Browse Exhibits (3 total)
Early Children’s Literature: Fiction
Early Children's Literature: Fiction uses black and white illustrations in order to teach young children what natural disasters are and what they do. Books such as "The Bashful Earthquake" by Oliver Herford and "Father Aldur" by Agnes Gilburn are included in this exhibit. Pictures in this category are relatively humorous and use features such as shading in order to create certain moods for the reader. Extreme weather events are portrayed in a before and after series of pictures. This makes it so that children understand the aftermath of these natural disasters. These illustrations in early children's fiction books give the audience a basic understanding of these extreme weather conditions with a large emphasis on "what".
Present Day Children’s Literature
Present Day Children's Literature takes a drastic shift into a world of color and imagination. Series such as "The Magic Treehouse" by Mary P. Osbourne and "I Survived" by Lauren Tarshis are included in this exhibit. The vivid covers of the various books in each of these series represent a new era of weather dipiction. Extreme weather events are portrayed in a dramatic way that include young children facing the dangers and learning how to survive. These books give the audience a sense of urgency to understand these weather events while simultaneously encouraging safety and compassion.
Early Children's Literature: Textbooks
In early children's literature, textbooks were used to create a more realistic depiction of an extreme weather event compared to the fiction books. Here, there are many photograph-like drawings with intricacies to show children exactly what each situation would look like. Also, diagrams were sometimes used to show the scientific background of the events and give a brief and simple overview, so children would understand.