Chapter Book (1991)

[Victoria Neufeldt]

Yes, 'chapter book' is a standard term in the primary ed biz
(including teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents).  And it
means exactly what Jim Landau suggests.  Chapter books represent a
rite of passage for children as they progress in their ability to read
independently.  'Charlotte's Web' is an excellent example of one,
because it's a story that most children are familiar with and love
long before they can read it themselves (such books are often read to
children as young as 5, who can understand and appreciate the
content -- most children don't teach themselves to read at
4-and-a-half!)  When they can read it themselves, that marks a huge
step, of which they are very proud.  'Charlotte's Web,' incidentally,
was first published in 1952 and has consistently been in the top ten
of children's own favorite books in North America.  Reprints of the
original edition are still around -- and it doesn't even have color
pictures, just black-and-white line drawings.

I haven't researched the beginnings of the use of this term, but I am
pretty sure I was aware of it in the 80s.  It's in Webster's New World
College, 4th ed (1999), but not in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate, 11th
ed (2003).  I haven't checked other dix.

I would say, just off the top of my head, that kids and adults in the
field would use the term just so long as a contrast needed to be made
with 'picture books' for very young children (which are much shorter
and in which the pictures are larger and much more numerous, and
necessary to help the beginning reader read the text). When a child
has been reading chapter books for a year or two, there is no longer
any need to call them that.

Victoria

Victoria Neufeldt
727 9th Street East
Saskatoon, Sask.
S7H 0M6
Canada
Tel: 306-955-8910

On Monday, September 27, 2004 7:13 AM, James A. Landau wrote:
>
> My daughter taught herself to read at the age of 4 1/2 and
> for her fifth
> birthday all she wanted was a "chapter book".  (We gave her
> _Charlotte's Web_).
> This was in 1991.
>
> Her nursery school teacher told us that "chapter book" was
> a standard term
> among nursery-school and similar educators.  I don't recall
> whether the teacher
> gave us a definition and if so what it was, but from
> context it was pretty
> clear that my daughter meant "a book long enough to have
> chapters" and did not
> care whether said book had illustrations or not.
>
>              - Jim Landau
>
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