Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Long, Long Way: Young Children Explore the Fabula and Syuzhet of Shortcut

  • Published:
Children's Literature in Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the picture book Shortcut (1995), the mediated telling of the fabula (the story) by David Macaulay results in a nonlinear and nonsequential syuzhet (the plot). Several metafictive devices used in the construction of the syuzhet of Shortcut draw attention to its status as text and fiction. Although researchers and theorists have written about metafiction, there is a lack of research that has explored students' literary understandings of and responses to books with metafictive characteristics. As well as defining metafiction and identifying various metafictive devices described in the literature, this article discusses young children's responses to and understandings of some of the metafictive devices in Shortcut.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anstey, M., “'It's not all black and white': Postmodern picture books and new literacies,” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 2002, 45(6), 444-457.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barone, D., “The written responses of young children: Beyond comprehension to story understanding,” The New Advocate, 1990, 3(1), 49-56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barthes, R., S/Z: An Essay. New York: Hill & Wang, 1970, trans. 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coles, M., and Hall, C., “Breaking the line: New literacies, postmodernism and the teaching of printed texts,” Reading: Literacy and Language, 2001, 35(3), 111-114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commeyras, M., and Sumner, G., “Literature discussions based on student-posed questions,” The Reading Teacher, 1996, 50(3), 262-265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuddon, J. A., The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (4th ed.). New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Culler, J., “Literary competence,” in Reader-Response Criticism: From Formalism to Post-structuralism, J. Tompkins, ed., pp. 101-117. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dresang, E., Radical Change: Books for Youth in a Digital Age. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fish, S., “Is there a text in the class?” in Falling into Theory: Conflicting Views on Reading Literature, D. Richter, ed., pp. 226-237. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstone, B., “Ordering the chaos: Teaching metafictive characteristics of children's books,” Journal of Children's Literature, 1998, 24(2), 48-55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstone, B., “Whaz up with our books? Changing picture book codes and teaching implications,” The Reading Teacher, 2001/2002, 55(4), 362-370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hickman, J., “A new perspective on response to literature: Research in an elementary setting,” Research in the Teaching of English, 1981, 15, 343-354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holquist, M., Dialogism: Bakhtin and his World. New York: Routledge, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iser, W., The Act of Reading. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiefer, B., “Children's responses to picture books: A developmental perspective,” in Journeying: Children Responding to Literature, K. Holland, R. Hungerford, and S. Ernst, eds., pp. 267-283. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Labbo, L., “Beyond storytime: A sociopsychological perspective on young children's opportunities for literacy development during story extension time,” Journal of Literacy Research, 1996, 28, 405-428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D., “The constructedness of texts: Picture books and the metafictive,” Signal, 1990, 62, 131-146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D., Reading Contemporary Picture Books: Picturing Text. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lodge, D., The Art of Fiction. London, UK: Penguin Books, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macaulay, D., “Caldecott acceptance speech,” Horn Book, 1991, 67(4), 410-421.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackey, M., “Metafiction for beginners: Allan Ahlberg's Ten in a bed,” Children's Literature in Education, 1990, 21(3), 179-187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Many, J., and Wiseman, D., “The effect of teaching approach on third-grade students' response to literature,” Journal of Reading Behavior, 1992, 24(3), 265-287.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCabe, A., “Cultural background and storytelling: A review and implications for schooling,” The Elementary School Journal, 1997, 97(5), 453-473.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCallum, R., “Metafictions and experimental work,” in International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, P. Hunt, ed., pp. 397-409. New York: Routledge, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClay, J., “'Wait a second...': Negotiating complex narratives in Black and White,” Children's Literature in Education, 2000, 31(2), 91-106.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGee, L., “An exploration of meaning construction in first graders' grand conversations,” in Literacy Research, Theory and Practice: Views from Many Perspectives: Forty-first Yearbook of the National Reading Conference, C. K. Kinzer and D. J. Leu, eds., pp. 177-186. Chicago: National Reading Conference, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meek, M., How Texts Teach What Readers Learn. Stroud, Glos: The Thimble Press, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, L. M., “The effect of small group story reading on children's questions and comments,” in Cognitive and Social Perspectives for Literacy Research and Instruction: Thirty-Seventh Yearbook of the National Reading Conference, S. McCormick and J. Zutell, eds., pp. 77-86. Chicago: National Reading Conference, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, L. M., “Young children's responses to one-to-one story readings in school settings,” Reading Research Quarterly, 1988, 23(1), 89-107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, L. M., and Gambrell, L., “Literature-based reading instruction,” in Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, and R. Barr, eds., pp. 563-586. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrow, L. M., and Smith, J. K., “The effects of group size on interactive storybook reading,” Reading Research Quarterly, 1990, 25(2), 214-231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nikolajeva, M., “Exit children's literature?” The Lion and the Unicorn, 1998, 22(2), 221-236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nikolajeva, M., and Scott, C., How Picturebooks Work. New York: Garland Publishing, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pantaleo, S., “Grade 1 students meet David Wiesner's three pigs,” Journal of Children's Literature, 2002, 28(2), 72-84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pantaleo, S., “'Godzilla lives in New York': Grade 1 students and the peritextual features of picture books,” Journal of Children's Literature, 2003, 29(2), 66-77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenblatt, L. M., The Reader, the Text, the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sipe, L., “The construction of literary understanding by first and second graders in oral response to picture storybook read-alouds,” Reading Research Quarterly, 2000, 35(2), 252-275.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sipe, L., and Bauer, J., “Urban kindergartners' literary understanding of picture storybooks,” The New Advocate, 2001, 14(4), 329-342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spiro, R., Coulson, R., Feltovich, P., and Anderson, D., “Cognitive flexibility theory: Advancedknowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains,” in Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading (4th ed.), R. Ruddell, M. Ruddell, and H. Singer, eds., pp. 602-615. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephens, J., and Watson, K., From Picture Book to Literary Theory. Sydney, AU: St. Clair Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland-Smith, W., “Weaving the literacy web: Changes in reading from page to screen,” The Reading Teacher, 2002, 55(7), 662-669.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trites, R. S., “Manifold narratives: Metafiction and ideology in picture books,” Children's Literature in Education, 1994, 25(4), 225-242.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waugh, P., Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. New York: Methuen, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yearwood, S., “Popular postmodernism for young adult readers: Walk Two Moons, Holes and Monster,” The ALAN Review, 2002, 29(3), 50-53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateman, R., Safari. Toronto: Penguin Studio, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browne, A., Voices in the Park. London: Picture Corgi Books, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browne, A., Willy the Dreamer. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creech, S., Walk Two Moons. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demi, The Empty Pot. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilman, P., Something from Nothing. Richmond Hill, ON: Scholastic Canada, Ltd., 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konigsburg, E. L., The View from Saturday. New York: Atheneum, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macaulay, D., Black and White. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macaulay, D., Shortcut. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, J. B., Snowflake Bentley. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachar, L., Holes. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scieszka, J., The Stinky Cheeseman and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. New York: Viking, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sis, P., Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiesner, D., Tuesday. New York: Clarion Books, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiesner, D., The Three Pigs. New York: Clarion Books, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

    Sylvia Pantaleo

Authors
  1. Sylvia Pantaleo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pantaleo, S. The Long, Long Way: Young Children Explore the Fabula and Syuzhet of Shortcut . Children's Literature in Education 35, 1–20 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CLID.0000018897.74948.2a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CLID.0000018897.74948.2a

Search

Navigation