| Abridged version | a shortened or condensed version.
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| Acrylic paints | acrylics (plastic paints) produce vibrant, almost glowing colors. When mixed with water, acrylics resemble transparent watercolors. More often acrylics are used straight from the tube. Like oils, they can be built up on the painting surface to give a dense texture; however, they dry faster than oils.
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| Active readers | people who choose to read often and who love to read.
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| Adulatory | excessively admiring or devoted to; the characterization of the subject of a biography must be true to life, neither adulatory nor demeaning in tone.
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| Aesthetic reading | reading for pleasure and insight.
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| Allegory | a narrative that is symbolical.
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| Alliteration | the repetition of initial consonant sounds.
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| Allusions | a passing reference to something.
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| Anthropomorphic | ascribing human characteristics or form to something that is not human.
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| Anthropomorphism | in poetry and fiction, the assignment of human feelings and behavior to animals, plants, or inanimate objects is called personification—an accepted literary device that can be used with great effect. In science, however, this device is unacceptable and is known as anthropomorphism.
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| Antiheroes | individuals who lack the characteristics of heroes.
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| Antiphonal | another way to do a group reading, called antiphonal, is to divide the class into two groups and let the groups take turns reading each verse.
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| Archaic words | words that were commonly used in an earlier time that are very uncommon in present day language.
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| Archetypes | collective images or shared symbols in Jungian psychology that are thought to be present in the individual psyche.
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| Archival photographs | historical photographs stored in an archive.
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| Archival sources | documents, records, and other materials from the past are sometimes stored in collections called archives.
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| Artistic perspective | just as an author decides what would be the best point of view from which to tell a story, so too does an artist think about perspective. One way to obtain action in what might otherwise be a static series of pictures is to change the focus, just as a movie camera changes perspective or shows close-ups and then moves back to pan the whole scene.
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| Assessment portfolio | a year-long collection of a child's work that may be used in various ways by the teacher and child; for instance, a child can select from a month of writings the one that should go in the file.
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| Assonance | the repetition of particular vowels.
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| Attribute web | a graphic organizer in which a word or idea is placed at the center of a chart with spokes radiating toward related attributes, or characteristics of that word.
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| Authentic biography | a well-documented, carefully researched account of a person's life.
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| Authenticity | genuineness, accuracy; standards of authenticity must be applied most rigorously to stories that give a prominent place to real people and real events.
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| Autonomy | independence or freedom of will and actions; Erikson's second stage of emotional and social development to be achieved by age 3.
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| Ballad | ballads are narrative poems that have been adapted for singing or that give the effect of a song. Originally, they were not made or sung for children but were the literature of all the people. Characteristics of the ballad form are the frequent use of dialogue in telling the story, repetition, marked rhythm and rhyme, and refrains that go back to the days when ballads were sung. Popular ballads have no known authors, as they were handed down from one generation to the next; the literary ballad, however, does have a known author. Ballads usually deal with heroic deeds and include stories of murder, unrequited love, feuds, and tragedies.
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| Basal reading program | a commercial reading program that is a complete package of reading materials, practice activities (usually workbooks), and assessment materials.
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| Beast story | probably the favorite folktales of young children are beast tales in which animals act and talk like human beings.
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| Becoming | the story of every man and every woman is the story of growing up, of becoming a person, of struggling to become one's own person. The kind of person you become has its roots in your childhood experiences—how much you were loved, how little you were loved; the people who were significant to you, the ones who were not; the places you've been, and those you did not go to; the things you had, and the things you did not get. Yet a person is always more than the totality of these experiences; the way a person organizes, understands, and relates to those experiences makes for individuality.
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| Big books | an oversized book with large print, either commercially produced or handmade.
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| Big business conglomerate | recently, mergers have occurred between publishing houses and large conglomerates; publishing companies owned by a large conglomerate must show a profit measured against the success of other companies in the corporation, most of which have nothing to do with publishing.
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| Board books | books designed for infants and toddlers; board books are well constructed with heavy laminated cardboard or plastic pages that will withstand teeth and sticky fingers.
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| Book selection | the choice of books for a library's collection; the goal of selection is to include a book on the basis of its quality of writing and total impact.
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| Booktalk | a brief talk that has the purpose of introducing and building interest in a book; the booktalk often includes a description of an exciting event in the book.
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| Borders | an artist may decide to create borders for his or her illustrations; these borders may incorporate designs, patterns, or images.
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| Buddy reading | buddy reading involves students from older grades reading with partners in the kindergarten or first grade. Younger children proudly share a book that they can read with their buddies, and the older children then read a book to their partners. Younger children look forward to their buddy time (which is usually once a week), and the older students take a special interest in the progress of their special child.
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| Cadenced language | rhythmical language.
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| Caldecott Medal | awarded to the most distinguished American picture book published in the preceding year.
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| Caption | a written description or explanation of a photograph or an illustration.
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| Cartoon | the term cartoon was originally used to refer to the large, fully developed line drawings that artists prepared and then transferred to frescoes or easel paintings. This style has often been called comic art or comic-book style.
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| Categorizing literature | reviewers, educators, and curriculum makers often categorize books according to their content. It is a disservice to both book and reader if, in labeling a book, we imply that this is all the book is about. Readers with their own purposes and backgrounds will see many different aspects and strengths in a piece of literature.
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| Censorship | specifically excluding a book from a library or a classroom due to disagreement with or disapproval of the book's content.
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| Chapbook | a small, inexpensive, folded-paper booklet sold by peddlers, or chapmen that appeared in the late 1500s and achieved real popularity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
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| Character delineation | illustrations also help create convincing character delineation; the characterization in the pictures must correspond to that in the story. Expression and gesture can reveal character and move the action forward.
