| Interesting texts, defined as texts about which students possess background knowledge relevant to their lives, have an impact on both motivation to read and comprehension. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were texts that represented Appalachia. Content analysis was used in this study to examine fifty-two children's realistic fiction picture books for evidence of authentic and accurate representation of Appalachian life and values. Book titles were collected from professional selection tools.; The instrument used for the content analysis was adapted by the researcher from previous work to reflect the specific purpose of this research. Both the text and illustrations on each page of each book were examined for evidence of Appalachian values as described by Loyal Jones. Twenty-six descriptors covering the ten values were tallied and recorded as frequencies and percentages. Additional interesting information was noted and reported.; Results indicated that there were books that accurately and authentically reflected Appalachian values although some values are represented more often than others. |
