ELE 620 Cambridge College

1. Realistic Fiction in
Children’s Literature
ELE 620
Cambridge College

2. Elements of Realistic Fiction
 Realistic fiction is simply stated as real kids with real
problems solved in a realistic manner in a real world
setting. If a story is excellent, it has more than one great
characteristic. Therefore, realistic stories can and often
do have humor, a sense of adventure, perhaps even
danger.
 Real kids
 Real problems
 Real settings
 Real solutions
 Real humor
 Real adventure or danger

3. Characteristics of the Best Realistic
Fiction
 Characters are engaging and believable.
 Dialogue is believable
 Plot is fresh and original
 Setting is true to life
 Problems faced by the characters are honestly portrayed
 Resolution makes sense
 Theme grows naturally out of the action and characters
 Writer does not preach at us

4. Elements of Realistic Fiction
 Introduction
is where the author builds the story’s background. This is
where the reader learns about the setting, the
characters, and the story’s conflict, and perhaps what
took place before the story begins.
 Setting
is where and when the story takes place:
location, season, weather, and time period. Setting is
important to the plot, the characters, the characters’
problems, and the theme.

5. Characterization and Conflict
 Characterization
allows the reader to learn about what characters look
like, what they say, what others say about them, and
what they do (Lukens, 1999). Characters seem real
because their actions and dialogue are believable. As
readers, we often can identify with these characters
because they are like our friends or ourselves.
 Conflict
in realistic fiction is defined by the type of problem in the
story. Conflict is the tension that exists between the
forces in the character’s life.

6. Plot and Theme
 Plot
is what happens in the story. The plot in realistic
fiction must be believable or possible and easily
understood, fast-paced and moving toward
resolving the conflict.
 Theme
is the idea that holds the story together,…the
central meaning of a piece of writing

7. Point of View
 Point of view
is the perspective of the storyteller.
 When a story is written from the first-person point of
view, the main character usually tells the story and
uses the word “I”
 When a story is written from the third-person point of
view, the person telling the story is a central observer
who knows all (omniscient) and can recount details,
actions, thoughts, and feelings of the characters

8. Imagery
 Imagery
refers to the author’s choice of descriptive words and
phrases that help readers form a mental picture of
settings, characters, and events, thus keeping readers
fully involved in the story.
 Figurative language,
including similes and metaphors, is used in realistic
fiction to enhance imagery. Similes are comparisons
that make use of “like” or “as.” A metaphor compares
two unlike things directly without using like or as.

9. Tone
 Author’s intent or tone
relates to how the author wants readers to feel
as we read the book. An author can intend the
story to be humorous, sad, serious, slapstick, or
any combination of these throughout the
story, and will use sentence structure, word
choices, patterns and arrangements to
communicate and set the story’s tone

10. Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly
Cleary
 SUBJECTS:
 Divorce
 Parent and child
 Schools
 Letters

11. Frindle by Andrew Clements
 SUBJECTS:
 Teacher-student
relationships
 New words
 Schools

12. Walk Two Moons by Sharon
Creech
 SUBJECTS:
 Death
 Grandparents
 Family life
 Friendship

13. The Watsons Go to Birmingham by
Christopher Paul Curtis
 SUBJECTS:
 African Americans
 Family life
 Prejudice
 Brothers and sisters

14. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs.
Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L.
Konigsburg
 SUBJECTS:
 Metropolitan Museum
of Art
 Runaways
 Brothers and sisters

15. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
 SUBJECTS:
 Death
 Family life
 Prejudice

16. Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam
Munoz Ryan
 SUBJECTS:
 Great-grandmothers
 Brothers and sisters
 Family problems
 Mexican Americans
 Mexico

17. Pictures of Hollis Woods by
Patricia Reilly Giff
 SUBJECTS:
 Family life
 Orphans
 Artists
 Foster home care
 Old age

18. Criteria for selection
 Criteria for selecting titles in the realistic
fiction collection begins with believability of
characters, settings, and events
 Readers must be able to accept the
characters as real people and events as
real places when reading realistic stories;
they must be credible