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| Character development | illustrations can depict physical, social, and/or emotional changes that the characters undergo in the course of the story.
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| Characterization | the creation and convincing representation of a fictitious character.
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| Charcoal | a medium for illustration that produces soft or defined black or gray lines and varying black and gray shadings.
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| Choir | a group of voices.
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| Classic | a work of the highest quality, or a work that is of enduring interest.
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| Classic narrative approach | reissues and new editions of old favorites appeal to adult book buyers because they are familiar; today's editions of classic stories often have the added attraction of appearing with illustrations that benefit from improved technology.
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| Climax | the most intense moment in the development or resolution of the story plot.
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| Cloth designs | cloth may be used to create illustrations that are then photographed for reproduction purposes.
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| Cognitive conceit | an aspect of concrete-operational children's thinking described by psychologist David Elkind; as children begin to have some success in reasoning and problem solving, they tend to get the idea that they must be as able as adults, or even smarter.
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| Cognitive stage theory | Piaget's observations led him to conclude that there are distinct stages in the development of logical thinking. According to his theory, all children go through these stages in the same progression, but not necessarily at the same age.
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| Collage | The word collage, derived from the French verb collar, meaning "to paste," refers to the kind of picture that is made by cutting out a variety of different kinds of materials—newspaper clippings, patterned wallpaper, fabric, and the like—and assembling them into a unified, harmonious illustration.
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| Collective biography | a biography that includes biographical information about more than one person, often organized by a theme.
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| Color | an important element in picture book illustrations; artists use color to enhance the mood of a story and to create special effects; modern publishing techniques make it much easier and less expensive to publish full color books, but many illustrators are still using black-and-white graphics to create exciting picture books.
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| Comparison chart | a chart that details the similarities and differences between two or more things.
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| Complete biography | complete biography spans the subject's lifetime. It may be relatively simple or difficult, authentic or fictionalized, but the reader should expect a view that has some depth, some balance, and some sense of perspective.
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| Concentrated form | poets choose their words carefully; most poetry, especially good poetry, is so concentrated and compact that few people can grasp its meaning in one exposure.
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| Concept book | a concept book describes various dimensions of an object, a class of objects, or an abstract idea.
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| Concept book | concept books explore the characteristics of a class of objects or of an abstract idea.
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| Concepts of print test | an assessment designed by Marie Clay that can help teachers learn what children know about book handling and the function of print.
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| Concrete poetry | many poets today are writing picture poems that make the reader see what they are saying. The message of the poem is presented not only in the words (sometimes just letters or punctuation marks) but in the arrangement of the words. Meaning is reinforced, or even carried, by the shape of the poem.
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| Concrete-operational period | Piaget's stage of cognitive development occurring between the ages of seven and eleven; classifying and arranging objects in series are important abilities within children's command during this period, making them more systematic and orderly thinkers; their thought also becomes flexible and reversible, allowing them to unravel and rearrange a sequence of events.
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| Conflicting loyalties | not being sure which of two opposing viewpoints to adopt.
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| Connotation | meaning.
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| Contemporary realism | contemporary realism focuses on the problems of living today.
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| Continuity of life | life as a connected whole; well-written historical fiction like that reviewed in this chapter can enable children to see the continuity of life and their own places in this vast sweep of history.
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| Contradiction and distortion of facts | misrepresentation of historical facts.
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| Contrast | because the language of poetry is so compressed, every word must be made to convey the meaning of the poem.
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| Controlled-vocabulary books | a new genre of book was created when Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat in 1957. This book was written with a controlled vocabulary (derived from the Dolch vocabulary list of 220 words) for the young child to read independently. Since then many publishers have developed "easy reading" books.
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| Creative drama | creative drama is structured and cooperatively planned playmaking, an approach to learning that focuses on processes rather than production. While occasionally a play developed creatively will be shared with others, the value of creative drama lies in the process of playing and does not require an audience. Creative drama activities exist on a continuum from interpretation to improvisation and can include pantomime, story dramatization, improvisation, reader's theater, and puppetry.
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| Critical thinking | the act of making skillful judgments about an issue.
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| Cross cultural literature | literature about relations between cultural groups or by authors writing about a cultural group other than their own.
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| Cross reference | a reference in one section of the book that refers to another section of the book; for example, an index.
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| Cross-cultural study | similar folktales from different cultures can be compared and contrasted in a cross-cultural study.
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| Cultural perspective | the perspective of a cultural group.
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| Culturally conscious fiction | in recent years, more books have been published that accurately reflect the social and cultural traditions associated with growing up in a particular culture.
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| Cumulative tale | (1) cumulative tales have repeated patterns and phrases that become longer and longer with each incident. (2) a folktale that is characterized by the increasing repetition of the details building up to a quick climax.
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| Cut-out books | a book that has holes cut through the pages so that the illustrations on the following page may be seen through the holes.
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| Cyberspace | defined both as the network of information shared by computers around the world and as virtual reality.
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| Debunking | to expose as false or exaggerated.
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| Demeaning | to degrade or humiliate.
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| Denouement | the place in the storyline at which the final resolution occurs.
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| Dialect | a variation on a language, usually this variation is shared by the people of a particular geographic area.
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| Dialogue journal | a journal in which students and teachers or students and other students conduct a written conversation.
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| Didactic | having the purpose of instruction.
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| Didactic tales | juvenile literature determined to influence the moral development of children.
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| Dime novel | a melodramatic novel published in paperback, usually sold for ten cents circa 1850-1920.
