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C H A P T E R 1 :
Introduction to the World of Children’s Literature

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told me to reread the first page once more. This time, when I started reading, I knew 
where and when the story took place and who the main characters were, and things 
began to make sense. When I finally finished the book, I actually liked it! 
The Process of Schema Building 
The Process of Schema Building 
I had been overwhelmed because my English teacher had failed to help her students 
build a schema to enable them to comprehend Ivanhoe . Fortunately, I had an older 
sister to collaborate with, but not all the kids in my class had someone to help them. 
Teaching readers to construct their own schema before reading is quick and easy, 
and I suggest you use it for all the books you read to your children. Most impor-
tantly, I hope you will teach this process to your children and encourage them to 
use it each time they read a new book. It is probably the single most important thing 
you can do to enhance children’s understanding and appreciation of a fiction book. I 
call it the prereading schema-building process , and it can be used with either picture 
books or juvenile novels. The purpose is to activate the reader’s prior knowledge as 
well as to build a scaffold for new knowledge such as vocabulary and historical or 
cultural setting. 
I. Begin at the End.
Please, do not read the end of the book first! However, starting 
with the last text page, look at each page until you reach the back cover. These last 
pages often contain critical information for understanding the book, such as glossa-
ries, maps, or afterwords that will provide helpful information you can refer to while 
reading. You also may find information about the author. Usually books do not men-
tion that these aids are provided at the end. I have had students who struggled to read 
a work of historical fiction that contained many foreign words, such as Ishi, Last of 
His Tribe (Kroeber), only to discover the glossary after finishing the book.