Young Children's Resistance to Stories

Abstract

Children often become deeply immersed in stories. Just as often, however, they may resist reading, or reading certain types of texts. The authors present a typology of six ways in which young children resist stories. Though educators may be inclined to view such opposition as a roadblock to understanding, children's resistance may be the occasion of powerful teachable moments, generating deeper comprehension and more thoughtful interpretation. Through these types of resistance, children demonstrate their active engagement in sense-making about their world and the world of the story. In intertextual resistance, children critique one story on the basis of their familiarity with another. In preferential or categorical resistance, children resist whole categories or genres of books, such as fantasy. In reality testing, children identify a conflict between the world of the story and their understanding of reality. In engaged or kinetic resistance, children resist texts that evoke painful realities. In exclusionary resistance, children note the absence of characters or situations with which they can identify. Finally, in literary critical resistance, children critique the author's craft on the basis of their literary understanding. Included is a discussion of the reasons why classroom teachers should be aware of the ways in which children resist texts as well as implications for classroom practice.