Deck 8: Realistic Fiction

Question 1

Realistic novels that tell of hardships and social problems must allow for some optimism because all of the following EXCEPT

A) children need trust that the world can be a good place to live.
B) children need to believe that problems can be overcome by their own efforts.
C) children need to hope that bad situations will be ameliorated.
D) children need to think that problems and hardships go away by themselves over time.

Answer 1

children need to think that problems and hardships go away by themselves over time.

Question 2

The earliest realistic stories in the 1700s and 1800s can, for the most part, be described as

A) happy.
B) entertaining.
C) didactic.
D) informative.

Answer 2

didactic.

Question 3

One of the most popular topics in realistic fiction is

A) persons with special challenges.
B) survival.
C) rites of passage.
D) mysteries.

Answer 3

mysteries.

Question 4

A forerunner to the adjustment stories that address the special needs of children, ________ by Frances Hodgson Burnett was published in 1911.

A) Little Women
B) Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
C) The Secret Garden
D) Zeely

Question 5

A realistic fiction novel published in 1964 that helped to usher in a new, more open, explicit, and truthful era in children's realistic fiction was

A) Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh.
B) Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume.
C) Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary.
D) Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

Question 6

Categories of realistic fiction include all of the following EXCEPT

A) mysteries, animal stories, and romances.
B) sports stories, stories reflecting cultural diversity, and stories of peer
Relationships.
C) adventure stories and survival stories
D) quest stories, animal stories, and rite-of-passage stories

Question 7

Events in realistic fiction novels must be

A) problem-driven, contemporary, but not necessarily serious.
B) believable, possible, but not necessarily probable.
C) probable, based on actual events, but have fictionalized characters.
D) controversial, real, and often serious.

Question 8

To qualify as a survival story a plot must

A) feature a life-threatening situation.
B) be set in an isolated place.
C) include a major character's death.
D) have nature as the antagonist.

Question 9

Realistic fiction novels for children need to be written as

A) moral lessons.
B) believable and possible stories.
C) sex education appropriate to the child's age.
D) real but pessimistic stories of life in this world.

Question 10

Develop a set of matching items with realistic fiction authors and milestone books featured in class. (See example in introduction to the test bank.)

Question 11

Match the type of realism with the best description on the right.

-emotional realism

A) the description of actual persons, places, and events in a story
B) a likely story, often in an identifiable location, with characters of a particular age and social class
C) the depiction of outlandish or exaggerated events that are possible, but improbable
D) the appearance of believable feelings and relationships among characters
E) an honest portrayal of healthy and unhealthy living conditions in a community

Question 12

Match the type of realism with the best description on the right.

-factual realism

A) the description of actual persons, places, and events in a story
B) a likely story, often in an identifiable location, with characters of a particular age and social class
C) the depiction of outlandish or exaggerated events that are possible, but improbable
D) the appearance of believable feelings and relationships among characters
E) an honest portrayal of healthy and unhealthy living conditions in a community

Question 13

Match the type of realism with the best description on the right.

-situational realism

A) the description of actual persons, places, and events in a story
B) a likely story, often in an identifiable location, with characters of a particular age and social class
C) the depiction of outlandish or exaggerated events that are possible, but improbable
D) the appearance of believable feelings and relationships among characters
E) an honest portrayal of healthy and unhealthy living conditions in a community

Question 14

Match the type of realism with the best description on the right.

-social realism

A) the description of actual persons, places, and events in a story
B) a likely story, often in an identifiable location, with characters of a particular age and social class
C) the depiction of outlandish or exaggerated events that are possible, but improbable
D) the appearance of believable feelings and relationships among characters
E) an honest portrayal of healthy and unhealthy living conditions in a community

Question 15

The term referring to stories that could really happen to people and animals is ______________________________________________________________ fiction.

Question 16

Stories that take place in the present time and portray attitudes and mores of the present culture are called ____________________________________________ (two words).

Question 17

An annual U.S. book award that honors the author of the best mystery of the year for children is the _____________________________________________________________Award.

Question 18

A type of realistic fiction that deals with the trials and tribulations encountered during growth from childhood to adulthood is called ________________________________________ books.

Question 19

List three milestones in the development of realistic fiction for children and tell why each is a milestone.

Question 20

List three distinct characteristics of those books referred to as new realism.

Question 21

Compare the realistic stories of today to those of the 1940s and 1950s.

Question 22

How has the more open, truthful approach to realistic fiction writing in the past several decades affected books about family situations?

Question 23

Compare the development of animals as characters in realistic fiction and in either traditional or modern fantasy.

Question 24

Name three values that are typically addressed as part of a character education program. Then select a children's book you have read in this course and explain why it might be a good choice to use in the development of one of these values.