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| Diorama | a three-dimensional model that depicts a scene from a book.
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| Direct address | nonfiction authors sometimes use direct address—sentences that speak to the reader as "you."
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| Dissection and analysis | too-detailed analysis of every poem is also detrimental to children's enjoyment of poetry. An appropriate question or comment to increase meaning is fine; but critical analysis of every word in a poem, every figure of speech, and every iambic verse is lethal to appreciation.
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| Distorted by omission | though the material presented in a book might be current and technically correct, the book cannot be totally accurate if it leaves out significant facts.
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| Double-entry draft | a double-entry draft is a two-sided journal entry in which the reader copies or paraphrases a quote from the book on the left half of the paper. On the right, the reader comments on the quote. Teachers react to both of these journals and engage in a written dialogue with the reader (thereby creating a dialogue journal).
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| Dramatic play | a 5-year-old engaged in impromptu play might become an airplane zooming to the airport built of blocks; another assumes the role of mother in the playhouse. Sometimes children of this age will play a very familiar story without adult direction. For example, "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "The Three Bears" are often favorites. Dramatic play represents the free response of children as they interpret experience.
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| Dust jacket | the paper cover for a hardcover book; the primary purpose of the jacket is to call attention to the book.
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| Dynamic theory of response | response is dynamic and open to continuous change as readers anticipate, infer, remember, reflect, interpret, and connect.
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| Efferent reading | reading with the purpose of carrying away factual material.
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| Emotional intensity | poetry communicates experience by appealing to both the thoughts and the feelings of its reader. It has the power to evoke in its hearers rich sensory images and deep emotional responses. Poetry demands total response from the individual—all the intellect, senses, emotion, and imagination.
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| End grain of a block of wood | Thomas Bewick perfected the white-line method of engraving on the end grain of a block of wood to achieve a delicacy of line not found in usual carved wood block designs.
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| Endpapers | these are the first and last pages of the book; one half of each is glued to the inside of the cover, while the other is not pasted down. Endpapers are usually of stronger paper than printed pages. In picture books, endpapers are often of a color that harmonizes with the cover or other pictures in the book, and frequently they are illustrated. Decorated endpapers can reflect the setting, the theme, or the content of the book and serve as a special invitation into the book.
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| Epic | an epic is a long narrative or a cycle of stories clustering around the actions of a single hero. Epics grew out of myths or along with them, since the gods still intervene in early epics like The Iliad and The Odyssey. Gradually, the center of action shifted from the gods to human heroes, so that in tales like "Robin Hood" the focus is completely on the daring adventures of the man himself.
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| Epilogue | a concluding part added to a work of literature.
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| Etchings | etching is another type of engraving technique. A design is drawn with a tool on a waxed metal plate, then the plate is dipped in acid, which eats thin lines into the metal. The wax is removed, and prints are then made from the inked plate.
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| Eulogy | high praise.
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| Expressionism | aspects of expressionistic art include shocking colors, figures slightly out of proportion, and rough, rapid brushwork. The emphasis is on the artist's own inner emotions and on self-expression rather than the reproduction of what he or she sees.
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| Extended family | the extended family of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and so on, often plays a significant role in a child's developing perception of the world.
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| Extrasensory perception (ESP) | the ability to perceive or communicate outside of the normal range of sensory perception.
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| Fable | fables are brief, didactic tales in which animals, or occasionally the elements, speak as human beings.
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| Faction | a term that might be used to refer to a work of informational fiction.
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| Farcical versions | a humorous or clever retelling of a traditional story.
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| Feltboard | A large board constructed of felt; felt cut-outs will stick to this board and can be used to act-out a story.
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| Fictionalized biography | fictionalized biography is grounded in thorough research, but the author dramatizes certain events and personalizes the subject, in contrast to the straight reporting of authentic biography. Fictionalized biography makes use of the narrative rather than the analytical approach.
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| Figurative language | language that suggests an image; metaphorical language, figures of speech.
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| Finger rhymes | a game involving a rhyme and accompanying finger motions. Finger plays date back to the time of Friedrich Froebel, the so-called father of the kindergarten movement, who collected the finger plays and games that the peasant mothers in the German countryside were using with their children.
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| First-person telling | the story is told from the point of view of the protagonist, in the character's own words.
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| Flat dimensions | characters in folktales are shown in flat dimensions, symbolic of the completely good or entirely evil. Character development is seldom depicted.
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| Folk art | the style often found in self-taught artists like Grandma Moses, Henri Rousseau, and the itinerant painters, or limners, of colonial America. It can be characterized by a lack of such conventions as perspective and so-called real appearances. It also suggests the art of the common people and thus implies art that is centered in community.
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| Folklore | the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories associated with a culture or a geographic region.
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| Formal literary analysis | highly structured study procedures as opposed to opportunities to read, hear, and talk about well-chosen books under the guidance of an interested and informed teacher.
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| Formal operations period | Piaget's stage of cognitive development occurring between the ages of eleven through adulthood; children in this stage are no longer dependent on concrete evidence but can reason from hypotheses to logical conclusions.
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| Free verse | free verse does not have to rhyme but depends on rhythm or cadence for its poetic form. It may use some rhyme, alliteration, and pattern. It frequently looks different on a printed page, but it sounds very much like other poetry when read aloud.
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| Frontispiece | an illustrated leaf that precedes the title page of a book.
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| Fusion of picture and text | a picture book must be a seamless whole, conveying meaning in both the art and the text. Moreover, in a picture book the illustration does not merely reflect the idea or action on a single page but shares in moving a story forward and in engaging the reader with the narrative on both an intellectual and an emotional level. Throughout the narration the pictures should convey and enhance the meaning behind the story.
