[[alternative]]Children’s Response On Fantastic Picture Books

[[abstract]]To understand the response of children of diverse ages on fantastic picture books, two books of this kind have been chosen as our target of research. The subjects under investigation range over five different age groups, from the second grade in the kindergarten to the third grade in the primary school. During the investigation, children were asked to read the books and tell a story, followed by a one-to-one talk between the investigator and the children. The results and findings are as following. Children’s reaction toward fantastic picture books Children in the second and third grade in the kindergarten will point out every single plot in the story that they thought to be unreasonable or contradictory to real life. Once in a while they laugh or smile. Children above first grade in primary school have less facial expression and less physical response. From their response, it is clear that when children encounter the part in the story that is contradictory to real life they feel puzzled. They will reveal their doubt and raise questions during the process of reading. Some children feel interested in finding the part in the story that is contradictory to real life, but others find those parts less easy to be accepted. Children’s explanation of the fantastic plot in the picture books Based on various answers from the children, the researcher has divided their explanations into five types. In the first type, children themselves will find an explanation to make the story reasonable. In the second type, children will say that magic plays a role and thus the plot in the story can possibly happen. Sometimes children will simply accept the story and does not feel anything strange. This is what happens in the third type. Or, as in the fourth type, children will say that the whole story is merely the author’s imagination, and it will not happen in the real world. In the fifth situation, children believe that the subjects in the story is dreaming or imagining and in fact such things did not happen at all. And we may further group children’s ways of explanation into three types based on their perspectives of the text. I. To believe the explanation in the text Sometimes children try to explain the fantastic plot in the story, but somehow they ignore the real situation in our life, and this is what happens in this first way of explanation. In this type, children will find various reasons to make the story make sense, sometimes through magical reasons and sometimes they just explain the story as what is shown in the picture books. II. To just out of the text （consider the relation between the story and reality） Some children, when they are trying to explain the fantastic plot in the story, will consider the relation between reality and story. This is what happens in the second type. Their explanations will be further grouped into two types. One is to say that the story is the author’s imagination, and the other is to say that the subject in the story is dreaming. III. The combination of I and II Sometimes the children’s perspective on the story is quite objective, and sometimes still subjective. That’s why there may be two different views in one story. And their explanation will vary even in the same story. The result of our research indicates that the older the children, the more likely they will be able to jump out of the text and to hold an objective view on the fantastic plot in the story. Children judge whether the story and the subject could possibly occur in real life There may be several bases that children use to determine whether a story or a story subject could occur in our real life. First, the children think that under certain circumstances it is possible for us to enter into the fantastic world. Second, the children think that the story happens in somewhere very far away, and it is impossible for us to get there. Third, children would deny such possibility and explain that it is simply a picture book. Fourth, children would say that they, as real people, are different from the subject in the story. Only when they become the subject can they possibly enter the world in the book. Fifth, they will use their knowledge in physics to explain the impossibility of the occurrence of the fantastic plot. Last, but not least, they will hold an objective view and say that the story is imaginary or is in the dream of the subject. They also know that even if they have a dream or some imaginary thinking, they may not see or experience the same thing as the subject in the book did.