Learning About Media Literacy

by Martha E. H. Rustad

Overview

Media is everywhere. Even the youngest readers need to know how to interact with it. Straightforward text and clear photographs givers readers the tools they need to evaluate and understand media.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491418338
Publisher:	Capstone Pr Inc
Publication date:	01/01/2015
Series:	Media Literacy for Kids
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	11.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	470L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Martha E. H. Rustad is the author of more than one hundred nonfiction children's books, on topics ranging from baby ducks to black holes to ancient Babylon. She lives with her family in Brainerd, Minnesota.

Editorial Reviews

With many young students the proud owners of computers or mobile devices, the publisher of this “Media Literacy for Kids” series assumes that it is never too early to introduce them to the people who write and produce content for kids to read or watch. (In this volume, media includes not only TV, video games, and the Internet, but also books, magazines, and newspapers.) On pastel pages coordinated with big, color photos, young readers are shown an actor being filmed and an author writing on a computer; mentioned are artists who create pictures or music and designers who invent games. An audience is defined as “anyone who might see or hear the media.” Using a children’s website about elephants, Rustad attempts to help early readers understand who produces media and why. From here on, the book loses focus. Watching the elephant site, a girl named Lucy finds the information incomplete; she will need more “sources,” though these are not defined or explained. Since the website has pictures and fun songs, it is successful in capturing the attention of Lucy and a friend, who appear to enjoy watching. What are we to conclude from this? As Lucy then draws her cat and writes a sentence, kids are challenged to use media to convey their own messages. Final pages offer a writing and art activity about creating a puppet show (the puppets pictured look quite sophisticated), performing, and perhaps filming it—surely a classroom project requiring help. Books recommended seem designed for older readers. Parents and teachers will need to decide if this book is appropriate for their own early readers or classrooms. Reviewer: Barbara L. Talcroft; Ages 5 to 7.

Children's Literature - Barbara L. Talcroft