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Sthapit 1

Amshula Sthapit

Professor Gallego

ENGL 1302-71203

25 November 2022

Dark Themes in Young Adult Literature:

An Annotated Bibliography

Thesis Statement: Although that can be used to force the beliefs of the author onto the reader, I believe dark and serious themes in young readers' literature help them understand the world around them more because of characters going through difficult events that the readers can emotionally understand, actively socialise, and develop cognitive skills.

Feldman, Daniel. “Reading Poison: Science and Story in Nazi Children’s Propaganda.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 53, no. 2, June 2022, pp. 199–220. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.dcccd.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10583-021-09454-9 .

The article “Reading Poison: Science and Story in Nazi Children's Propaganda.”, and was written by Daniel Feldman, and is about the uses of propaganda in children's stories in Nazi Germany. The article goes into detail of multiple stories during the time period and dissects them and how they were used to influence the worldview of children in the country. One of the books was a story that started out as keeping an eye out for bad mushrooms to avoid them, to outright teaching children to racially profile Jewish people via the events of the story. Another story used the biology of plant genes to inform the children about eugenics in a positive light. The article shows the beliefs being pushed onto the readers at this section: “Members of the class, and by extension the book’s intended readership, become young cognoscenti, informed experts wielding cutting-edge science to identify and isolate the Reich’s enemies. By offering narrative depiction of how to apply biology in the classroom, this story stages the paradigmatic merger of pedagogical indoctrination, scientific racism, and children’s propaganda to fulfil the ideological mandate of the state.” (Feldman, 210). By using stories to indoctrinate the author's beliefs onto the child reader, the author is using literature and more serious, real world themes to change the young reader's worldview, obscuring and distorting their understanding of the world as opposed to helping them understand and comprehend. The author is from Bar-IIan University, a research university, and the article is 23 pages and lists 33 sources, solidifying the article's credibility.

Gasser, L., Dammert, Y. & Murphy, P.K. How Do Children Socially Learn from Narrative Fiction: Getting the Lesson, Simulating Social Worlds, or Dialogic Inquiry?. Educ Psychol Rev 34, 1445–1475 (2022). EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-022-09667-4.

The article is titled “How Do Children Socially Learn from Narrative Fiction: Getting the Lesson, Simulating Social Worlds, or Dialogic Inquiry?”. This is written by different authors named Luciano Gasser, Yvonne Dammert, and P. Karen Murphy and it focuses on how children learn socially from narrative fiction. The article’s main purpose is to provide different approaches to reading narrative fiction with children to promote their literacy skills and sociomoral development strongly diverge in their explanations and recommended instructional activities. Authors systematise the literature on sociomoral learning through narrative fiction according to three stances: efferent, expressive, and critical-analytic and then they describe each stance in a separate section, and suggest future directions for research on sociomoral learning through narrative fiction. The article shows the great understanding here, “Research from the perspective of Social Domain Theory (SDT) revealed that three-year-old children develop an emerging capacity for genuine moral judgments, and they judge hypothetical straightforward moral transgressions as wrong independently from authority, rules, and context. Children's judgments of social-conventional transgressions depend on authorities, rules, and context” (1449). I will use this article for my essay to explain how literature including novels, poems and short stories help children develop socially. Authors are associated with Bern University of Teacher Education and The Pennsylvania State University and the article was published recently in 2022 . The article is 31 pages long and cites more than 15 sources.

Hope, Julia. “‘The Soldiers Came to the House’: Young Children’s Responses to The Color of Home.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 49, no. 3, Sept. 2018, pp. 302–22. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.dcccd.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10583-016-9300-8 .

The article is titled “‘The Soldiers Came to the House’: Young Children’s Responses to The Colour of Home”, the author is Julia Hope, and it focuses on the thoughts and responses of young readers after reading The Colour of Home. The article analyses what young readers thought of the book about a refugee from multiple grade levels. The author connects each grade level's response to the book to show their understanding with the serious themes the book presented to them. Examples of earlier grade understanding was understanding the events of the story and describing it with accurate adjectives, and later grade understanding being understanding how the main character felt in relation to the events occurring around him. The article shows great reader understanding here: “Both pieces of work suggest a deep and perceptive engagement with the refugee situation from a child who has not directly experienced it herself, but has enough knowledge, imagination, and some personal perspectives to demonstrate an impressive response.” (Hope. 314) The author is associated with Goldsmiths, University of London, a research institution, and the article was published recently, only 4 years ago in 2018. It also cites 54 different sources throughout its 21 page length, so the information within is credible.

Prezioso, M. G. “Enchantment and Understanding in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials: Advancing Cognition Through Literature.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 52, no. 4, Dec. 2021, pp. 543–54. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.dcccd.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10583-020-09431-8 .

The article titled “Enchantment and Understanding in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials: Advancing Cognition Through Literature.” is written by M.G. Prezioso.This article covers the wealth of children's literary texts that encourage reading for both enjoyment and understanding. These texts transform into essential tools for challenging students' thinking both within and outside of the classroom when used in combination with illustrated training. The article states, “The idea that learning to read may enable one later to enrich one’s life is experienced as an empty promise when the stories the child listens to, or is reading at the moment, are vacuous.” (Prezioso 553) Even though this statement may not address dark literature in particular, it backs up the idea that some weighted children's reading might help the children improve their cognitive ability. It emphasizes that more consideration needs to be given to how interesting literature of all genres, from historical and realistic fiction to fantasy, science fiction, and poetry, can promote readers' intellectual and emotional growth beyond what is generally considered in reading assessments. Through these genres, children are more likely to be prepared for challenges in real life. MG Prezioso is a Ph.D. candidate in Human Development, Learning, and Teaching at Harvard University. The article was published on 19 November 2020, is 13 pages long and cites 19 sources.