Children's literature in English in the kindergarten

158 CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN ENGLISH IN THE KINDERGARTEN 1 ZHIVKA ILIEVA Abstract The purpose of this study is to present using authentic books for children in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) at the kindergarten as a pleasant and fruitful experience both for the teacher and the learners. It consists of a literature review defining the notion of children’s literature and its place in TEFL at the kindergarten. There are suggested various classifications of children’s books appropriate for very young learners and our own containing examples of each type. Criteria for choosing them are outlined. Other authors’ steps and our own in TEFL to very young learners through stories and authentic books are mentioned as well as ideas for using the books with very young learners. The suggested activities can easily be adapted to other contexts of foreign language teaching. The study is a product of a long theoretical and practical work. Keywords: very young learners, kindergarten, EFL (English as a foreign language), children’s books, tales and stories. 1. Introduction Children’s literature is a rich teaching resource of various types (nursery rhymes, poems, riddles, tales). Subject of the study are tales and children’s picture books because very often either books for children are underestimated as a suitable foreign language (FL) material in the kindergarten or the children’s capacity to understand them is underestimated. Our opinion is that they can be used for teaching lexis and grammar (words in context and with co-text as Dellar [10] states it) as a means of developing language, communicative and 21st century skills, and as a means of realizing cross-curricular links and contributing to the holistic development of the child. In this study story and tale 1 This work is developed as a part of Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen project, Gamification in Educational Process, № 08122/06.02.2025. 159 are used interchangeably (see [8: 140] “Perrault’s tales, the stories by the Grimm brothers” and also The Story of Babar [62] and The Tale of Peter Rabbit [77]). 2. Children’s literature According to the online Britannica [7] children’s literature is “the body of written works and accompanying illustrations produced in order to entertain or instruct young people. The genre encompasses a wide range of works, including acknowledged classics of world literature, picture books and easy-to-read stories written exclusively for children, and fairy tales, lullabies, fables, folk songs, and other primarily orally transmitted materials.” Britannica Kids [6] adds: “Children’s literature is literature that entertains or instructs children. Many stories, poems, and other types of literature have been written especially with the young in mind. These works have come to be known collectively as children’s literature. But a large number of children’s favorites were originally aimed at adults... Books are an important part of children’s literature, but the genre is much more than just books. It is also magazines, songs, recordings, TV shows, and films. It includes writers and storytellers, artists and publishers, libraries and librarians—all the things and all the people that bring children and literature together.” They negotiate that children’s literature became an independent literary form in the second half of the 19th century. “Beginning in about the 1850s children’s literature aimed more and more to please rather than teach. Story characters were pictured more like real people, and more types of children’s books began to appear.” [6] In The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory [8] we find a definition of children’s books (not literature). Cuddon [8: 141-142] states that “Since the 1950s literature intended specifically for children has become a publishing industry in its own right.” Mourao [31: 27] develops the definition of Bader [4: 1] of children’s picture books 160 “A picturebook is text, illustrations, total design; an item of manufacture and a commercial product; a social, cultural, historic document; and foremost, an experience for a [reader]. As an art form it hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning page.” Mourao [31] discusses in details the interdependence of pictures and words and explains why picture books are so useful in work with very young learners. To everything she enumerates (context for understanding, gaining confidence, rich visualization), we can add two more: 1. context for funny drill games that aid memorizing and activating whole phrases and 2. context for cross-curricular discussions and activities. 