoet (the joint pen name of married illustrators, Marie Pommepuy and Sébastien Cosset). Terri Beach reviewed this book, told without words, about a girl who is bullied and then supported by school mates. That the students in this book comprise different ethnicities and races relates to the second trend in children’s books that Short highlights in her article. The author argues that the limited availability of books that reflect the diversity within society can be damaging for children who rarely see their lives represented within books. On this count, the books reviewed by my students were encouraging as they displayed diverse ways of being diverse, so to speak. Immigrant students may recognize themselves in Island Born, written by Junot Diaz and illustrated by Leo Espinosa, while young non-binary readers may identify with Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love. Girls, long underrepresented in children’s literature, may in particular be inspired by Roda Ahmedk’s and Stasia Burrington’s Mae Among the Stars, based on the first African American woman to travel in space, Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race, written by Margot Lee Shetterly and illustrated by Laura Freeman, and Chelsea Clinton and Alexandra Boiger’s, She Persisted Around the World:13 Women who Changed History. I am hopeful that these and other books reviewed by my students indicate a positive shift in the second trend regarding the lack of diversity in children’s literature. Short’s view is that, as educators, we are often followers, rather than creators of trends. I am confident that the teachers, librarians and prospective teachers from my course will contribute to this shift by thoughtfully selecting children’s literature for our diverse society. Writing reviews for this issue was a valuable learning experience for my students and we are eager to see the published reviews. I am grateful to the editorial team of the Deakin Review for their support, and a special thanks is extended to Kim Frail for assisting me with the process and my students with their reviews. Reference Short, K. (2018). What’s Trending in Children’s Literature and Why It Matters. Language Arts, 95(5), 287-298.  

scholarly journals Announcing a Special Issue of the Deakin Review

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Wiltse
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Elementary Education ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Editorial Team ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Authentic Writing

It is my pleasure to be contributing this editorial for the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature.My name is Lynne Wiltse and I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. I teach courses in language and literacy and children’s literature, and have eagerly read each issue of the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature since its inception in 2011. I have made sure to introduce my students to this valuable resource. For example, I have the undergraduate students in my children’s literature course undertake an assignment that requires them to explore the site in detail. With its feature editorial and reviews of contemporary English-language texts for children and young adults, the Deakin Review is an excellent resource for prospective teachers.  This is the second time that the graduate students in my Children's Literature in the Elementary School (EDEL 510) course have participated by writing book reviews for a Special Issue of the Deakin Review (the reviews were published in Vol 4, No 4, 2015). The first time my students took part in this initiative was such a powerful learning experience that the next time I was due to teach the course, I approached the editorial team to see if we could recreate the opportunity. The result is this Special Issue. Once again, I am delighted with the diverse range of books my students selected for review. With the 2015 issue, the book review of The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, introduced me to the amazing author and illustrator team of Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet. I have since read all their other biographies written for children. This year, Ada Twist Scientist, written by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts, one of the books selected for review, really caught my attention. I can’t wait to read Beaty’s other books! As most of my students are practicing elementary teachers, we focused on picture books for young children at the K-6 level. These graduate students were able to apply what they were learning about visual literacy and evaluating picture books in our course to the picture books they had selected to review. We also discuss the importance of authentic writing opportunities for children; writing the reviews certainly proved to be an authentic writing experience for my students, one that they took very seriously. We are excited to see the published reviews. I thank Kim Frail and the rest of the editorial team of the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature for their support of this special issue.   

scholarly journals Editorial

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Wiltse ◽  
Joanne De Groot
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Elementary Education ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Editorial Team ◽  
Group Project ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Authentic Writing ◽  
The University