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| Gilt paper | gold-colored paper
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| Global education | education that reflects cultural diversity.
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| Gouache | gouache (pronounced "gwash") paint is watercolor with the addition of chalk and has an effect similar to tempera.
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| Graphic | explicit description; controversy also centers on how much graphic detail may be included in a book for children. These are questions that no one would have asked thirty-five years ago. But there are new freedoms today. Childhood is not the innocent time we like to think it is. Although youth might not need protection, they do still need the perspective that literature can give. A well-written book makes the reader aware of the human suffering resulting from inhumane acts by others, whereas television and films are more apt to concentrate on the acts themselves.
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| Grounding in reality | many authors firmly ground a story in reality before gradually moving into fantasy; this is a technique for making the unbelievable more believable.
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| Gutter | side-sewing to bind a book causes the inner margins of each page to be not visible; this section is known as the gutter.
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| Haiku | haiku is an ancient Japanese verse form that can be traced back to the thirteenth century. There are only seventeen syllables in the haiku; the first and third lines contain five syllables, the second line seven. Almost every haiku can be divided into two parts: first, a simple picture-making description that usually includes some reference, direct or indirect, to the season; and second, a statement of mood or feeling. A relationship between these two parts is implied—either a similarity or a telling difference.
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| Hand-tinted photographs | black-and-white photographs that have been colored by hand.
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| "Here and now" | in the early 1900's, Lucy Sprague Mitchell pointed out the young child's preoccupation with self and interest in daily experiences. Her collection of stories provided simple little tales of the small child's everyday activities.
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| Hero story | a story that describes a main character who demonstrates courage and who is admired for his or her brave and noble deeds.
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| Historical perspective | the perspective of recorded history.
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| Historical realism | historical fiction portrays life as it may have been lived in the past.
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| Historiography | the way professional historians have studies and interpreted the central events of the story.
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| Hornbook | a little wooden paddle to which was pasted a sheet of parchment printed with the alphabet, the vowels, and the Lord's Prayer. A thin sheet of transparent protective horn bound with strips of brass covered the text. Most hornbooks were tiny, measuring 2 by 5 inches.
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| Identification | the process of naming items that appear in the illustrations of a book; for example, ABC books can be used for identification or naming, as they provide the young child with large, bright pictures of animals or single objects to look at and talk about.
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| Identification book | in its simplest form an identification book is a naming book, and this may well be the first sort of book that a very young child sees.
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| Identity books | most of the stories about physical maturing also suggest a kind of emotional growth or coming to terms with oneself. The process of becoming a mature person is a lifelong task that begins in the latter stages of childhood and continues for as long as a person lives. Many stories in children's literature chronicle the steps along the way to maturity.
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| Illuminate today's problems | a book of historical fiction should do even more than relate a good story of the past authentically and imaginatively. It should illuminate today's problems by examining those of other times.
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| Illustrated | an illustrated book is different from a picture book. In an illustrated book only particular incidents in the story might be illustrated to create interest.
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| Impressionism | the term Impressionism is associated with the French artists who worked in and around Paris in the latter part of the nineteenth century, including such well-known painters as Monet, Sisley, and Pissarro. They were concerned with observing nature as it really was and so attempted to capture their first visual impressions before intellect or emotion could define the image further.
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| Improvisation | spontaneous action.
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| Indigenous | characteristic of a particular region or country.
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| Informational fiction | books that are fiction yet contain a good deal of factual information.
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| Instructional scaffold | Jerome Bruner was the first to use the term scaffold to characterize adult assistance to children's language development; some books can be an instructional scaffold or a temporary help in the child's first attempts to read. Such books include familiar texts like Mother Goose rhymes or songs that children know by heart and can easily "read"; or they might be books with repetitive language or story patterns that help children remember or predict the story easily.
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| Integrated curriculum | a curriculum that is not separated into study in distinct subject areas, integrated curriculum may take the form of a theme study in which explorations in subject-related areas arises logically and naturally.
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| Interdependence of humankind | the ways in which humans are mutually dependent.
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| Internal consistency | another point to be considered when evaluating fantasy is the consistency of the story. Each fantasy should have a logical framework and an internal consistency in the world set forth by the author; internal consistency refers to the logical consistency of the story plot.
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| Intonation patterns | the way in which a speaker changes the tone of his or her voice to convey expression.
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| Invented dialogue | dialogue that has been created from the author's imagination.
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| Jackdaw | a collection based on a historical event or period that often includes facsimile copies of diaries, letters, newspaper articles, advertisements, and other evidence from the time.
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| Jobber | a person or company whose entire business is supplying book fairs.
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| Journey-novel | a tale in which the hero or heroine sets forth on a journey, often helps the poor on the way, frequently receives magical power, overcomes obstacles, and returns to safety.
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| Juxtaposition | the act of placing side by side.
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| Lecture approach | conveying a message through warning or lengthy instruction; in previous centuries, children's books often took the form of a lecture on correct behavior.
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| Life-cycle book | life-cycle books cover all or some part of the cycle of life, from the birth of one animal to the birth of its progeny, or the events of one year in the animal's life, or the development of one animal throughout its lifetime.
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| Lifetime reader | a person who enjoys and recognizes the value of reading as a life-long key to learning and pleasure.
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| Lift-the-flap books | books that inspire interaction through flaps that a child can lift to see what is behind the flap; for example, in Where's Spot? by Eric Hill, Spot's mother, Sally, searches for her puppy behind a door, inside a clock, under the stairs, in the piano, and under the rug. As the child opens doors and lifts up flaps to join in the search, highly unlikely creatures such as monkeys, snakes, and lions answer no to the question "Is he in here?"
