About “Storytime: Young Children's Literary Understanding in the Classroom”
Larry Sipe draws on his own extensive research in urban classrooms to present a grounded theoretical model of young children’s understanding of picture storybooks. Advancing a much broader and deeper theory of literary understanding, the author suggests that children respond in five different ways during picture storybook readalounds; that these responses reveal that children are engaged in five different types of literary meaning-making; and that these five types of meaning-making are instantiations of five foundational aspects of literary understanding.
Capturing the liveliness of children’s responses, this dynamic volume:

• Describes picture storybooks as sophisticated aesthetic objects worthy of children’s literary critical abilities.
• Offers a theory of literary understanding that is relevant to contemporary young children from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds.
• Includes a wealth of examples of children’s responses and how teachers’ scaffolded the children’s interpretation of stories.
• Examines the significance of young children’s literary interpretation, factors that influence literary understanding, and implications for practice and further research.

Praise for Storytime
“Storytime is grounded in well-documented research, an in-depth knowledge of literary theory, and enlivened by insightful commentary.”
Glenna Sloan, City University of New York

“Those of us who work with children, picturebooks, and teachers could have no more insightful guide ... than Larry Sipe.”
Nancy L. Roser, University of Texas, Austin

Publication information
Teachers College Press
November 2007
ISBN: November 2007
Hardcover, $76.00                   ORDER
ISBN: 978-0-8077-4828-2
Softcover, $34.95,
320 pages