Children’s Book Literary
Devices
Mrs. Wright & Miss Marks
January 2007
Loyalsock Township Middle School
Rhythm
Apattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables in spoken or
written language.
Alliteration
Repetition of words with the same
beginning sounds.
Example: “Polly planted plenty of
pretty pansies.”
Repetition
The use, more than once, of any
element of language - a sound, word,
phrase, clause, or sentence.
Refrains
A regularly repeated line or group of
lines in a poem or a song.
Onomatopoeia
Words that sound like the objects or
actions they refer to.
Examples: crash, buzz, hiss
Simile
A figure of speech in which things
are compared using the words “like”
or “as”
Example: “The surface of the water
looked as smooth as glass”
Personification
A figure of speech in which objects
are given human qualities.
Example: “The sun played peek-a-boo
with the clouds.”
Rhyme
Words that have the same sounds.
Example: “The tiny bird in the tree
was singing songs just for me.”
Imagery
Words or phrases that appeal to one
or more of the five senses. Writers
use imagery to describe how their
subjects look, sound, feel, taste, and
smell.
Writers often paint images, or word
pictures, that appeal to your senses.