Children Literature

Maurice Sendak is an artistic genius in children literature illustrations and imagery. One of his great works is where wild things are, this book is a work highly criticized both in the positive and in the negative perspectives.  It is a world of great fantasy and amazing imagination as well as educational. The statement "you must leave the space in the text so that the picture can do the work" is a sentence explaining a style used by children literature, authors in their books and comic books (Alison, 2009). Teaching in order for it to be effective and successful the teacher must pass on the intended information to the student and ensure that a big percentage of the target intended is done.

In order for this to happen the writer or teacher must employ techniques and especially in children literature that will capture the mind of the child to grip the intended information in the best way possible. In this book, he uses words and images, to be more precise he uses detailed pen and ink drawings and a deceptively small text and all this comes out in a well mastered work. His technique of using both words and such drawings strikes a chord with the reader for the direct realism I representation the character of young boys who behave wildly and express in erratic inappropriate manner (Cohen, 2008). This juxtaposes wit the main character with the main character in the book Max in a wolf suit. He is a cunning character just a wolf is and young boys are. This is the strength of using words and pictures together the give a more realistic picture of the message the author wants to pass on especially to the young minds.

The sentence thus also reminds if the work of harmoniously using pictures and words can do to the minds of children and young adults. It makes reading more fun and a fruitful experience. To try and engage a child to read a story written only in words and within no time they are bored or if they manage three quarters of what they've read is forgotten at the end of the story.  Once a young mind is provokes by well illustrated images from an experienced illustrator like Maurice they are fascinated by the pictures themselves and transformed from a world of reality to a world of fantasy as intended by the author. This is what he means by the words "le the pictures do the work" (Sendek, 2009). The pictures and imagery develop the plot and continue with the story line in a more realistic way than words. They stick in the mind and intrigue the minds of the readers. And especially the book 'where the wild things are' the pictures clearly bring out the authors intention of juxtaposing fantasy and realism and this is important in keeping a dramatic tension in the storyline to the last sentence" and it was still hot"

Illustrations also help in stretching the minds of children to greater imaginations and this is effective for children's growth. The author in his illustrations grips the mind of the reader and provokes the reader to imagine more than what is the norm. Imagination that what the author had in mind could also be understood by the reader. In other words they connect with the mind of the reader to imagine just as the illustrator and author imagined so they stretch out the mind of the reader to imagine much more. This technique thus takes the reader through a journey o the mind to the authors' world but in a more real way as pictures are just representations of what is seen but in a paper, (Tom, 2008).

The illustrations also carry real life emotions and these are evoked on the readers mind and heart. Because of the strength of emotions they can be used to convey deeper messages and important moral lessons. And also most importantly they stick to the mind than other forms of communications so the authors use them to teach very important lessons since visual information is memorable than other forms of teaching methods. The illustrations also create different character illustrations such that the reader associates different character with different behaviors. For example max creates mischief in his fox suit, that notion of a fox being involve in mischief is a technique employed to give max a behavior.

John Rowe Townsend is another literal author in children literature with a great analysis written for children. He is also a well known critic if children literature and him making such an assessment its true according to the ingenuity of Maurice sendak. He asserts that the literal work of Maurice is the work of a grand master. Truly the book is a work of a master in his own sphere and coming from a well known and respected critic one can agree but to a certain extent (Townsend, 1981).

Firstly the children book can be accorded the respect because of the way Maurice develops the story line, the plot is ingenuity leading the reader, and the illustration is quite the work of a master. In this book Maurice has developed imaginative characters and creatures and has illustrated them with a stroke of genius. Max is a young boy and he causes mischief at home and sent to sleep without supper and while in his room strange things happen as a forest grows in his imagination .He is transported to a magical island with wild monsters that scare him with snarls and rolling their yellow eyes. Luckily he manages to hypnotize the monsters by staring them in their yellow eyes and they declare him the wildest thing they had ever seen and he's  declared the king of the wild tings and joins them in dancing and fun in 'wild rumpus". Finally max is bored of the adventure and goes back home to find his supper still warm!

The book in real life portrays the inappropriate manner young boys express themselves and how they find themselves in unfortunate situations but luck always seem to be on their side in their search for adventure. Here Maurice has masterfully captured the life of young boys in words and illustrations and carefully chosen the most appropriate words to do this. This surely is the work of a genius who has mastered his art. The choice of words and the scenarios in the book explain a lot what many young boys the age of  max do and the understanding they need to be regarded with (Sendek, 2009).

The plot of the story is also another stroke of genius. It is twisted in that the reader is easily transported from the real world to fantasy in a way through the mind of young boy max through his imagination. This employs a cunning technique which is truly the work of a master in his expertise. The adventure the boy has is also totally fictional, not reality but very fascinating indeed especially for young minds. However the moral side of the story does not auger well with what can be generally accepted of a boy the age of max. Max causing mischief at home does not relent and threatens his mother. This could teach the young readers to be like him and thus not a favorable teaching expected of a grand master to put so openly and without moral correction later in the story. The monster used by Maurice and the vivid description and illustrations might be negative on the imagination of children. They sometimes be a source of harrowing nightmares for children. The book has in fact sparked wide and harsh criticism of use of such monsters (John, 2010). This surely is not the work of a grandmaster. It has also been banned from some institutions.

In his writing  Andre Favat " tat other world: some characteristics of anthropomorphic animal stories" he tries to make known as well as some personified non living creatures are fantastic and employed in writing some are also quite harmful. They are harmful to the reader if they psychologically affect in a manner of destruction, for example the use of monsters by Maurice and they reason to fulfill the role of vengeance against the mother and with association with a child is not healthy to the mind of young minds in their moral establishment and growth. This may lead to establishment of nightmares in kids, weird imagination and behavioral change that is out of the norm due to deep imaginations. Favat does the excellent work of investigating the unusual deep connection between the mind of a child and fairy tales and the after effects of such tales. He explains that the mind of a child is involved with the tale and especially with the predictability if the story for example a happy ending and be reassured and influenced in heir beliefs of their external world by the story though it is not similar., these are two different worlds.

Bruno Bettelheim well known child psychiatrist who achieved a lot of success with autistic children had the main idea that children should be treated with love and care. The loving attitude of parents will hold the child in high esteem and this will also positively influence the child in its growth. He advocated for especially mother to be tender and loving with their children for them to grow in the right mental attitudes in life (Bettelheim, 1976).