Super WHY! and Classic Children's Literature
PBS Kids TV Program Interests Preschoolers in Classic Fairy Tales
Jul 1, 2009
The primary aim of the PBS Kids® tv program Super WHY! is to teach preschoolers ages 3 to 6 literacy skills such as alphabet recognition, phonics, spelling, and reading comprehension. By using works of classic children's literature in its episode plots, however, Super WHY! also introduces its young audience to folk tales, fairy tales, and children's books from around the world. Though Super WHY! presents these famous tales in fractured and adapted versions, the episodes will still interest children in reading the original works.
Classic Children's Books and the World of Super WHY!
From the opening moments of each show, as the viewer follows Wyatt between the books on a library shelf into Storybrook Village, Super WHY! celebrates the power of literature to create imaginative worlds. The inhabitants of Storybrook Village are all characters from well-known nursery rhymes, folk tales, and fairy tales, and their culture is rooted so firmly in story that several of their buildings are even constructed from actual books.
Making Text-to-Self Connections to Solve Problems
In each episode of Super WHY!, one of the main characters (Whyatt Beanstalk, Princess Pea, Little Red Riding Hood, and Littlest Pig) faces a Super Big Problem in his or her life. After transforming into the Super Readers (Super Why, Princess Presto, Wonder Red, and Alpha Pig) and gathering at their Book Club, the characters discuss the problem and then identify which book they should enter to find a solution.
From watching the experiences the Super Readers have in each story and seeing how the characters draw a parallel between the story problem and the character's real-life problem, children will understand how reading children's literature can help them solve problems in their own life and begin making text-to-self connections between stories and their own situations. This may motivate them to read both written versions of the tales they have just seen the Super Readers encounter and other works of children's literature that interest them.
Super WHY! Introduces Kids to Classic Children's Literature
Super WHY! draws its stories from a variety of sources. The bulk of the episodes to date come from Grimm Brothers fairy tales, but other episodes have been adapted from Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales, Aesop's fables, Mother Goose nursery rhymes, and less familiar multicultural tales from around the world (such as Tiddalick the Frog from Australia or The Rolling Rice Cakes from Japan). Some episodes even borrow worlds from works of classic children's literature such as Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit, Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, and Johann David Wyss' Swiss Family Robinson.
After seeing the Super Readers have adventures in these classic tales, kids may want to relive the excitement by tracking down and reading appropriate written versions of each tale. Parents can take advantage of children's interest to establish a habit of either reading with children or having children read the stories to themselves.
Adaptations of Classic Children's Books in Super WHY!
Some parents have expressed concerns that the show changes these classic tales too much, obscuring the original morals. For example, the problem in the Super WHY! version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf is not that the boy loses the trust of adults by crying for unneeded help, but rather that the boy cannot convince the adults in the first place that the wolf is real. The original message about the importance of not acting in a way that makes people lose trust is altered to teach a lesson about the importance of trusting others.
In a Q&A session with viewers on the PBS Parents Web site, Super WHY! creators Angela Santomero and Samantha Freeman Alpert explained that they change the original stories for several reasons:
- to make them more appropriate for younger viewers.
- to entertain children who are familiar with the original plot and will enjoy identifying how it has been changed.
- to explore familiar stories from new angles.
Parents who are truly concerned that children are learning the "wrong" version of a classic tale can easily track down an official version at a library to share with their kids. In fact, the ability to compare and contrast the different versions of a story is a critical reading skill that will help children become even more accomplished readers, so it will benefit preschoolers if parents do take the time to share and discuss alternate versions.
Interest Children in Reading Classic Fairy Tales
Some parents may doubt that a kids tv program can promote an interest in reading books. However, by exposing preschoolers to exciting tales from different countries and cultures and by modeling the ways people can use stories to solve problems in their lives, Super WHY! can inspire kids to track down and enjoy reading the original works of classic children's literature that appear in each episode.
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