It is our pleasure to be contributing to this editorial for The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature:My name is Lynne Wiltse and I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada). I teach courses in language and literacy and children’s literature, and have eagerly read each issue of The Deakin since its inception in 2011. I have made sure to introduce my students to this valuable resource. For example, I have the undergraduate students in my children’s literature course undertake an assignment which requires them to explore the site in detail and compare it to its predecessor, the Deakin Newsletter. I was intrigued when I came across the special issue that featured Joanne de Groot’s teacher-librarian students recommending “great new books.” At the time, I was teaching a graduate course, Children's Literature in the Elementary School (EDEL 510). I thought how I would love to have my students involved in such an initiative. The next time I was due to teach the course, I contacted the editorial team to discuss the possibility. As it happened, Joanne had done the same. The editorial team kindly offered for us to share a special double issue; my students would review books that are geared primarily for an elementary audience, while Joanne's class would review books that are intended for a secondary audience.I made space in the course so that my students, all of whom are practicing teachers, could have the invaluable opportunity to review contemporary books for children. I was delighted with the diverse range of books my students selected for review. In our course, we discussed the importance of authentic writing opportunities for children; this certainly proved to be an authentic writing experience for my students, one that they embraced with enthusiasm! We are very excited to see their published reviews in The Deakin, and we are looking forward to reading the reviews of the students in EDEL 546 as well. I thank Kim Frail and the rest of the editorial team of The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature for their support of this special issue.Lynne WiltseAssociate ProfessorDepartment of Elementary EducationUniversity of Albertaemail: [email protected] name is Joanne de Groot and I am an instructor in the Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning (TLDL) program at the University of Alberta.   Students in this class are teachers and teacher-librarians from across Canada, particularly British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nunavut.  We even had a student in EDEL 546 who is currently teaching in Kathmandu!EDEL 546 is an Introduction to Resources for Children and Young Adults and provides students with an introduction to literature and other print and digital media for young people in schools and libraries.  Throughout this course, students are given opportunities to learn how to select and use resources in their classrooms and school libraries.  The major assignment asks small groups of students to develop proposals to build a focused collection of resources for a school library.  This group project required students to select an area or topic and then create a selection list of resources they would purchase to build their collection, identify selection criteria, and provide links to professional reviews.  Students were also asked to write professional reviews of two titles published in 2013 or 2014 that would be suitable for a high school audience. This term’s groups focused on topics such as high interest/low vocabulary titles, graphic novels, pleasure or recreational reading, and Immigrant Voices.   Many of the reviews submitted for this project are now included in this issue of The Deakin.  The task of writing reviews that might be published in a reviewing journal made this assignment more relevant and interesting for the students and I am very pleased to be able to share their work with you now.Joanne de GrootAdjunct Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Elementary EducationUniversity of Albertaemail: [email protected] 

scholarly journals Selecting Fiction Books for a Children's Health Collection by M. Tan & S. Campbell

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Tan ◽  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Selection Criteria ◽  
English Language ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Selection Of

Books have long been recognized  resources for health literacy and healing (Fosson & Husband, 1984). Individuals with health conditions or disabilities or who are dealing with illness, disability or death among friends or loved ones, can find solace and affirmation in fictional works that depict characters coping with similar health conditions. This study asked the question “If we were to select a new collection of children’s health-related fiction in mid-2014, which books would we select and what selection criteria would we apply?”  The results of this study are a set of criteria for the selection of  current English language literary works with health-related content for the pre-kindergarten to Grade 6 (age 12) audience http://hdl.handle.net/10402/era.38842, a collection of books that are readily available to Canadian libraries - selected against these criteria http://hdl.handle.net/10402/era.38843, a special issue of the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature -  dedicated to juvenile health fiction, and book exhibits in two libraries to accompany the Deakin Review issue.

scholarly journals Building the Spanish Juvenile Fiction Collection at the University of Alberta’s HT Coutts Education Library

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Lacroix
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Selection Criteria ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Collection Selection ◽  
Practical Information ◽  
Juvenile Fiction ◽  
The University

This article describes why and how the University of Alberta Libraries built a Spanish language children’s literature collection. Selection criteria, findability, visibility, and assessment are addressed in the context of this collection. Practical information is provided to help librarians build similar collections and promote them.

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