Course Description ENG 380

380-001 MWF 8:00-8:50 380-002 MWF 11:00-11:50
Literature for Children
Joyce HollingsworthMO 207

In ENG 380, students apply close analytical reading and cultural, historical, and literary contexts to texts targeted toward children but often chosen and read by adults. The Children’s Literature field is complex and changing; instead of attempting comprehensive coverage, we’ll focus on the process of reading and selecting classics and new books, examining how children’s literature interacts with popular culture, literary canons, schools, libraries, families, therapy, censorship, the marketplace, etc. We’ll tell stories, share picture books and easy reading materials, and discuss novels and quality nonfiction, developing strategies to help children engage in critical and creative thinking and other pleasures of reading. Papers or exams on books for children ages 9-12, presentation and/or readers’ theatre, discussion leadership and participation, responses to books for younger children. Texts include: Classics of Children's Literature; Nodelman, Pleasures of Children's Literature; Patron, Higher Power of Lucky; Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia; Pullman, His Dark Materials; Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy.