Storytime: Young Children's Literary Understanding in the Classroom

Storytime: Young Children's Literary Understanding in the Classroom Written by Lawrence R. Sipe Teachers College Press, 2008, 329 pp., ISBN 978-0807748282

Sipe is no stranger to the development of children as listeners and readers of literature. He has spent over 30 years in classrooms, as a teacher, a coordinator, and a professor. At each step, Sipe tells us, "I have been intrigued by young children's understanding and interpretation of stories. . . . For the past twelve years, [I have focused my] research on what happens when kindergarten, first-, and second-grade teachers read picturebooks aloud to tiieir classes and [have built] a grounded theory of young children's literary understanding based on this work" (p. 1). It is immediately evident that Sipe values the ways in which strong teachers who "know and love literature for children" (p. 1) can elicit sophisticated and complex classroom discussion with even the youngest of children.

Sipe's text is most appropriate for those who already have some background knowledge of literary theory. In his own words, his intended audience is comprised of "literacy researchers, theorists, and graduate students, particularly those concerned with literature for young children in schools of education, library science, and departments of English" (p. 9). When I began reading this text, I had hoped it would be appropriate for use in an undergraduate course in Children's Literature; however, while I may...