Required Texts: The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature (NACL)

                       White, E. B.- Charlotte's Web

                        Sachar, Louis- Holes

                        Babbitt, Natalie- Tuck Everlasting

                        Gantos, Jack- Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key

                        DeCamillo, Kate- Because of Winn-Dixie

The student web companion for NACL is located at :   http://www.wwnorton.com/nacl/index.html

Course Description and Objectives: This course will provide an overview of literature whose target audience is children from infancy through age 12. Attention will be paid to the history of this genre and the many transitions it has experienced, as well as contemporary trends and issues. Students will develop an awareness of the richness and diversity of this field, and will gain skill in evaluating books in terms of their literary quality, appropriateness, timeliness and accuracy.

Grades will be determined as follows: 30%- 2 response papers , 30%- two unannounced quizzes, 15%- participation in class discussions, 25%- final exam. Any citations used in papers must be in either APA or MLA format- if you are unsure how to write a proper citation, please see:  http://www.slatecitationmachine.com/

Students are expected to arrive at class sessions on time. If you cannot make a class, please contact the instructor by e-mail. Missing classes without  providing acceptable reasons will affect your grade. If you miss a class session, it is your responsibility to obtain any outlines or articles that were distributed. Only one makeup quiz will be permitted, and that quiz will be different from the one administered during the class session.

Please make sure all cell phones and beepers are turned off during class time. If you have an emergency situation that requires otherwise, please speak to the instructor ahead of time.

Sept. 6- Defining Childhood, Defining Literature, Defining Children's Literature

Sept. 13- Mother Goose, Books for the pre-schooler, selected pre-school authors

Please read NACL pp. 1119-1122, 1138-1147

Please examine the following web sites:

September 20- Alphabets and Readers

Please read the following pages in NACL:

Alphabets- pp. 1-31, Primers and Readers, pp. 75-86, Fun with Dick and Jane, pp. 142-144. Arnold Lobel, pp. 144-150.

Sept. 27- "The Best and the Brightest"- the picture book canon

Please read NACL pp. 1051-1059

Please examine the following web site:

Oct. 4- Politics and Picture Books

Please read NACL, David Macauley's "BAA", pp. 1068- 1097

Please examine the following web sites:

Oct. 11- Challenges and Censorship

Please examine the following web sites:

Response paper #1 is due

Topic- " The Implied Reader"- text  taken from Perry Nodelman's "The Pleasures of Children's Literature."

" Appreciating the uniqueness of children's literature involves, first, thinking about who its audience might be. Who are the "children" in the phrase "children's literature?" I believe we should look at the literature itself: what can it tell us about the children in its name?  All texts imply in their subject and their style the sort of reader most likely to respond positively to them. Some texts- Shakespearean tragedies, for instance- dwell on tragic characters and gloomy situations ; they imply a reader with a taste for exploring the darker side of existence. Some texts, like James Joyce's Ulysses, are filled with complex descriptive paragraphs and strange symbols; they imply a reader who takes pleasure in such writing and has the ability to make sense of it. If we think of "The Owl and the Pussycat" in this way, we might decide that it implies a reader who enjoys unfamiliar words like "runcilbe: for their strangeness and who isn't annoyed by not knowing their meaning. "

Choose any piece of children's literature  that piques your interest. By exploring the kinds of characters and situations it dwells on, the kinds of mood and atmosphere it creates, and the kind of language it uses, develop a description of the reader the text implies to you. What are the tastes, interests and skills of the reader you think would be best equipped to understand and enjoy this text?

Oct. 18-The Realm of Folk and Fairy

Please read NACL, Introduction to Fairy Tales, pp. 175-184, various versions of Little Red Riding Hood, pp. 338-386

Please examine the following web sites:

Oct. 25- The Literary Fairy Tale

Please read NACL " The Reluctant Dragon", pp. 263-280

Examine the following web sites:

Nov.1- The Golden Age of Children's Literature

Please read NACL  Winnie the Pooh, pp. 1658-1926, J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" , pp. 1300-1356

Please examine ( in this instance , read) the following web site:

Nov.8- Fantasy

Please read NACL, pp. 551-558, E. B. White's "Charlotte's Web" , and Natalie Babbitt's "Tuck Everlasting"

Response paper #2 is due

Topic:To what degree do you believe its important to expose children, through literature , to many kinds of experiences and ideas, however, unpleasant? Should children's reading, or the contents of children's books, be censored in any way? Why or why not? Cite specific examples of books that have been censored and what help or harm you believe they might do to a child.

Nov. 15- Magical Realism

Please  read Louis Sachar's "Holes" and Kate DeCamillo's "Because of Winn Dixie"

Please examine the following web site:

http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/MagicalRealism.html :

Nov. 22- School Stories

Please read NACL pp. 1805-1816, NACL " The Hundred Dresses " 1906-1919, and Jack Gantos' "Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key"

Nov. 29- Poetry

Response paper #3 is due

Topic:

"At the heart of every good story are believable and memorable characters...An author uses several techniques for revealing a character to us.

1. What the narrator says about the character

2.  What the other characters say about the character

3.  What the character says about himself

4. What the character actually does that reveals his character'

( Taken from  David L. Russell's "Literature for Children"- fifth edition

Choosing any piece of literature intended for children,  examine one of the characters from each of the perspectives described above.

Please read NACL, pp. 1122-1131, Robert Louis Stevenson, pp. 1180-1201, Randall Jarrell, pp. 1239-1252, Marilyn Nelson, pp. 1274-1282, Grace Nichols, pp. 1283-1291

Dec. 6- Loose ends, conclusions(?), exam review, etc.

Dec. 13- Final Exam