3. Children’s literature in teaching English as a foreign language in the kindergarten Children’s literature can be used in FL classes in the kindergarten creating links to the native language reading experiences, to literature and to other subjects. It fosters language acquisition and gives context for language learning (see Krashen [23]). Reading picture books in English to very young learners is accepted as a challenge by some teachers but the thesises [9, 41] and the other publications [5, 13, 14, 21, 22, 30, 34, 46, 48] on the topic show that interest in using it gradually increases. The researches on the topic prove its usefulness in language education [46, 48] and literacy development [2, 34], in developing positive attitude to reading and books [30, 34] and in child development as a whole [5, 13, 14, 22, 30, 34, 48]. Lugossy [27: 24] considers picture books a way of motivating children: “Storytelling and story reading are situations that are both socially and linguistically meaningful for children.” Massaro [28] suggests that reading aloud to children is beneficial because “the vocabulary in picture books is richer and more extensive than that found in child-directed speech. … The value of reading books aloud therefore exposes children to a linguistic and cognitive complexity not typically found in speech to children.” On the other hand, Ilieva [20] finds similarities between child-directed speech or motherese and language of stories. Using picture books 161 with very young learners we provide i+1 linguistic input (see Krashen [23]) or material in the zone of their proximal development (see Vygotsky [54]). This is an important presupposition for the linguistic and the communicative development of the child. Schugar et al [40] discuss using interactive picture e-books from kindergarten to the age of 12. Mourao [32] researches using English picture books in a Portuguese pre-school. Her objective is “to explore how best to make the language of authentic English picture books available to children in a pre-school environment.” [32: 49] She suggests ways of implementing a book borrowing system in order to include families in the educational process. In a later research, Mourao worked with three pre-schools. She [33: 112] finds out that the three groups respond differently “but they were all successful in one way or another in being able to accompany the picturebook, retell its verbal text as well as make reference to things in the illustrations in English.” Mourao [33] describes the participants as “children in low exposure contexts,” so the discussions have been primarily in Portuguese, but “use of the children’s L1 was seen to support later L2 use. This should be nurtured in such contexts and not ignored.” This is close to the FL context in Bulgaria. Mourao’s [33: 113] conclusion coincides with our opinion “Picturebooks are an underused resource.” Terwagne [48] investigates read-aloud formats and one of the results is that during the second read-aloud session children easily memorise the text when they see the illustration. Araujo [2: 244] claims that using literature as a resource provides “the basis for children to construct literacy knowledge,” that they easily acquire the language of storybooks. These studies confirm the need of using English books in the kindergarten. Sun [46] concludes that “During pre-school years, picture book reading is a promising learning activity for children to develop their language and literacy skills. Picture books assist young EFL readers in fostering their print concept and phonological awareness as well as expanding their vocabulary bank through interesting stories with explicit contexts for language use.” Accentuating the specific features of foreign language teaching (FLT), Sun notices that 162 “(1) supplementary activities should be incorporated in the teaching process to attract children’s attention and familiarize them with texts and vocabularies; (2) parent-child interaction should be encouraged during picture book reading to guide children’s narration skills and critical thinking; (3) multimedia materials such as digital pens and e-books should be used to assist both parents and children in picture book reading and literacy development.” [46] Of these three important additional supportive teaching and learning resources that aid children’s FL development, in the present study we stop our attention on the first one: developing activities based on the text and the pictures in order to reinforce, memorize or use the linguistic material. Zesheng and Ping [59] conclude that “Through investigation and analysis of data, it is found that the main problems in the selection of picture books for kindergarten teachers include lack of knowledge, limited methods and inefficient use in education and teaching, to help them improve the scientific understanding of picture books, improve the single choice of picture books, promote the development of kindergarten-based teaching and research activities, effectively enhance the use of picture books to carry out teaching professional capacity.” Our study gives examples of appropriate for the kindergarten books of various types, tips for selecting books, and the last section of it suggests suitable activities based on the stories in order to spare teachers’ time in both finding a text and creating activities while at the same time leading the teacher all the way of making and motivating their future choices (reading lists, readability indices, useful and appropriate vocabulary and grammar, richness of topics and potential for 21st century skills and literacies development, availability) and materials and activities development. 4. Types of books suitable for very young learners Authors divide the stories and books for children in various ways. Ellis [11] mentions “traditional stories and modern retellings of fairy tales, animal stories, stories about everyday life, 163 stories from other cultures, fantasy, adventure.” Smith [44] differentiates folktales, fairy tales, Jack tales, personal stories, nursery rhymes, parables, myths, legends, picture story books, picture books for toddlers. Schrecker [39] classifies children’s literature in the following genres: picture books, poetry and verse, folklore, fantasy, science fiction, realistic fiction, historical fiction, biography, nonfiction. Greenleaf Book Group [15] categorise children’s books in the following way having in mind primarily the age range: board books, picture books, illustrated children’s books, easy (early) readers, chapter books, middle grade, young adult. Story Planets [45] define the following types of books for children: 1. Traditional and folk tales • fairy tales • fables • myths and legends 2. Modern fantasy and adventure • fantasy stories • adventure stories 3. Realistic and everyday life stories • family and friendship stories • school stories 4. Animal stories • talking animals • wildlife adventures 5. Educational and concept-based stories • alphabet and counting books • science and nature stories 6. Bedtime and gentle stories • lullaby stories 7. Interactive and participation stories • choose-your-own-adventure • lift-the-flap books 8. Holiday and seasonal stories 9. Diversity and inclusion stories 10. Humorous and silly stories 164 There are various classifications of story books for children. We choose the following classification for the purpose of this study having in mind teaching English as a foreign language to very young learners: According to the way we use them (adapted or unadapted): 1. Books and stories we can use without any changes. These are toddler books or very simple readers adapted for EFL teaching. 2. Books and stories we can adapt (usually simplify the text) and use the pictures. 3. Books with very beautiful illustrations which we can use creating another story or retelling the story in Bulgarian (the learners’ native language in our case) and introducing key vocabulary and phrases. According to their origin: 1. Bulgarian traditional folktales like The Big Turnip (Ran Bosilek, 1975 [60] and folktales (Dyado) [64]) or The Grandfather’s / Magic Mitten, (Elin Pelin, 1959 [76] and Konstantinova, 2001 [71]). According to Wikipedia [57], The Enormous Turnip or The Gigantic Turnip is a cumulative Russian fairy tale. “The story has been rewritten and adapted numerous times in other languages, for example Polish by Julian Tuwim; Bulgarian by Ran Bosilek, and English by Jan Brett.” 2. Folktales from other traditions The Little Red Riding Hood (a French fairy tale retold by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm [56]), The Little Red Hen (which is probably a Russian folktale but also attributed to England and to America [52], according to Wikipedia [58] it is “an American fable first collected by Mary Mapes Dodge in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1874”). For very young learners we need a simplified version of the story The Little Red Riding Hood, the version of the British council is a good option [72]. 