ENG

Many readers underestimate the complexity, impact, and importance of children's literature. But the narratives one learns as a child have more effect than any others: they echo for a lifetime. In this course, we will explore books written for children and young adults, from wordless picture books to complex speculative fiction. To reflect the vibrancy of the field of children's literature-as well as the diversity of students that the Education majors will soon teach-we will focus on literature that is multicultural, multilingual, and diverse in myriad ways. The course has five units, each focused on a fundamental aspect of children's literature: adventure, coming of age (bildung), community/friendship, play/imagination, and fantasy/science-fiction. Within each unit, we will read one exemplary novel as a class, and the rest of the texts will be presented by students. Students will have considerable agency in their assignments: each student chooses a 'track' (education, literary critical, or creative writing), and each unit has multiple options for the assignment. Past sections of the course have studied Angie Thomas, Jacqueline Woodson, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Leigh Bardugo, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jessica Love, Vashti Harrison, Grace Lin, Kwame Alexander, Benjamin Sáenz, Matt de la Peña, Soman Chainani, Tomi Adeyemi, JK Rowling, Lewis Carroll, Mo Willems, Jon Klassen, etc.