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concluded that reader can openly think and re-think about the other alternative possibility including showing and giving the same privilege to
the marginalized or under-repressed terms. What deconstruction does in literary work is doing two ways. The first
is reading the texts against itself, “…looking for the holes or shaky parts of the system of stable meanings the text tries to set up” Klages, 2013:
60. Therefore, the first tactic of deconstructionists, confirmed by Eagleton 1996: 116 as well, is to show that the texts come to discomfit the ruling
system and the structure of logic that they have built. It is done by showing there are possibilities that the texts get to trouble and they are
even contradictory themselves. In other words, deconstructive way of reading shows the fault of a traditional belief that has become universal
truth. For instance, one character in a literary work is seen by society as the
one who has done mistake or the one who needs to be blamed. However, by employing deconstruction, the readers can challenge whether that
character is truly wrong. If there are some reasons and evidences showing he or she is not the one to blame and showing society‟s construction is not
always true, and then the method of deconstruction has worked. The second way of deconstructive reading is to reveal some literary
works that have deconstructed form. It is “a made of experience, the
possibility of experiencing the impossible, which is „never a stranger to the event, that is, very simple, to the coming of that which happens…‟”
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Castle, 2013: 163. The examples of those texts are the ones „giving privilege‟ to the secondary term or the marginalized one of binary
opposition like how woman struggles and survives in patriarchal society, how children do effort to fight against life without too much adults‟ roles
and how blacks show their identity that might be better than whites. Those are “new experience” of the texts which were once not written. It happens
as, so far, people are busy with a text that has binary such as masculinefeminine, privatepublic, rationalirrational, truefalse, etc
where the first term is given privilege. It also shows that the binary can be broken through and the bin
ary is „inside‟ the text. Not only that, people need to rethink that the first term actually depends on the second term. The
identity or the meaning of the first term is got from its way of excluding the second term only Sarup, 1993: 50-1. People do not aware that the
term given privilege is in fact dependent to the secondary term. By revealing the strengths that the secondary term of binary opposition
possess, readers can be aware and re-think that in fact, those terms are worthy to have the same rights as the first terms. Moreover, they are
worthy as well to be seen and discovered. Texts talking about Black, child, person with disability, Asian, are texts which try to deconstruct the
society‟s universal truth in seeing them.
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C. Children‟s Literature
When p eople are asked what children‟s literature is, they will mostly
answer it is children‟s books with some nice illustrations, colorful drawings, easy language, easy vocabulary happy ending, or books without
romance story, sexual or racism theme Gapalakrishan, 2011: 4. Those answers might be correct since some children‟s books are presented with
some illustrations and drawings. Others have easy vocabulary and happy ending and some others do not put any sensitive issues on race, gender,
sex or disabilities. I t is actually quite difficult to define what children‟s
literature is. However, the ultimate and most important thing about children‟s literature definition is that it has children as its main target or
main audience. Some practitioners on children‟s literature such as Martinez, Temple,
Naylor, and Yakota in Gapalakrishan, 2011: 4 believes “children‟s literature is the collection of books that are read to and by children…from
birth to about age fifteen.” It affirms that children‟s literature is any literary works whose main audience is no more than 15-year-old children.
However, again, there is still one debate saying that even children around 16 to 18 years old are still categorized as young adult, not yet adult.
People then ask what the difference of ch ildren‟s literature to other types
of literature such as adults‟ literature. To end the debate, there is one ultimate indicator; children‟s literature needs to prove all experiences of
children Gapalakrishan, 2011: 5.
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Those experts argue that it is not important to distinguish children‟s
literature to other types of literature as some children‟s stories are not written with children mind. Gapalakrishan 2011: 5, in her book entitled
Multicultural Children’s Literature: A Critical Issues Approach, gives some examples. The first example is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
is considered as children‟s literature. It has a character of 8-year-old child. Nevertheless, the story is not written with children‟s mind. The way the
child character in the story thinks and perceives something is not like children. Other example is J.K Rowling‟s Harry Potter Series. Although it
is intended for children as its main readers, it is now still debatable because most of the readers who enjoy it are more adults. The other
example is The Catcher in the Rye that is adult‟s book but widely read by
children as well as young adults Hunt, 1999: 6. It can be said that defining children‟s literature is a complex task. Rather, people should
understand that whether the book is read by children or adults, children‟s books are always intended for children.
In addition, since children are categorized into some stages, such as younger children, children, adolescence, and young adults, the books for
children are categorized, too. There are picture books which are primarily for children under five years old since they are still learning about words
and pictures to build ideas. The pictures and illustrations help them to get the image of a character or a setting, how it looks like in detail, what the
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characters do, and how it can be believable or imaginative Nodelman, 2008: 11.
Different from picture books, children‟s books for six to nine year old child will be different. The illustrations are minimal and replaced by more
sentences. The vocabulary, sentences, and form are not complex. It does not mean that children only understand simple words and they have
limited abilities to understand some complex ideas, but it is more that children have shorter span of attention compared to adults. Again, they are
still one step higher process in learning language. Therefore, by using simple language, it will make them easier to understand and get the whole
idea in the story Nodelman, 2008: 198. Th
e next step is children‟s books intended for ten to fourteen year old children which are more complex because they have collected some better
reading experience. In this stage, they are given more complex words and sentences as well as more complex ideas.
The last is young adults‟ books that are more advanced. The words, sentences, forms of stories and ideas
are more complex. Besides, the issues discussed in the stories are also advanced. Pictures are no longer used to deliver some information. It is
affirmed by Nodelman 2008: 13 saying that: “The older and more experienced the intended audience, the less visual
information is offered by pictures. Readers…are expected to fill in on their own the sort of information that the pictures in The Snowy Day
actually provide. Suggesting that the more experienced readers
become, the less they need in the way of pictorial information.”