3. Tales from English tradition, Joseph Jacobs’s stories (1890): The Cat and the Mouse [70]; Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a 19th-century English fairy tale of which three versions 165 exist. The Robert Southey's story (the first published, 1837), "The Story of the Three Bears", manuscript by Eleanor Mure, 1831 – the first recorded version [55]. Nowadays there are various adapted versions (e.g. Goldilocks 2006 [66]). 4. English language literature classics for children: British authors, e.g. Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit first published in December 1901 [77]. American authors, e.g. Margaret Wise Brown, Goodnight, Moon first published in 1947 [61]. 5. Other 20th century books for Children: Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle, first published in 1967 [73], Corduroy by Don Freeman, first published in 1968 [65], The very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, first published in 1969 [63], Where’s Spot by Eric Hill, 1980 [68]. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, 1989 [79]. Owen by Kevin Henkes, 1993 [67], a Caldecott Honor Award Winner. 6. Books designed for learning: Dora the Explorer, Peppa Pig, Readers of various levels, Big Books. These books usually have a guide or suggested ideas for developing a lesson and readymade activities. 7. 21st century books for children (modern literature for children): Millie the Millipede written by Erin Ranson, illustrated by Rebecca Elliott, 2007 [78], The Things I Love About Bedtime by Trace Moroney, 2009 [75], Mungo Monkey Goes to School by Lydia Monks, 2014 [74], We’re not scared by Chloe and Mick Inkpen, 2014 [69], The Fleas Who Wouldn’t Say Please by Lesley Sims, illustrated by Sian Roberts, 2023 [80]. 166 The examples are given following the principles of availability (in bookstores and in libraries in Dobrich) and usefulness in ELT (English language teaching) (rich vocabulary and grammar suitable for teaching very young learners, topic that provokes discussions and realizes cross-curricular links, potential for creating games and activities that develop language, communicative and 21st century skills). All the titles mentioned above are approbated by the author. The examples that follow are based on books that have proven as successful tools for ELT with very young learners in a few kindergartens in Dobrich, Bulgaria. 5. Criteria for choosing the books Choosing a book for many years depends primarily on the teacher’s intuition, knowledge and enthusiasm, which is very well expressed by Enever and Schmid-Schönbein [12: 7]: “Keen teachers have sought out children's bookshops whilst on study visits or holidays in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and such other countries where books published in English are readily available. Not surprisingly, they have been attracted by the wealth of authentic picture books (known as "real" books in the teaching profession) available nowadays, full of beautiful, colourful illustrations which delight their many readers. Skilled teachers recognise their potential for young beginners in English particularly and have developed their own linked activities as ways of further extending the pleasure of the story, when using such materials for teaching in the primary classroom.” This is still valid but nowadays there are English picture books in most bookstores in Bulgaria, some of them offer lists for online shopping, there are picture books in public libraries as well. The first criterion, as mentioned above, is availability (teacher’s or learners’ collections, bookstores, libraries). Mourao [30: 249] claims that the books we most often use with young and very young learners (The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?) “are favoured because they cover linguistic items and themes typically present in early English language programmes, for example colours, 173 Prioritize clarity over complexity.” [49]. Table 2. Flesch Kincaid Grade level [on the basis of 49] FleschKincaid Score Corresponding US / UK Educational Level 1.0 – 3.0 Early Elementary School / Primary School (KS1-2) 4.0 – 6.0 Upper Elementary/Middle School / Primary School (KS2) / Lower Secondary (KS3) 7.0 – 9.0 Middle School/Early High School / Lower Secondary (KS3) 10.0 – 12.0 High School / Upper Secondary (KS4-5) 13.0+ College/University / Higher Education(University or degree-level studies) The TextInspector [49] team suggest that the values 1.0 – 3.0 correspond to “children’s books, beginner reading materials,” e.g. children’s fiction, introductory science textbooks, simple factual texts and the values 4.0 – 6.0 are typical for “standard classroom texts, general fiction,” e.g. children’s fiction, introductory science textbooks, simple factual texts. Consequently, for the purposes of foreign language teaching