Style & tone in children’s

BooksElaine Cardenas

Library 732July 9, 2011

IMAGERYAll the Places to Love

by Patricia Maclachlan

Maclachlan describes beautifully everyone’s favorite spot on the farm.

“My grandmother loved the river best of all the places to love. That sound, like a whisper, she said;Gathering in poolsWhere trout flashed like jewels in the sunlight.Grandmother sailed little bark boats downriver to meWith messagesI love you Eli, one said.

Figurative language

Personification

Diary of a Wormby Doreen Cronin

Duck for Presidentby Doreen Cronin

Click, Clack, MooCows that Type

by Doreen Cronin

In all of the above stories Doreen Cronin uses personification. The humor in her

stories comes from animals who are personified. They all do things humans

would normally do such writing diaries or typing on a typewriter.

Figurative language

Similie

A Long Way from Chicagoby Richard Peck

Peck’s writing is liberally sprinkled with similies for comparison purposes:

bald as an egg (p. 50)we’d been working like a whole pack of bird

dogs (p. 52)he smelled like a polecat (p. 6)

ugly as sin, calls herself Wilcox? (p. 9)

Figurative language

metaphor

The Runaway Bunny

by Margaret Wise Brown

Margaret Wise Brown uses metaphors for

comparison purposes in The Runaway Bunny.

“If you are a gardner and find me,” said the

little bunny, “I will be a bird and fly away from you.” If you become a bird and fly away from me,” said his mother, “I will be a tree that you

come home to.”

Hyperbole

Chicks and Salsa

by Aaron Reynolds

Reynolds uses hyperbole to create humor in Chicks and

Salsa.In this story the chickens are tired of eating chicken feed. While watching TV through the open farm window, the

rooster discovers the solution to the food problem. He helps

organize the chickens to gather ingredients and then

make salsa. The story continues with the ducks

making guacamole, the pigs making nachos and the bull

dancing the Mexican hat dance.

Allusion

Porkensteinby Kathryn Lasky

In order to understand Porkenstein, one must be

familiar with the story of Frankenstein. Like Frankenstein, Porkenstein is a mistake. Dr. Pig is lonely because the wolf ate his brothers. He is trying to create a pig friend to keep him company. His experiment goes awry, and

he creates Porkenstein,the biggest pig he had ever seen! When Porkenstein has eaten

everything in the house including the trash and trash can, Dr. Pig

realizes, “I’ve-I’ve-created a monster!”

AlliterationAnimaliaby Graeme Base

Animalia is alliteration. Base goes through each

letter of the alphabet using alliteration.

“Diabolical Dragons Daintily Devouring

Delicious Delicacies. “

“Eight Enormous Elephants Expertly Eating

Easter Eggs”.

AssonancePick a Pup

by Marshal Chall

Chall uses assonance in Pick a Pup for a playful tone. Sam is going to the shelter to pick a pup for his very own. He’s wondering what kind of a pup he’ll get.

“Eeny, meeny, miney, pup,which teeny-weeny, tiny pup?”

Will his pup be like:“Mrs. Well’s sit-in-your-lap

dog,likes to take-a-nap dog,

hardly makes-a-peep dog,mostly-sound-asleep dog.”

consonanceThe Grim

Grottoby Lemony Snicket

In The Grim Grotto the unfortunate

Baudelaire children find themselves floating down a

river on a toboggan. Snicket uses consonance to give the

impression of a current moving downstream and occasionally

getting hung up on an obstacle.“Rushing water” and “stricken

stream”

rhythm

Rattlebone Rock by Sylvia Andrews

There’s no way to avoid toe-tapping with Sylvia Jones Rattlebone Rock. The rhythm is what makes the story.

“Skeletons danced “Ghosts swayed in lineAnd pranced around. To the beat of the bonesThey rattled their bones And jazzed up the soundWith a rhythmic sound. With musical moans.Clacka-clack! Ooooa-ooo!Clacka-clack!” Boooa-boo!

Tone

The BFGby Roald Dahl

The light-hearted, fun tone of the BFG is created by Dahl’s usage and choice of words. Dahl plays with language creating a whimsical story that makes us smile. The BFG eats disgusting snozcumbers to survive. He drinks frobscottle and suffers fromwhizzpoppers. The giants that aren’t friendly have names like “The Childchewer, The Fleshlumpeater, and the Gizzardgulper” Dahl explains how each giant has a favorite hunting ground, because all humans taste different. According to the giants people from Wales taste like fish (as in whale), people from Sweden taste sweet and sour, and people from Greece taste greasy. Not only is Dahl’s sense of humor readily apparent in The BFG, it’s contagious!

tonehumor

A Year Down Yonderby Richard Peck

“Shotgun Cheatham’s Last Night Above Ground” is a terrific example of Peck’s ability to engage his readers with humor. In this story Grandma Dowdel blatantly lies to a nosey reporter regarding Shotgun Cheatham’s life just because she hates people poking into other people’s business. She tells the reporter that Shotgun was given

his name by U.S. Grant. She invites the reporter to come to her house because Shotgun will be buried from her house with honors. Sometime during the night while

they are all sitting watch during the wake, something surprising happens.“The gauze that hung down over the open coffin moved. Twitched. . .Then the gauze

rippled as if a hand had passed across it from the other side, and in one place it wrinkled into a wad as if somebody had snagged it. As if a feeble hand had reached up from the coffin depths in one last desperate attempt to live before the dirt was shoveled in. “ Grandma grabbed her shotgun and shot at the gauze. The reporter jumped out the side window. “He went out a side window, headfirst leaving his hat

and his notepad behind. Which he feared more, the living dead or Grandma’s aim, he didn’t tarry to tell. Mrs. Wilcox was on her feet, hollering, “The dead is walking, and Mrs. Dowdel’s gunning for me!”. . .”A burned-powder haze hung int he room, butting the smell of Shotgun Cheatham. The white gauze was black rags now, and Grandma had blown the lid clear off the coffin. She’d have blown out all three windows in the bay, except they were open. As it was, she’d pitted her woodwork bad and topped

the snowball bushes outside.”