Required Texts: (Texts are listed in the order you will need them)

Horning, Kathleen T.  From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books  New York: Harper Collins, 1997. (006446167X) $10.19

The titles below are all reprints or reissues and the date is not the original date of publication- Any edition of these books will suffice with the exception of Winnie the Pooh- please make sure you are not reading a "Disney."

Estes, Eleanor The Hundred Dresses New York: Harcourt Paperbacks, 2004. 0152052607, $6.00

White. E.B. Charlotte's Web  New York: Harper Trophy, 1974. 0064400557, $6.99

Milne, A.A.  Winnie the Pooh New York: Puffin, 1992. 0140361219, $5.99.

Lewis, C.S . The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe New York: Harper Trophy,2000. 0064409422, $8.09

Gantos, Jack Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key New York: Harper Trophy, 2000. 0064408337, $5.99

Paulsen, Gary  Hatchet New York: Alladin, 1996. 0689808828, $5.99

Sachar, Louis  Holes New York: Dell Yearling, 2000. 0440414806, 2000.

Babbitt, Natalie  Tuck Everlasting New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1985. 0374480095, $5.95

DeCamillo, Kate  Because of Winn-Dixie New York: Candlewick, 2001. 0763616052, $5.99

Hesse, Karen  The Music of Dolphins New York:  Scholastic, 1998. 0590897985, $5.99

Other titles will be mentioned in the syllabus, but they will either by provided by the instructor or through internet links and you will not need to purchase them.

Course Description and Objectives:

Materials for Children is intended to be an overview of print and non-print materials suitable for children ages three to twelve. Emphasis will be on selection, evaluation and ways to effectively share those materials with their intended audience.

Students will gain an awareness of the richness and diversity of materials available for the target audience. They will gain skill in evaluating these materials in terms of their literary quality, age appropriateness, timeliness and accuracy. Students will enhance their ability to use the literature under discussion effectively with children.

Grades will be determined as follows: 60%- 5 response papers ,  15%- participation in class discussions, 25 % on a final project. All citations for response papers must use either APA or MLA format. (  http://www.slatecitationmachine.com/ )

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 before class.

Sept. 6: Introduction to the course and each other- defining childhood, defining literature, defining children's literature

Sept. 13: In the Beginning: Books Before Five- Mother Goose, selected pre-school picture books

Please read Horning, pp. 76-79,

Please examine the following websites:

 http://www.librarysupport.net/mothergoosesociety/

 http://www.pbs.org/parents/readinglanguage/

 http://www.cbcbooks.org/readinglists/bookstogrow.html

Sept. 20: Picture Books: The Best and the Brightest

Please read Horning, 87-120

Please examine the following website:

Sept. 27: Picture Books: Issues (and Answers?)

Please examine the following websites:

 http://www.ncte.org/about/issues/censorship

 http://www.pabbis.org/

 http://www.oyate.org/books-to-avoid/bro_eagle.html

 http://www.kstrom.net/isk/books/baddies/badmenu.html
 

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 picture book 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. 4: Folk and Fairy, Traditional Literature, Storytelling

Please read Horning, pp. 46-68

 http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/

 http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/ftdefine.htm

 http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/snowwhite.html
 

Oct. 11: Books in Transition: Picture Books for Older Readers, Early Chapter Books, Books in Series

Please read Horning pp. 121- 148

Please examine the following websites:

 http://www.pilkey.com/index.php

 http://www.scholastic.com/captainunderpants/home.htm

Response paper #2 is due

Choose from among the following:

1. Compare three or four variants of a single folktale for similarities and differences of such features as plot, character and settings. Rank these variants in terms of their interest for other readers.

2.Select a specific type of folktale (such as a pourquoi tale) and read several good examples. Analyze the selections for their shared features. Write an original story having those features.

3.Choose a folktale and write a modernized variant

4.Select a folktale character in a favorite folktale. List all of the character's good and bad traits. Write a more realistic character sketch of this character, giving him or her traits that you think he or she lacks.

5. Look at several picture book retellings of the same folktale, then tell how the illustrations changed the story in which version. Tell which you preferred and why.

Taken from Carol Lynch-Brown and Carl M. Tomlinson's "Essentials of Children's Literature"

Oct. 18: The Classics

Please read Charlotte's Web, Winnie the Pooh, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Please read "Alice in Wonderland"- full text available at the following website:

Oct. 25: Contemporary Novels

Please read Horning, pp. 149-174

Please read Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, Hatchet, and Holes

Please examine the following websites:

 http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/paulsen.html

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

Response paper #3 due

Choose a topic, then locate at least three books from different genres/formats  related to that topic. Describe how effectively the subject is handled in each book, and how the format impacts that effectiveness.

Nov.1: Contemporary Novels, 2

Please read Tuck Everlasting, Because of Winn-Dixie, and The Music of Dolphins and The Hundred Dresses

Nov. 8: Non-fiction

Please read Horning, pp. 22-45

Response paper #4 is due

Choose any book and access at least three reviews from majoring reviewing journals. Examine the areas of agreement/disagreement among the reviewers, and discuss how or why you  agree/disagree with those reviews. Culminate by writing a brief review of your own for this book.

Nov. 15: Biography

Nov. 22: Change in Designation of Class Days- attend your Wednesday class

Nov .29: Poetry

Please read Horning, pp. 79-86

 http://shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html (Shel Silverstein)

 http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/68 (Jack Prelutsky)

Response paper #5 is due

To what degree do you believe it is important to expose children, through literature, to many kinds and expereiences and ideas, however, unpleasant. Should children's reading or the contents of children's book be censored in any way? Why or why not? Choose one book and discuss whether or not children should have access to this book, and in what way it might harm or help them.

Dec. 6: Professional Literature

Please read Horning, 178-194

Dec. 13: Project Presentations

Final Project links are at: Projects.html