AUTHOR: "ELWYN BROOKS WHITE"

Through this post, I want you to know more about this great author, his name is Elwyn Brooks White. I knew information about this author from research which my classmates and I had to present in class, as all of you. I found it quite interesting his life and his works, especially emphasizing children's novels.

Elwyn Brooks White was a writer, essayist and a leading American prose writer. He was born in Mount Vernon (New York), and in 1925 he published his first article in the magazine "The New Yorker". Along his next two years, he produced a series of essays about the fear of war, the internationalism and humor, that had a great repercussions in the society of the time.

During the late '30s, he began writing fiction for kids. His first novel for children was, "Stuart Little", then he created "Charlotte's Web" and finally "The Trumpet of the Swan".

          

Elwyn Brooks White won important national awards, both for his works as essays. Finally, Elwyn died on 1^st of October, 1985.

Regarding his most important works, we can find:

• "Stuart Little": this book is best known for its fun and entertaining argument and its transformation to world cinema where he had and continues to have great success.

The story tells that one day, the Little family adopts a little mouse (Stuart) who treat it as a child. The family is delighted with the Little, but George, his eldest son, does not know what to do with his "new brother". However, Snowbell, the family catthinks a plan to oust the home for good.

Both in the novel and the movie, are transmitted educational values ​​such as companionship and tolerance among family and friends. Therefore, we can work this kind of issues with children after reading or watching the "Stuart Little".

• "Charlotte's Web": in this novel is narrated as Wilbur, a pig who lives on a farm, learns that his destiny is to end up in the bowl of a table. He is determined to avoid this fatal outcome, and he will think a plan with her ​​friend Charlotte, the spider.

In this case, the message that the author wants to transmit with this story, is the value of friendship that can unite people in a wonderful way.

• "The Trumpet of the Swan": in this novel tells the adventures of the little swan Louie, that at birth, he realizes that he is mute. Louie will overcome many difficult situations until he makes friends with a boy named Sam.

In this case, the values that are transmitted are compassion and friendship, so it is a good book for children to start reading.

Finally, if we observe the argument of each of the books, we can see that all of them talk about the same topic and transmit the same values. Therefore, I think these novels could work in a school to treat all those values ​​that are specially aimed at children.

Also, all of these novels are adapted for the cinema and aimed to all audiences.

      

THE READING MAP

This activity "Reading Map" we did a few weeks ago and consisted to represent through a map, some of the most important books that you've read along your life, since you were going to school until today. In this case, you had to make as a chronological sequence, drawing and representing the books that you can be identified at all these stages of your life.

It seemed a very creative and interesting activity for both of us to remember what kind of books we read before, and to do it with primary students at school, promoting the literature.

When I started to develop this activity, it seemed a bit complicated because I did not know what kind of map could do, and I do not remember very well  the books that I had read as a child. For this, I had to start looking for my room, the books that I had of the school and ask my parents what kind of books I used to read as a child.

This activity "Reading Map" helped me:

- To remember a little more about children's literature.

- To remember the kind of books that have influenced me when I was young and nowadays.

- To know the literature that the teachers used to employ teachers to transmit a set of educational values ​​in some cases.

- To be able to represent and identify in a visual way the objective of this activity.

The activity of Reading map can also be used in other subjects, not just on the literature. As for example, in Science to represent the water cycle, photosynthesis, the order of the planets... because this type of activity has a lot of different ways to develop and achieve different goals.

However, in the subject in which it is focused more is in Literature, because the teachers are allowed to know the literary likes of students, organize groups and oral presentations as literary genre, develop murals, debates for the defense of a book, improvise class libraries, etc.

With all these complementary activities is encouraged reading books and the interest and motivation in the literature.

Finally, here I show you a photo of my "Reading Map" where you can observe the most important books related to the literature in each of the stages of my life:

- From 0-3 years old

- At school

- At high school

- Adulthood

If I have to highlight the books that I liked and influenced me until nowadays, were: The Three Little Pigs, Matilda, Manolito Gafotas and Harry Potter.