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| Limerick | a nonsense form of verse that is particularly enjoyed by children is the limerick. This is a five-line verse in which the first and second lines rhyme, the third and fourth rhyme, and the fifth line rhymes with lines 1 and 2 and usually is a surprise or humorous statement. Freak spellings, oddities, and humorous twists characterize this form of poetry.
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| Limners | itinerant painters of colonial America.
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| Line | line is so inherently a part of every illustration that we forget that this element, too, can convey meaning. A horizontal line suggests repose and peace, a vertical line gives stability, and a diagonal line suggests action and movement.
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| Linoleum block prints | a method of printing in which the nonprinting areas are cut away from a piece of linoleum using a sharp pointed tool, leaving a raised surface that, when inked and pressed on paper, duplicates the original design; linoleum block prints also give a finer line than woodcuts.
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| Literary ballad | popular ballads have no known authors, as they were handed down from one generation to the next; the literary ballad, however, does have a known author.
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| Literary folk tale | a story that is written in a folktale style, but originated in an author's imagination.
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| Literature | the imaginative shaping of life and thought into the forms and structures of language.
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| Literature extensions | activities based on the experience of reading a book.
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| Literature of Diversity | an umbrella term that refers to literature that addresses the diversity of our world.
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| Literature-based program | a reading program that is centered around the enjoyment of quality children's literature; programs in which trade books are used for all aspects of reading instruction and for integrating traditional areas of the curriculum are an accepted alternative to skills-oriented, textbook-based programs; in a literature-based program, classrooms are flooded with books.
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| Literature-based reading programs | reading programs in which instruction is based in authentic children's literature. The whole language movement and new understandings about children's literacy learning brought the use of real literature to the classrooms of many schools.
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| Lyric | having musical qualities.
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| Magical object | an object that has magical properties; the children in books of fantasy often possess a magical object, know a magical saying, or have magical powers themselves.
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| Manuscript | a text written before the invention of printing.
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| Mass-marketed books | books produced inexpensively to sell in locations such as grocery stores.
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| Media exploration | an exploration of the different materials artists have used to create illustrations.
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| Metaphor | in a metaphor, the poet speaks of an object or idea as if it were another object.
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| Metaphor | something used to represent something else.
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| Miscue analysis | an analysis of the miscues (omissions, substitutions, insertions) a child makes while reading can help the teacher understand the child's way of thinking while reading and the child's problem-solving strategies.
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| Modern folktale style | a book written in modern times that follows the pattern of a traditional folktale.
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| Modern literary fairy tale | a story created by the imagination of the author that is written in the style of a fairy tale from the oral tradition.
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| Monogenesis | the theory that all peoples originated from a common culture.
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| Moral judgment | ability to make decisions regarding issues of morality.
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| Moral platitudes | a flat or dull remark about correct behavior.
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| Moralistic | concerned with the principles of right and wrong.
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| Morality tale | tales that explore the issues of correct and incorrect behavior.
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| Motifs | folklorists analyze folktales according to motifs or patterns, numbering each tale and labeling its episodes. Motif has been defined as the smallest part of a tale that can exist independently.
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| Multicultural literature | an umbrella term that includes at least three kind of literature: world literature, cross-cultural literature, and minority literature or literature from parallel cultures.
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| Multidimensional | having many different characteristics; great people are likely to be multidimensional.
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| Multi-layered story | a story that has several layers of meaning that can be interpreted at varying depths by more or less sophisticated readers.
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| Mural | a large picture that is meant to be displayed on a wall or ceiling.
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| Mystical fantasy | mysterious exploration of the unknown.
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| Myth | a narrative that tells of origins, explains natural or social phenomena, or suggests the destiny of humans through the interaction of people and supernatural beings.
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| Mythology | a group of myths of a particular culture.
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| Naïve style | one form of naive art is the style often found in self-taught artists like Grandma Moses, Henri Rousseau, and the itinerant painters, or limners, of colonial America. It can be characterized by a lack of such conventions as perspective and so-called real appearances. It also suggest the art of the common people and thus implies art that is centered in community.
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| Narrative poem | the narrative poem relates a particular event or episode or tells a long tale. It may be a lyric, a sonnet, or free verse; its one requirement is that it must tell a story. Many of children's favorite poems are these so-called story poems.
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| Negative space | the space around the object in the foreground.
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| New realism | new realism in children's literature can probably be dated from the publication of Harriet the Spy (1964) by Louise Fitzhugh. Children readily identified with Harriet, for she had the courage to think and say the things they didn't dare to say, including swearing. Following the breakthrough made by Harriet the Spy, many long-standing taboos in children's literature came tumbling down.
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| Newbery Medal | a prestigious award given for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in the preceding year.
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| Nonfiction | literature that is based in the actual, rather than the imagined.
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| Nonfiction picture books | nonfiction books presented in a picture-book format.
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| Occult | of or pertaining to magic and supernatural powers.
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| Omniscient point of view | an all-knowing narrator.
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| One-to-one correspondence | an exact match, one to one.
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| Onomatopoeia | the term onomatopoeia refers to the use of words that make a sound like the action represented by the word, such as crack, hiss, and sputter.
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| Opaque paint | paint that is impenetrable to light, such as tempera, gouache, and oils.
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| Oral history | historical information that is gained through interviews with people.