to very young learners values 1.0 – 3.0 are preferred, however in some cases values up to 6.0 are acceptable. ARI (Automated Readability Index) “uses long words and long sentences to calculate a readability score” [43]. Its formula is based on the relations characters: words and words: sentences. The Siteimprove [43] team claim that “Each score can be matched to an equivalent reading ability level. ARI uses a scale based on age in full-time education”. They suggest that a result ≤ 1 is suitable for kindergarten. In our list there are values of up to 4,56. Therefore we consider it useful to consult other indices as well. 174 SMOG “is a readability framework. It measures how many years of education the average person needs to have to understand a text. It is best for texts of 30 sentences or more” [38]. It comprises “counting ten sentences near the beginning of the text, 10 in the middle and ten near the end, totalling 30 sentences; counting every word with three or more syllables, square-rooting the number and rounding it to the nearest 10, adding three to this figure, the final figure indicates the reading level.” [38]. Some of our texts, and the texts for very young children, contain less than 30 sentences (Appendix Table 3) so this cannot be the only readability criterion. Flesch Reading Ease is “a readability formula that calculates a score between 0 and 100, indicating how easy a piece of text is to understand. The higher the score, the easier the text is to read.” It calculates the relations number of words: number of sentences and number of syllables: number of words “combined in a specific formula to produce the final Flesch Reading Ease score” [49]. The TextInspector team [49] consider values 90-100 characterising “very easy to read; children’s books, simple instructions”; and values 80-90 “easy to read; comic books, basic fiction.” Some of the books suggested in this study have values larger than 100. With the first five indices we choose books with as lower index as possible. Flesch Reading Ease must be about 100 in order for the book to be easy for very young learners. (see Siteimprove Readability tests [42]). Still when we consider a story suitable for a particular group, we can ignore the index. As the TextInspector team [50] put it “There are many other factors that influence how easy a text is to read and understand. It’s not just about readability but also things like grammar, voice and spelling.” They [50] accentuate the uniqueness of the particular audience and state that “A lower readability score doesn’t always mean that the text is ‘better’.” 175 Among the numerous tools calculating readability [36, 37, 42, 50] we choose the ones pointing words, expressions and sentences that have to be changed in order to improve readability [35]. Analysing the above mentioned books (Appendix, Table 4) we see that if we take under consideration Gunning Fog index, the easiest book is Zoe and Beans We‘re not scared. The most difficult is Goodnight Moon (unadapted). The only change we made was to put full stops at the end of the sentences. The adapted version (no other changes) is in the third place as the easiest material. This comes to show that indices are calculated mathematically and materials have to be chosen having in mind not only the number of words, letters, syllables, but the difficulty of the words, the grammar, the subject matter, the potential for creating games on the basis of the story. The last criteria are subjective, but we have to rely on the teacher’s capacity to choose the most suitable text for the group. If we view Flesch Reading Ease, the easiest book is The Little Red Hen (109.61), and the most difficult is Goodnight Moon (-42.37) followed by The Cat and the Mouse (71.61). After the adaptation The Cat and the Mouse (105.80) reaches the third place and Goodnight Moon (86.01) the eighth (out of 14). The changes in The Cat and the Mouse are greater, which comes to show that with proper adapting (the tool gives suggestions) we can use each story we find suitable. The easiest books according to the other indices are: Coleman Liau index – The cat and the mouse (adapted) Flesch Kincaid Grade level – The Little Red Hen ARI (Automated Readability Index) – The Little Red Riding Hood, followed by The Fleas Who Wouldn’t Say Please SMOG – The cat and the mouse (adapted). At first sight some of the stories seem difficult, but they provide context for funny, useful and fruitful games and activities, е.g. The Little Red Riding Hood and The Tale of Peter Rabbit contextualise practising food, developing environmental, nature, health, nutritional, various aspects of