There is a general consensus that (future) teachers of Spanish as a foreign language (ELSE) must provide literary training to their students and, to this end, select appropriate texts and design meaningful teaching sequences. These are tasks that, without a doubt, must be included in their training and further explored throughout their professional career. However, because the content prioritized in training and education is other—especially that related to the development of grammar and communicative competence—the debate on text selection criteria and reflection on the methods of teaching literature are often overlooked. From this perspective, this paper proposes an approach to children's literature in ELSE classes. On the one hand, it aims to investigate and offer criteria for the selection of materials, prioritizing the aesthetic dimension, linguistic richness, and the meaningful effects it can generate, focusing on the affective and socio-emotional dimensions. Furthermore, considering that teachers choose not only texts but books, this paper sheds light on the editorial policies that generate them, which are influenced by tensions between aesthetic and pedagogical dimensions. Finally, it is shown that, through a literary approach that considers affective and socio-emotional factors, it is possible to deepen knowledge of the language, appealing to reflection on language and the analysis of discursive effects.
