Bray, Danielle
MWF 10:20 AM
Park Hall 250
Course Description
Literature and Childhood is a survey of literature in English that represents children and childhood. This section of the course will focus on texts which won or were nominated for the American Library Association’s John Newbery Medal, an award for exemplary middle-grade fiction. CONTENT WARNING: Now that the Newbery medal has been awarded for more than a century, many past award-winners and honor books espouse beliefs or use language we’ve since moved past as a culture. Although my hope is to present a well-rounded syllabus overall, this may include us examining books from a historical perspective that are unsettling or triggering for some audience members.
Required Materials
Alexander, Kwame. The Crossover. 2014. Clarion, 2019. ISBN-10: 0544935209. ISBN-13: 978-0544935204.
Applegate, Katherine. The One and Only Ivan. 2012. HarperCollins, 2015. ISBN-10: 0061992275. ISBN-13: 978-0061992278.
Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. 2008. HarperCollins, 2010. ISBN-10: 0060530944. ISBN-13: 978-0060530945.
Higuera, Donna Barba. The Last Cuentista. Levine Querido, 2021. ISBN-10: 1646140893. ISBN-13: 978-1646140893.
Konigsburg, E. L. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. 1967. Atheneum, 1998. ISBN-10: 0689711816. ISBN-13: 978-0689711817.
L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. 1962. Square Fish, 2007. ISBN-10: 0312367546. ISBN-13: 978-0312367541.
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Shiloh. 1991. Atheneum, 2000. ISBN-10: 0689835825. ISBN-13: 0689835827.
O’Brien, Robert C. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. 1971. Aladdin, 1986. ISBN-13: 978-0689710681.
Park, Linda Sue. A Single Shard. 2001. Clarion, 2011. ISBN-10: 0547534264. ISBN-13: 978-0547534268.
Sachar, Louis. Holes. 1998. Yearling, 2000. ISBN-10: 0440414806. ISBN-13: 978-0440414803.
Speare, Elizabeth George. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. 1958. Clarion, 2011. ISBN-10: 0547550294. ISBN-13: 978-0547550294.
Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. 2009. Yearling, 2010. ISBN-10: 1921656069. ISBN-13: 978-0375850868.
Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. 1977. Puffin, 2004. ISBN-10: 0142401129. ISBN-13: 978-0142401125.
I’ve ordered the above texts at the Campus Bookstore, but students may feel free to purchase, rent, or borrow them in whatever way is most affordable and accessible for them. All of the texts are readily available on common book sales web sites, most of them in both physical and digital editions, but I also encourage the use of school and public libraries, the purchase of used books and ebooks, and book-sharing, provided students are able to refer to a copy of each assigned text during class discussion (this can mean sitting near a book-sharing “buddy” so that a couple people can refer to the same copy). If acquiring these texts places you in a position of financial hardship, please speak to me during office hours; I have copies of some course texts donated by previous students available for this purpose, and am also willing to help you to arrange other book-sharing options wherever possible.
To manage textbook costs and give students time to arrange the purchase, rental, and/or loan of the texts listed above, the readings for the first two weeks of the semester are available for free via the UGA libraries database subscriptions or links on eLC Course Content. Students will also be encouraged to locate on their own articles relevant to our class discussion each week using the UGA Libraries databases. In addition to the above texts, you will need to purchase one marble-covered composition book to use as your reader-response journal for the semester; please do not record other notes in this book.
Course Requirements
Your final grade in this course will be based on your completion of the following requirements:
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15% |
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15% |
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25% |
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15% |
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15% |
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15% |