the social literacies (for 176 literacies see [18]). Through The Tale of Peter Rabbit (the longest one in this list (Appendix, Table 3)) we can practise words and phrases connected to gardening, vegetables, animals, clothes. Potter’s other stories provide fruitful floor for discussions about clothes, discipline, animals, human relations. To sum up the issue of choosing appropriate books: in the context of foreign language teaching the first principle is availability, then comes repetitive structure, predictability, topic, vocabulary and grammar, illustrations, the potential for further work. In general, teachers like a book (as illustrations, as text or as combination of both, as lexis and grammatical structures, as a topic, as a context) and the reading lists, the readability indices, the length of the text usually support the suitability of the choice, or confirm his/her hesitation and help him/her find a better material or adapt the text. 6. Steps of story work Authors in the field suggest different stages of work with picture books in the kindergarten. Lowry [26] recommends “six tips for acting out stories” Gather some props or costumes that can be used to act out the story Plan the play Have the book handy Emphasize new words from the book Explain, describe, and talk about feelings Think beyond storybooks McGee and Schickedanz [29] propose First reading book introduction, vocabulary support techniques, analytical comments and questions, an after-reading “why” question 177 Second interactive read aloud (a day or two after the first). “The purpose is to enrich children’s comprehension of the story and provide further opportunities for children to engage in analytic talk.” Third interactive read aloud (a day or two after the second one). “This close repetition is also important for reinforcing vocabulary carefully developed during the first and second read. Third interactive read alouds differ from first and second read alouds because they integrate a guided reconstruction of the story with the teacher’s reading of some of the story text.” Autodesk Instructables [3] organize reading books at preschool in 7 steps: Step 1: Select a Book Step 2: Review and Prepare Step 3: Before Reading (pre-reading discussion, defining words, showing pictures and other visuals) Step 4: Reading the Book Step 5: Important pauses and pictures to pay attention to Step 6: After Reading (Review questions for understanding check up) Step 7: Read Again! Ilieva [17] mentions the following stages for story work: interactive presentation, repetition in meaningful context, communicative activities, funny activities, conversations. In this study we suggest a similar but slightly changed structure of story based work. When presenting a new story in English at the kindergarten we read it first for the children to feel the language, to gain awareness of intonation, of the characters and the plot, of the general content of the story. The first reading is usually performed with the help of the book so that the children can follow the pictures, or if there is not a book, the teacher visualises the story in a suitable way (pictures or a presentation). During the second reading the children are given space to react on behalf of the characters, to take part in the story. 178 After the second reading we play games practising key structures from the story. Another reading follows the games and activities. During this reading learners have a task to fulfill (to arrange something, to react in a proper way). The third reading is a starting point for cross-curricular activities. These activities may include arts and crafts activities on the following day, drama activities that could become a basis for a performance. Drama activities include 1. Practise various conversations provided or provoked by the story. If we prepare the group for a feast, this means a performance with audience (the parents, teachers from the region, other children), there are two more stages: 2. Rehearsals. 3. Performance/s. 7. Ideas for using these books Two books are used as an example. The first one is a traditional popular story and the second one is the newest in our list. They might be treated as a challenge but the indices show they are suitable for very young learners. They respond to all the conditions for choice: availability, topic appropriate for pre-school children, rich vocabulary and useful structures, fruitful for creating games and materials on their basis, context for language, communicative and 21st century skills and whole child development. The games, conversations and other activities can be changed and adapted depending on the target group and to other stories as well. The Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH) [72] 1. Dialogue Mum – daughter Mum: Your grandmother is ill. You have to visit her. LRRH: OK, Mum. (With pleasure.) 