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| Oral tradition | before there were books, there were stories. In the medieval days—from the fifth to the fifteenth century—stories were told around the fires in cottages or sung in the great halls of castles. Young and old alike gathered to listen, to be entertained after a hard day's labor.
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| Oral tradition | the age-old tradition of storytelling.
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| Orbis Pictus Award | in 1990, the National Council of Teachers of English established the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children. Its name commemorates what is thought to be the first book of facts produced for children, dating back to the seventeenth century.
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| Original source material | material that has come directly from its original source.
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| Oversimplification | simplified to the point of distortion.
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| Page lay-out | the composition of the page.
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| Pantomime | to convey action and emotion through gesture without using speech.
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| Paper engineering | creating interactive illustrations for the book through unique use of paper structures.
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| Parallel cultures | literature written by members of a parallel culture that represents their unique experiences as members of that culture.
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| Parody | an imitation of a serious work of literature.
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| Partial biography | a biography that focuses on only one part of a person's life; authors are able to focus, if they wish, on a time of high drama and let the demands of constructing a good story help set the time frame for the book.
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| Patterns | recurring themes.
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| Pen-and-ink | method of line-drawing usually using black ink and a pen.
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| Personal anthologies | a collection of one's favorite poems.
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| Personal styles | few picture-book artists use only one style of art; they adapt their work to meet the requirements of a particular story. At the same time, many of them do develop a recognizable personal style that can be identified by their preference for a particular pictorial style of art, use of medium, or even choice of content.
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| Personification | personification is a way of speaking about inanimate objects and animals as though they were persons.
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| Personification | the attribution of human characteristics to an animal or an object.
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| Personification | to give an animal or an object the human qualities of a person.
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| Perspective of the book | the point of view presented in the book. Realistic fiction helps children enlarge their frames of reference while seeing the world from another perspective.
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| Phonemic awareness | researchers have now linked children's experience with nursery rhymes and speech play to the development of sensitivity to the sounds within words, an ability they call "phonemic awareness." This ability to manipulate the sounds of words as they sing and chant nursery rhymes is a necessary foundation for understanding relationships between letters and sounds and contributes to children's emergent literacy development.
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| Photographic essay | a collection of photographs that relies on the camera in different ways: to particularize general information, to document emotion, and to assure the reader of truth in an essentially journalistic fashion.
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| Picture book | picture books are art objects. They are books in which images and ideas join to form a unique whole. In the best picture books, the illustrations extend and enhance the written text, providing readers with an aesthetic experience that is more than the sum of the books' parts.
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| Picture glossary | a glossary that uses illustrations to aid younger readers.
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| Plasticine | modeling clay; modern reproduction techniques have freed illustrators to work in three dimensions.
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| Plot | the plan of action; it tells what the characters do and what happens to them.
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| Poetry cycles | three or four poems with the same theme.
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| Poignant | strongly affecting the emotions.
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| Point of view | the author's choice of narrator and the way the narrator reveals the story.
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| Poltergeist | a ghost or spirit that makes its presence known through noises.
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| Polygenesis | multiple origins.
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| Portfolio | a collection of work selected to represent the creator of the work's abilities.
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| Pourquoi stories | stories that explain how or why something is the way it is.
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| Predictable book | predictable books that can help an emergent reader can be identified by such characteristics as repetitive language patterns or story patterns or the use of familiar sequences like numbers, the days of the week, or hierarchical patterns. Frequently, texts combine several of these characteristics in a single story.
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| Preoperational period | Piaget's stage of cognitive development occurring between the ages of two and seven; children learn to represent the world symbolically through language, play, and drawing, thinking seems to be based on direct experience and perception of the present moment.
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| Prequel | literary work that, although published at a later date, portrays events in a series prior to the events of a previously published work.
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| Preschool movement | this movement influenced the development of children's books. Lucy Sprague Mitchell of the Bank Street School pointed out the young child's preoccupation with self and interest in daily experiences. Her collection of stories provided simple little tales of the small child's everyday activities. Increased understanding of human development brought the recognition that the child was naturally curious and actively sought information; this knowledge inspired the creation of new nonfiction books for children.
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| Prig | a person who demonstrates exaggerated propriety and precise conformity.
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| Primary source | a first-hand source of information, a person or a document directly related to the subject of the research.
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| Primer | a book designed for teaching children how to read.
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| Primitive art | also called naïve or folk art.
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| Process of becoming | all learning is a meshing of cognitive dimensions, affective or emotional responses, social relationships, and value orientation; this is the matrix in which personality develops.
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| Process of inquiry | the way in which a person attempts to answer a question; because we are concerned about how as well as what children learn, it is important to note what kind of thinking a book encourages, as well as the body of facts it presents. Nonfiction books should illustrate the process of inquiry, the excitement of discovery.
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| Prologue | a preface or an introduction to a work of literature.
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| Prototype | something that exemplifies the typical qualities of a group, or the original model on which a group of things is based.
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| Pseudonym | a pen name, a made-up name used by an author to conceal his or her true identity.
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| Question-and-answer approach | some early lesson books followed the form of a dialogue between the pupil and teacher, usually in the form of questions and answers. Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury during the seventh century, is credited with introducing the question-and-answer approach. The "Goodly Godly" Books of the Puritans followed a question-and-answer approach. For example, there was the question "How did God make you?" The child had to memorize the accompanying answer: "I was conceived in sin and born in iniquity."
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| Readers' Theater | Reader's Theater involves a group of children in reading a play, a story, or a poem. Children are assigned to read particular parts. After reading through their parts silently, children read the text orally.
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| Reading log | a reading log is a simple record of the title and author of each book a child has read.
