Education 465-4? 

Children's Literature 

Regular Semester, 1986 

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Instructor: Lissa Paul 

Tuesdays, 5:30 - 9:20 

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Location: ? 

MPX 7600 

OBJECTIVES 

When a child comes to you and says: "This is the best book I 

ever read. Do you have any more like it?" how do you know what kind 

of book that child is looking for. This course is about finding out 

what that question means, and how to go about answerinqit. 

OUTLINE OF TOPICS 

child who has been moved so deeply by a book that he or she 

wants another just like it, has clearly found something very powerful 

in the story--something not likely answered by novel -study, 

back-of-the-book questions or comprehension-test questions. 

As someone sharing books with children, you can discover what 

kind of story that child is 

after: a 

home story, a 

jack-the-giant-killer story, an adventure story, a mother-and-daughter 

story, whatever. To do that, you need two skills: an understanding 

of what kind of question the child is asking; and a broad knowledge of 

stories. 

This course is not about decoding, and not about making honey 

projects out of Winnie-the-Pooh stories. It is about children's 

literature as literature. Historical, educational, psychological and 

philosophical contexts of children's literature will be explored so 

that in the end, you can be your own literary critic--someone who 

engages easily in what Aidan Chambers calls "booktalk" 

The course moves in roughly chronological fashion: first, a 

brief history of children and children's literature; then through oral 

tradition (myth and fairytale); and into the relationships between 

children's literature and literacy (including picture books and poetry 

as well as prose fiction). Topics include those which constitute 

literary discourse: genre, heroes and heroines, time and space, 

epiphanies, secret stories and so forth. 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS 

Classes consist of a mix of lectures, seminars, group 

discussions, films and other audio-visual material. Storytellers, and 

other people involved with children's literature will be invited to 

class as well. 

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Attendance and participation are required in class, 

and completion of readings, and written assignments. For thirty 

minutes at th end ofeach class, each student will be required to make 

a journal entry synthesizing the content of the class. This will be 

handed in for part of the final grade. Two essays and one oral 

presentation will also be required during the semester. 

The grade breakdown is as follows: 

Essay 1 

Essay 2 

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25

Journal 

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25%

Seminar and Class Participation 

EDUCATION 46 BOOK 

1 ?

L

4 ?

Frances Hodgson Burnett, 

IbCt_o

(Puff in) 

John Bunrningham, Would yo ? 

(Collier) 

Aidan Chamber, Ihe Present Takers (Magnet) 

Beverly Cleary, 

Dear Mr. 

Henshaw (Dell) 

Brian Doyle, ? 

(Groundwood) 

Penelope Farmer, Cha 

r

lotte ? 

(Puffin) 

Florence Par ry Heide, T he       

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(Puffin) 

Russel Hoban,; Bread and Jam for Francis (Scholastic) 

Heinrich Hoffmann, Struw ipeter (Piccolo) 

Ted Hugh, 

The

Iron Man (Faber) 

Potry in the Making (Faber) 

Fat Hutchins, ? 

j_flç

(Collier) 

Eugene lonesco, Story Number Two (Harlin Quist) 

Randall Jarrell, The Bat-Poet (Collier) 

E. L. Koni qsbrq, 

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nf ? cb        

cKinleyand rne 

Elizabeth (Collier) 

tJrsulaLeGuirL The Wizard of Earthsea (Puffin) 

Janet Lunn 'The Root Cellar (Penguin) 

Margaret Mah, The Changeover (Magnet) 

Robert Munsc ? 

IbE g

(Annick) 

FhiJlipa Ferc, I 

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Midnig 

h

t Garden (F-u++Ln) 

Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market (Dover) 

Antoine de Saint-Eupery, Ihe Little Prince (Harcourt Brace 

Jovanovi ch ) 

(Please note these are all paperbacks, approximately $1.50 ea) 