Children's Literature Presentation ROUGH DRAFT

8/3/2019 Children's Literature Presentation ROUGH DRAFT

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Childrens LiteraturePresentation

The Monster Under the

Bed

Natalie Barton, Christie Georgiou,Michael Griffiths, Aisha Ibrahim


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Story Summary

The story is about a little boy aged 7 calledCharlie, who is still afraid of the dark- towhich his mother gets annoyed at. What the

mum does not know is that a monster doeslive under the boys bed. However, themonster is not a nasty monster, and is moreafraid of the light than Charlie is afraid of

the dark. Charlie realises this and decides tomake the monster his pet, and at the endcalls him Frobblegobble.


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Psychology of Children Peter Gray (2011) wrote an article on "Why Young

Children Protest Bedtime" where he theorizedthat children being afraid of the dark is an"Evolutionary Mismatch", where genetically it isalready programmed for children to be afraid of

the dark, and to which "any young child, alone, inthe dark, would have been a tasty snack fornight-time predators."

Gray then suggests that children protest because

they are going to bed alone, which is an uniquefeature to Westernized cultures, whereas in othercultures, it is common for the child to still sleep inthe parents bed, or bedroom.

Stories from our own childhood of the" "


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Visual Influences

In the children books we looked at,we noticed a recurring theme of howbold colour, and interesting

typography was used, especially inuse of onomatopoeia, or adjectives.


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Visual Influences (cont.)

Our book is aimed at 3-7 year olds,as we found that a fear of the darkwas prevalent in this age bracket,and to which we made the

protagonist, Charlie, in the upper-endof.

This influenced how we used colour

and language, making thebackground colouring bright, themonster "a beautiful sight", and

we've even made the pages almost


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(Insert example of day-time/night-time page view)


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Visual Influences: Monsters

in Children's Literature


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Frobblegobble: The Monster

Our monster Frobblegobble, isportrayed as being "big and hairy/...itwould look awfully scary", but when

Charlie realises that Frobblegobble isas afraid of the light as Charlie is asafraid of the monster, it is revealed

that his coat was "a beautiful sight". The monster is created to show a

kinship to the reader, by the

sentence "...the monster was nice


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Language

In the children's books we studied,we noticed that there was a lot oflanguage devices used, such as

onomatopoeia ("THUMP"), alliteration(...suddenly a shrieking/And asquealing and a squeaking), and a

simple rhyme scheme ("I'munderneath the bed/Hardly pokingout my head").


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Language in "Monster Under

The Bed" Our story follows a simple AABBrhyme scheme, which enables thereader to match a steady rhythm,

and which makes the story fun andeasy to remember.

The language is also simple, inkeeping with the 3-7 year age groupthat we was aiming towards.


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The NarratorThe Narrator in Monster's Under The Bedis seen

to know more than Charlie, due to the Narratorbeing able to confide in the reader that themonster wanted to play with Charlie's toys, and is"nice and friendly".

This is used due to the reader being most likely

an older figure, typically one of the parents, andis then seen to be someone that the child cantrust in. So even though the character isfrightened (my heart was beating like a drum),

the child has no need to be, due to beingreassured by the Narrator/spoken reader, who inthis instance could be seen as being the sameperson.

Charlie is also briefly the Narrator, at the


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Relations to Other Media Pixar famously used the idea of

children being frightened of monstersin the closet to make a film calledMonsters, Inc, where two monsters

Mike and Sulley go around collectingchildrens screams, although in theend it is revealed that they are the

children's friends. Bump in the Nightwas a popular

stop-animation children's TV show

that featured a monster that lived


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Reference list Why Young Children Protest Bedtime: A Story of Evolutionary

Mismatch.http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201110/why-young-children-protest-bedtime-story-evolutionary-mismatch

RIDDELL, Chris (2011) Mr Underbed. 3rd ed. Australia,Random House Australia pty.

BRIGHT, Paul and CORT, Ben (2006) I'm Not Going Out There!Great Britain, Little Tiger Press.

WEATHERLY, Lee and HALL, Algy Craig (2011) The ScariestMonster In The World. 2nd ed. Great Britain, Boxer BooksLimited.

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Children's Literature Presentation ROUGH DRAFT