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| Realism or representational art | art which attempts to reproduce and image of a real object in a photographic style.
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| Realistic fiction | realistic fiction may be defined as imaginative writing that accurately reflects life as it was lived in the past or could be lived today. Everything in such a story can conceivably happen to real people living in our natural physical world, in contrast to fantasy, where impossible happenings are made to appear quite plausible even though they are not possible.
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| Recorded events | historical events that have been documented in writing.
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| Recurring motif | a motif that reappears throughout a story or a series; works of high fantasy generally have recurring themes and motifs.
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| Regional fiction | fiction that is influenced by its setting, a particular geographic region.
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| Religious tracts | a religious pamphlet.
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| Repetition | repetition is another way the poet creates particular sound effects in a poem.
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| Response journal | in a response journal, children record their comments as they read a novel. Children respond freely as they think about their reading and write about the things that concern or interest them.
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| Response to literature | any outward sign of that inner activity, something said or done, that reveals a reader's thoughts and feelings about literature.
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| Rhymed couplets | some early lesson books followed the form of rhymed couplets, which made for easy memorization. A rhymed couplet consists of two lines of text that each end in words that rhyme with each other.
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| Rhythm | the uniform recurrence of a beat.
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| Robinsonade | The Life and Strange and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) was later printed in an abridged and pocket-size volume that became a "classic" of children's literature. This book was so popular that it spawned many imitations—so many, in fact, that a word, "Robinsonades," was coined for them.
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| Satire | a literary work through which human weaknesses are exposed and scorned.
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| Scratchboard illustrations | in the making of scratchboard illustrations, a very black ink is usually painted on the smooth white surface of a drawing board or scratchboard. When the ink is thoroughly dry, the picture is made by scratching through the black-inked surface with a sharp instrument. Color can be added with a transparent overlay, painted on the white scratchboard prior to applying the black ink or applied after the drawing is complete. Scratchboard techniques produce crisply textured illustrations.
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| Secular reader | a book that contained stories unrelated to religious practices.
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| Self-actualization | the highest level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs; the achievement of one's fullest potential.
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| Semantic map | a graphic organizer in which a word or idea is placed at the center of a chart with spokes radiating toward related words, attributes, or other examples.
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| Sense of story | conceptions about how language is put together to form a story; Arthur Applebee conducted research regarding children's sense of story.
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| Sensory | having to do with the senses.
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| Sensory-motor period | Piaget's stage of cognitive development occurring between the ages of infancy and two; infants and toddlers learn through coordinating sensory perceptions and motor activity.
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| Sepia | a brown pigment obtained from cuttlefish.
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| Sequel | a work of literature that is complete unto itself, but follows the narrative of a previous work.
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| Setting | the locale and time period in which the action of the book takes place.
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| Sexism | because feminists in the 1970s made us more aware of the subtle ways in which literature has perpetuated stereotypes, contemporary realistic fiction now does a much better job of portraying women in a variety of roles. Capable working mothers; caring female role models outside of a child's family; characters who fight sexism; intelligent, independent, and strong girls and women; and romance as a consequence of strong friendship are all found in realistic fiction of the present decade.
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| Shape | the first thing children notice about reading a poem is that it looks different from prose. And usually it does. Most poems begin with capital letters for each line and have one or more stanzas; increasingly, however, poets are using the shape of their poems to reinforce the image of the idea.
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| Shape-changing | shape changing (the transformation of something into something else) is a common theme in both traditional literature and modern fantasy.
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| Shape-shifting | in fantasy stories, some characters have the ability to transform themselves into varied forms.
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| Simile | When writers compare one thing with another, using such connecting words as like or as, they are using a simile.
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| Simplification of text | modifying the original language of a text to reduce its complexity.
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| Simplified biography | a biography, usually short and with many illustrations, published in response to the needs of beginning and less-able readers.
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| Social history | the history of the way people lived and interacted. In historical fiction, the facts of social history dictate the background for how the characters live and make their living; what they wear, eat, study, or play; and what conflicts they must resolve.
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| Space | the spacing of the text on the page, the choice of margins, and the white space within a book contribute to the making of a quality picture book.
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| Spare prose | prose that uses a minimum of words to effectively convey meaning.
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| Specialized books | specialized books are designed to give specific information about a relatively limited topic. These books satisfy particular interests; they are more likely to be used intensively than extensively, on a onetime basis rather than as a frequent reference.
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| Speculative fiction | the use of fiction to contemplate what our future world might be like; one of the values of science fiction is its ability to develop children's imagination and intuition as well as exercise their speculative and improvisational abilities.
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| Spin-off books | a book that is related in some way to a previously published book.
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| Spin-offs | a book that uses a traditional story or storyline in a new way.
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| Stereotype | a preconceived idea about something or someone, generally shared by a group of people, that often has little or no basis in fact.
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| Stereotyping | children's books have always reflected the general social and human values of a society, so it is not surprising they are also scrutinized for implied attitudes or biases of that society. Contemporary realistic fiction is examined for racism, cultural inaccuracies, sexism, ageism, and treatment of people with physical or mental impairments. Because consciousness generally has been raised in the world of children's book publishing, there are now more books that present diverse populations positively and fairly.
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| Story grammars | common patterns found in stories, both the arrangement of words and the sequence of ideas.
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| Style | style is an elusive quality of an artist's work based on the arrangement of line, color, and mass into a visual image. According to Barbara Kiefer, style might be defined as a "manner of expressing." "The meaning of the word express—to make known, reveal, show—is in keeping with the dual nature of style. The word manner can encompass all the conscious as well as unconscious choices the artist embraces to 'make known.' Aspects of style such as formal elements, techniques, and pictorial conventions, then, are among the choices the artist makes to accomplish the primary purpose of expressing meaning."
