ENG 436 - Children’s Literature

Semester Hours: 4

Children’s Literature, once considered a stepchild of literary study, now receives attention because of its importance as a reflection of cultural attitudes towards childhood and children. We’ll examine changing attitudes as we read nineteenth- through twenty-first-century texts, and we’ll also look for themes and conventions that reappear. We will practice critical reading methods on illustrated books, early readers, poetry, fantasy, drama, non-fiction, and young adult fiction. To put our conversations into practice, we’ll coordinate with McGill Library in offering a weekly story hour for young children in the surrounding community.