• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.243-265
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to figure out how a child, as an active responder, responds to the characters of fantastic picture books by analyzing the child's questions and comments through the reading aloud approach. The subjects of this study are fifty-four children under five years old. Nine fantastic picture books are used as the study materials. The contents of the analysis are the frequency of children's questions and comments, the types of responses and the reasons of preferences to the characters. The results of the analysis are as follows: Firstly, the frequency of comments is three times higher than the frequency of questions. Secondly, the frequency of "evaluative questions" is the highest and "imaginative questions" is the next highest. The frequency of "transparent questions" and "personal questions" are comparatively low. Thirdly, most of the children answered that the reason of preference of the characters was "the character's appearance" and then "their subjective feeling to the character", "the character's role" and "the character's characteristics" in that order. Only one child answered that it was "the character's gender." This study will contribute to the planning and implementation of the strategies of reading picture books and to the strategic study to improve children's responses as well.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.81-107
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• 2015

Ninety-eight bestselling children's picture books from 2008 to 2014 were analyzed for multicultural education. The criteria used for the analysis included Culture, Diversity, Identity, Equity, Anti-bias, and Cooperation that were drawn from Kim & Park (2011). An examination of the books revealed that they contained concepts of Cooperation, Identity, Culture, and Diversity in their orders of frequency while ideas of Equity and Anti-bias were barely depicted. Differences between domestic and translated books were found. Translated picture books reflected Diversity more frequently than domestic ones. Under a criterion of Culture, Recognizing Differences and Similarities was more frequently portrayed in translated books while Respecting for Cultures was more frequently found in domestic ones. Findings were discussed in terms of bestselling picture books' limitations of dealing with critical multicultural issues, domestic picture books' lack of reflection of changing multicultural realities, fantasy picture books'dealing with critical multicultural issues through metaphors, and possible problems of the books conveying biased or confusing messages. It was suggested that an adult's role is essential when the bestselling literature is used for the purpose of multicultural education. Their deliberate guidance can help young children engaged in critical issues of race, gender, and ability and develop their multicultural sensitivities through literature.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.165-175
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• 2011

This study aims to analyze and compare the difference of preference to realistic and fantastic expressions presented in the illustrations of children's picture books. The subject of this study is set for 52 seven-year-old kindergarten students, including 26 boys and 26 girls, in Cheonan. Two times of researches on their preferences were made on the basis of data collection through individual interviews and self-regulatory questionnaires. A children's picture book, which best demonstrates both realistic and fantastic expressions, was selected as a research tool for such questionnaire from the ones produced and printed within Korea, which either are listed in the Recommended Book List of Children's Book Research Association or received any international award. The result shows that both boys and girls prefer fantastic expressions to realistic ones. It was also found that girls tend to prefer realistic expressions that the boys do. Nevertheless, there definitely was a limitation in thorough analysis by region or age, as they tended to show different responses when they were provided with a picture book with similar theme and story, but different form of expression.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.169-182
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• 1998

This study investigated the verbal responses of kindergarten children to fantasy and realistic picture books. The subjects were 60 five-year-old children divided into small groups of 4 children each. Each group was read four picture books of which two were fantasy and two were realistic. Transcripts of the children's responses were analyzed for number, content, and type of verbal response. Mean scores and standard deviations were measured and the data were analyzed by repeated one-way ANOVA. Results showed that the children showed (1) more verbal responses to the fantasy than to the realistic picture books. (2) They gave more verbal responses to fantasy picture books than to realistic books in terms of character, scene, event, and vocabulary. They also gave more verbal responses to fantasy picture books than to realistic books in terms of informative, heuristic, and imaginative types.