Literary Borrowing: The Effects of Literature on Children's Writing.

Abstract

The children listened with interest, react ing with surprise when Nate found Fang hid ing under Rosamond's chair. When Josh fin ished reading, the children applauded and raised their hands to make comments. Josh called on Anna first. She tilted her head, shook her finger at Josh, and announced, Did you know your book is just like the other Nate the Greats? With a serious expression, Josh re sponded immediately, Oh, yeah. I planned it that way. Over the years I have encountered many students who, like Josh, composed stories based on ideas from books they have read. They appeared to spontaneously borrow ideas from literature in order to create their own pieces of writing. Some wrote new stories about familiar characters such as George and Martha, Frog and Toad, Lyle Crocodile, Arthur, and Miss Frizzle. Others retold the original plot in their own words or modified the same events to fit a new setting. Some cre ated plots in which characters from different stories interacted. And occasionally some at tempted to imitate the writing style of a par ticular author, book, or genre. Having read many stories obviously in spired by books in our classroom, I wondered how the children selected and manipulated ideas while writing on their own. This borrowing has gone on independently, with out direct teacher involvement, as I have nev er asked my students to write imitatively of a literary model by themselves, although groups have written stories patterned after books that were read aloud.