ENGL 3973 X2 - Andrea Schwenke Wyile

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE 1

Children's literature is an umbrella term for many different kinds of books. For our purposes, the term “children” includes anyone from birth to the age of majority. The course is an introduction to the variety of periods, genres, and perspectives ranging from the first Golden Age to the present with selections for younger and older readers including poetry, picture books, comics, historical fiction, fantasy and realist novels. These works come from different parts of the world and represent diverse issues and perspectives. They will enable us to take into consideration changes in the perception and the construction of childhood and gender roles. It is important to remember that although most books are recommended for a particular range of ages, the good ones have a lot to offer readers of all ages. Our aim is not to pick books apart, but rather to come to some understanding of how they are put together.


Children’s literature is a vast storehouse of ideas, some wonderful and some worrisome. The books we read as children have shaped our thinking and our understanding of the world in more ways than many of us are ready to admit. The point of this course is to examine what the books we will read have to offer us as readers of literary texts. Reading children’s books requires us to remember some things we’ve forgotten and reminds us that adults don’t know everything and are often blind to the obvious.

Although we will inevitably be tempted to ponder how child readers might react to these books, our focus will be to discuss how we have reacted to these books, how these books are put together, and how the books and our readings are informed by social conditioning, theoretical perspectives, and literary analysis.