2. Preparing the basket practising food. This can be done as part of the drama activities e.g. “Let’s see what to prepare for grandma” where both mum and daughter discuss what to take. It 179 can be realized as a question and answer activity (Shall we take …? or Is there … in the basket?). It can be done as a picture game: the children choose pictures from the magnet board and arrange them in the basket picture. There might be a handout for the children to circle items or to connect to the basket. The topic of healthy food and healthy lifestyle can be included as an opportunity for 21st century skills development. 3. Mum seeing off her daughter Mum: Goodbye, honey! Give our love to granny. LRRH: Bye, Mum. 4. Conversation with the wolf Wolf: Hello, young lady! LRRH: Hello … mmm Mr Wolf. Wolf: How are you today? LRRH: Fine, thank you, and you? Wolf: Perfect! Where are you going? LRRH: I am going to see my grandmother. She is ill. We have prepared some delicious food for her… … Wolf: Bye, little girl! LRRH: Bye, Mr Wolf! Have a nice day! 5. Conversations with other animals in the forest and with some flowers (the above dialogue may be adapted). 6. The conversation of Little Red Riding Hood with grandmother. This conversation is very well developed in the story (we practise parts of the body in the following structures adjective + noun (big eyes) or intensifier + adjective + noun (so big eyes, or very big eyes). 7. Conversations at the party after Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother are saved (meeting people, introducing each other, discussing all that has happened, the event, the food, etc.). The Fleas Who Wouldn’t Say Please [80] Games: 1. One or more (a picture game practising singular and plural of the nouns) 180 one ant – a lot of ants one earwig – a lot of earwigs one bee – a lot of bees one spider – a lot of spiders etc. 2. Let’s count the bugs (practising animals and counting) 1, 2, 3 fleas 1, 2, 3, 4 bees 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 earwigs 5 ants 6 spiders Do you know that ants and bees have 6 legs, but spiders have 8 legs? (Developing environmental literacy.) 3. Is it a …? 3.1. I have something in my bag and you have to guess what it is. The children pick a toy and guess the animal before they take it out. 3.2. You have to guess what is in the picture: Is it an ant or is it a bee? (The teacher gradually shows the picture and the learners try to guess seeing the head of the animal, then gradually uncovering the rest of the body.) The game contributes to the holistic development of the child expanding their imagination. 4. Largest and smallest Choose the largest ant / flea / spider / bee / hat / grin, etc. Which is the smallest ant / flea / spider / bee / hat / grin, etc.? 5. Rude and polite If you don’t say thank you If you don’t say please that IS rude. If you say thank you and please that is polite. Conversations: 1. Let’s make polite conversations 181 e.g. Hot chocolate / your ball / your pencils / your ladder A: Can I have some hot chocolate, please? B: Here you are. C: Thank you (so much). 2. The conversation between Spider and the fleas on p. 3132. 3. The conversation between the earwigs p. 35. 4. Conversations between the bugs about the rudeness of the flees They took the largest mugs. They didn’t say please. Or thank you. That’s rude… (isn’t it?) They really are rather rude… They all sigh. They come and say STOP. They don’t say Please. We can’t work. That’s rude… They are the best but they are rude. 5. The conversation at the end of the story when the fleas learn to say please p. 38-47. Skills and whole child development At the kindergarten we develop oral language and communicative skills: listening and speaking, asking and answering questions, turn-taking. Games and activities based on stories contribute to the whole child development: memory, imagination, creativity, social development as learning to be polite, to be part of the team. These stories aid the development of 21st century skills (see [19]) as classifying, comparing and contrasting (the matching games), creativity, imagining, improvising (during drama activities), communication (following conversations, 182 listening actively, turn-taking), collaboration. Most stories help children in tracking cause and effect (e.g. The Fleas Who Wouldn’t Say Please, developing politeness at the same time). Books for children develop language, discourse, visual, print literacy. When we use video materials, they develop digital, electronic, multimedia literacy. The books mentioned above set context for developing mathematical literacy (counting, comparing by size); environmental geographic, nature, health, nutritional, community, home, social literacy. Mungo Monkey Goes to School develops school literacy, scientific, search, learning literacy when the children are looking for bugs. Drama activities develop participatory, personal, emotional literacy. 8. Conclusion There are suitable stories in English for every age. To achieve our goal successfully, we have to find easy toddler books or books designed for teaching English to very young learners. These books have short sentences, usually a sentence a page which can be turned into drills or simple conversations or funny games. They can be included into games and activities letting children acquire vocabulary and grammar formulae while having fun. They also develop language and communicative skills and 21st century skills and literacies. The study outlined types of books, gave examples of appropriate books for pre-schoolers and of criteria for choosing them; and finally of activities in the context of story work. Children’s literature in the kindergarten is used as a basis for language work, developing foreign language awareness in children, realizing cross-curricular links and providing fruitful material for performances. REFERENCES: 1. 100 Must-Read Classic Children’s Books (Updated for 2025) https://www.mkewithkids.com/post/top-25-classic-novels-yourkids-will-love/ 2. Araujo, L. The Literacy Development of Kindergarten EnglishLanguage Learners. // Journal of Research in Childhood Education,·2002, № 16, 232-247. 189 деца и юноши: стихотворения, поеми, драматични сценки. София: Български писател, 185-189]. 77. Potter, B. The Tale of Peter Rabbit. London, Penguin Group, 2006. 78. Ranson, E. Millie the Millipede. Suffolk, Top That! Publishing plc, 2013, first published in 2007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEsEfdOZwd0. 79. Rosen, M. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. London, Walker Books, 1989. 80. Sims, L. The Fleas Who Wouldn’t Say Please. London, Usborne Publishing Limited, 2023. 190 Appendix Table 3. Number of characters, words and average numbers Book Number of character s Number of words Number of sentenc es Lexica l Densit y Average number of character s per word Average number of syllable s per word Average number of words per sentenc e The Magic Mitten 844.00 253.00 50.00 45.45 3.34 1.10 5.06 The Little Red Hen 1,248.00 394.00 52.00 44.67 3.17 1.06 7.58 The cat and the mouse 1,388.00 397.00 12.00 51.64 3.50 1.20 33.08 The cat and the mouse (adapted) 1,426.00 416.00 58.00 47.36 3.43 1.11 7.17 Goldilocks and the Three Bears 908.00 231.00 24.00 58.01 3.93 1.30 9.62 Goodnight Moon 636.00 131.00 1.00 62.60 4.85 1.37 131.00 Goodnight Moon (with full stops) 636.00 131.00 29.00 62.60 4.85 1.37 4.52 The Very Hungry Caterpillar 930.00 225.00 19.00 44.89 4.13 1.36 11.84 Owen 2,073.00 502.00 80.00 62.95 4.13 1.48 6.28 Millie the Millipede 1,554.00 390.00 27.00 52.05 3.98 1.30 14.44 The things I love about bedtime 784.00 200.00 27.00 50.00 3.92 1.29 7.41 Mungo Monkey Goes to School 611.00 144.00 21.00 54.86 4.24 1.42 6.86 Zoe and Beans We‘re not scared 301.00 81.00 15.00 38.27 3.72 1.25 5.40 The Fleas Who Wouldn’t Say Please 2,720.00 669.00 118.00 53.51 4.07 1.27 5.67 The Little Red Riding Hood 804.00 210.00 30.00 53.33 3.83 1.27 7.00 The Tale of Peter Rabbit 3,992.00 973.00 72.00 46.87 4.10 1.35 13.51 191 Table 4. Readability indices Book Gunning Fog index Coleman Liau index Flesch Kincaid Grade level ARI (Automated Readability Index) SMOG Flesch Reading Ease The Magic Mitten 2.18 2.08 0.65 3.19 3.77 108.74 The Little Red Hen 3.03 1.10 0.15 2.72 3.00 109.61 The cat and the mouse 13.23 3.89 11.49 11.58 3.00 71.61 The cat and the mouse (adapted) 2.87 0.21 0.28 1.70 3.00 105.80 Goldilocks and the Three Bears 4.89 4.24 3.49 1.90 6.16 87.20 Goodnight Moon 53.32 12.57 51.71 66.94 15.25 -42.37 Goodnight Moon (with full stops) 2.72 6.15 2.39 3.70 5.27 86.01 The Very Hungry Caterpillar 8.11 6.01 5.08 3.96 8.76 79.76 Owen 4.82 3.74 4.30 1.16 6.30 75.42 Millie the Millipede 7.11 5.59 5.41 4.56 7.59 81.98 The things I love about bedtime 4.16 3.24 2.52 0.74 5.58 90.18 Mungo Monkey Goes to School 5.80 4.82 3.88 1.98 7.14 79.44 Zoe and Beans We‘re not scared 2.16 0.53 1.23 1.23 4.41 95.87 The Fleas Who Wouldn’t Say Please 3.52 2.86 1.61 0.55 5.52 93.59 The Little Red Riding Hood 3.56 2.46 2.14 0.10 5.24 92.17 The Tale of Peter Rabbit 6.89 6.15 5.59 4.65 7.65 79.04