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| Subheading | a method of organizing text, the subheading falls under a main heading that describes a section of the book and provides a further breakdown of the information under the main heading.
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| Superficial in scholarship | lacking rigorous research methods.
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| Surrealism | surrealism is characterized more by subject matter than by technique, for the surrealist combines realistic yet incongruous images in unnatural juxtapositions. To make the viewer believe in this unreal scene, the artwork will be meticulously realistic in detail.
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| Survey books | the purpose of a survey book is to give an overall view of a substantial topic and to furnish a representative sampling of facts, principles, or issues. Such a book emphasizes balance and breadth of coverage, rather than depth.
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| Survival | survival stories have powerful appeal to children in middle grades. Numerous stories in all genres portray an individual child or a small group of children, without adults, in situations that call for ingenuity, quick thinking, mastery of tools and skills, and strength of character. Survivors return to civilization or their former lives knowing that they have changed as a result of their experiences.
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| Sustained silent reading (SSR) | a time when everyone in the class (in some instances, the entire school) reads, including the teacher.
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| Sympathetic character | a character that demonstrates understanding of others.
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| Taboos in children's literature | prior to the 1960's it was unheard of to include such topics as war, drugs, divorce, abortion, sex, and homosexuality in children's literature.
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| Tall tale | exaggerated story about super human characters and phenomenal deeds.
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| Taproot of fantasy | the ultimate taproot of all fantasy is the human psyche. Like the ancient tale-tellers and the medieval bards, modern fantasy writers speak to our deepest needs, our darkest fears, and our highest hopes.
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| Teachable moment | a time at which the instruction of a certain strategy or discussion of certain information is appropriate because of its direct relevancy to the current activity in the classroom.
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| Teleological explanation | teleology attempts to account for natural phenomena by assigning a purpose to the plants, animals, or forces involved.
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| Tempera | a type of paint that is opaque and impenetrable to light.
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| Theme | the larger meaning that lies beneath the story's surface.
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| Theory | a proposed, but not certain, explanation for a phenomenon.
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| Theory of Diffusion | the origin of the myths has fascinated and puzzled folklorists, anthropologists, and psychologists. How, they wonder, can we account for the similarities among these stories that grew out of ancient cultures widely separated from each other? In trying to explain this phenomenon, one group of early mythologists proposed the notion of monogenesis, or inheritance from a single culture. The Grimm brothers, who were among the first nineteenth-century scholars of folklore, theorized that all folktales originated from one prehistoric group called Aryans, later identified as Indo-Europeans by modern linguists. As this group migrated to other countries, the scholars reasoned, they took their folklore with them; such reasoning led scholars to the Theory of Diffusion.
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| Time-shift fantasy | authors of books for children have written many fantasies that are based on characters that appear to shift easily from their particular moment in the present to a long-lost point in someone else's past. Usually these time leaps are linked to a tangible object or place that is common to both periods.
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| Title page | the interior page, usually following the endpapers of a book, that showcases the book's title; the title page of a picture book can be beautiful and symbolic.
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| To pirate a book | early books often contained both pictures and stories taken from other books.
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| Toy books | some books have a kind of "built-in participation" as part of their design; these books have flaps to lift up and peek under, soft flannel to touch, or holes to poke fingers through. Such books can serve as the transition between toys and real books.
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| Trade books | books published for the general public to use and enjoy, as opposed to books designed and marketed specifically for classroom instruction.
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| Transformations | a common motif in folktales; a character or key object in the story is magically changed into something else.
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| Translucent paint | paint that has a somewhat transparent quality.
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| Tricksters | both animals and people trick, fool, or cheat their friends and neighbors in folk literature; these characters are known as tricksters.
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| Trilogy | a group of three related books.
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| Typeface | typeface refers to the thousands of letter styles available today. Before the advent of computers created fonts, printers chose from some six thousand different styles then available.
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| Value | the amount of lightness or darkness in a picture.
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| Variant | a different version of a common story; each variant has basically the same story or plot as another, but it might have different characters and a different setting or it might use different motifs.
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| Venn diagram | a diagram that makes use of circles, represents groups, and shows the relationships between groups.
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| Verse | The use of imaginative symbols and vivid imagery and metaphor mark the difference between real poetry and verse. The versifiers provide instant gratification but leave the reader with little to ponder
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| Vicarious | enjoyed through imagined experience.
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| Vignette | a short, but complete, story.
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| Visual metaphor | a metaphor is something used to represent something else; some picture-book illustrations use visual metaphors in the same way that poets add to the image-making qualities of their poems.
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| Visual perception | the act of taking in through sight; the development of visual perception occurs in stages during infancy.
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| Webbing | a graphic in which the connections between ideas are indicated through the use of lines.
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| White space | the unprinted areas of an illustration.
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| Wonder tales | tales about magic and the supernatural.
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| Woodcuts | in the making of a woodcut, the nonprinting areas are cut away, leaving a raised surface that, when inked and pressed on paper, duplicates the original design. If color is to be used, the artist must prepare as many woodcuts as colors, or the printed picture can be painted by hand. Woodcut illustrations produce a bold simplicity and have a power not found in any other medium.
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| Wordless book | wordless books are picture books in which the story line is told entirely through pictures. They are increasingly popular with today's TV-oriented child. Many of them are laid out in the same sequential story as comic books and have wide appeal to different age levels.
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| World literature | literature from non-western countries.
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| Worthy of emulation | deserving of being admired and imitated.
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