Children’s Writers at the University of Connecticut
Fall 2008

Master Class on Writing and Illustrating for Children
Friday, October 10th, 2008
11:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Class of 1947 Room, Dodd Center
Sponsored by the Rightors Fund for Children’s Literature

Do you want to learn how to write for children?  Here is a fantastic opportunity to spend an afternoon with some of the most important author/illustrators working today.  Confirmed presenters include Chris Raschka (Caldecott Award), Javaka Steptoe (Coretta Scott King Award), Allison Paul, and Rudy Gutierrez (ALA Notable Book).   This is not a lecture series. You will have the opportunity to interact with the writers/illustrators in a workshop setting.  Fifteen seats are available for student creative writers.  You must pre-register in order to attend.  There are no fees associated with the Master Class.  For more information, please contact Kate Capshaw Smith at Capshaw@uconn.edu.

Leonard S. Marcus, “Wonder in the Wake of War: The Fantasy Tradition in American Children’s Literature”
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center

The talk, based on the fantasy-literature dimensions of his latest book, Minders of Make-Believe, will be held in Konover Auditorium with a reception and book signing to follow.  Published by Houghton Mifflin in 2008, Marcus’s Minders of Make-Believe is “. . . an animated first-time history of the visionaries - editors, authors, librarians, booksellers, and others - whose passion for books has transformed American childhood and American culture.”  Writing about the relationship between fantasy literature and the experience of war, Marcus explains, “So many of the fantasy writers I interviewed . . . felt they were writing about the war they themselves had experienced, or else that they wrote fantasy because of the impact of remembered wars on their view of life. And it seems me that it was the experience of modern warfare, which so discredited the myth of science- and industry-driven progress, which helped to consolidate the readership for writers from Tolkien and Lewis to Madeleine L'Engle.”

Leonard Marcus is one the field’s most respected authors and speakers.  His recent children’s books include Oscar: The Big Adventure of a Little Sock Monkey, co-authored and illustrated by his wife Amy Schwartz, and Pass It Down: Five Picture-Book Families Make Their Mark.  Marcus also writes as a historian of the genre and has published books on Margaret Wise Brown, Ursula Nordstrom, and Golden Books. He holds degrees in history from Yale and poetry from the University of Iowa Graduate Writers' Workshop.  In 2007, Leonard was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Bank Street College of Education.

This talk is a presentation of the Northeast Children's Literature Collection in conjunction with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and is free and open to the public.  For more information contact Terri J. Goldich at 860.486.3646 or terri.goldich@uconn.edu. 

M. T. Anderson
Tuesday, October 28
Konover Auditorium, 7 pm
Co-sponsored by The Rightors Fund for Children’s Literature, the Creative Writing Program, and Teachers for a New Era

M.T. Anderson is the author of several books for children and young adults, including The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, which won a 2006 National Book Award, and Feed, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002 and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Feed is “satire at its finest” remarked Kirkus Reviews, and, according to The New York Times Book Review, serves as proof that “young-adult novels are alive and well and able to deliver a jolt.” 

Children’s Writers, Previous Semesters

Wednesday, March 26th: Pegi Deitz Shea
Half-hour meetings with students available 3:30-4:30 and 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Monday, April 7th: Janet Lawler
Half-hour meetings with students available 1:00-3:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 9th: Laura E. Williams
Half-hour meetings with students available 3:30-4:30 and 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 22nd: Raouf Mama
CLAS 217, 5:00-6:00 p.m., “From the Storyteller’s Mouth, Onto the Printed Page, and Into the Ears of Children: A Storyteller’s Creative Adventure”

All presentations are funded through the kind support of the Rightors Fund.

Course Offerings:

Graduate Course: English 497-08
Ethnic American Children’s Literature, Spring 2008
Kate Capshaw Smith

Course Description:
Although many ethnic groups in the United States have a rich historical tradition of literature for children, this course on ethnic American children’s literature focuses on contemporary texts. We will ask the following questions: How does ethnic children’s literature fit into the literary tradition? How does it fit into ethnic studies? What happens when “major” ethnic writers for adults also write for children? Does the children’s work share common thematic, stylistic, aesthetic, and political purposes with the adult? Are dividing lines between an ethnic writer’s “children’s” work and “adult” work fixed? What is the place in the academy of ethnic writers who publish mainly for a young audience? Are their purposes distinct from “crossover” writers? Writers include Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Virginia Hamilton, Linda Hogan, Francisco Jimenez, Cynthia Kadohata, Pat Mora, Nicholasa Mohr, Walter Dean Myers, An Na, and Gene Luen Yang.

Undergraduate Courses:

Children’s Literature, English 200, Summer 2008
Emily Cormier, M/W 1:00-4:15

Children’s Literature, English 3420, Fall 2008
Kate Capshaw Smith, T/Th 11:00-12:15

This course examines the features of the modern canon of children’s literature, analyzing children’s books both as works of art and as powerful cultural influences. The class begins by studying landmark fairy tales like Cinderella, Puss-in-Boots, and Sleeping Beauty, noting their roots in oral culture as well as their significance to contemporary child readers. We will then turn to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the “golden age” of children’s literature. By examining Alice in Wonderland, The Secret Garden, Daddy Long-Legs,and Winnie-the-Pooh, we will gain a sense of the historical and ideological currents that fashioned this important moment in children’s literary history. We will examine the interaction of text and image in Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are. We will also investigate the role of children’s literature to the Harlem Renaissance by reading poems by Langston Hughes, pageants by schoolteachers, and didactic material by prominent religious and political figures. Finally, we will explore modern canon formation by considering issues of ethnicity, taboo, and form in contemporary children’s books. Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust, Walter Dean Myers’s Monster, Sharon Creech’s Walk Two Moons, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone should offer much fodder for lively discussions about our vision of modern children’s literature. Please note that this is not a course in pedagogical strategy. Although we may discuss the interaction of text and reader, we will not concentrate on teaching practices. The course is intended to expand your critical appreciation of children’s literature.

Young Adult Literature, English 3422, Fall 2008
Emily Cormier, T 5:00-7:30
(past description)
This course examines literary constructions of adolescence.  We will explore questions like, “What constitutes a young adult text?,” “Can or should there be a canon of young adult literature?,” “How does young adult literature cross boundaries of audience and genre?,” “How does young adult literature differ from children’s literature?,” and “How do social and political contexts influence the construction and reception of young adult texts?”  We will investigate issues of collective and individual identity formation, dimensions of young adult texts (like violence and sexuality) that rupture conventions of children’s literature and kindle censorship, and problems of generic boundaries and border crossings.  We will pay particular attention to the origins of young adult literature as a genre, as well as to ethnicity and gender in contemporary books.  We will be sensitive to the historical and cultural context for each text.  Our readings will include critical and theoretical texts in addition to primary sources. 

Children’s Literature Association

Diversity Committee – Links and Information

For questions about the undergraduate and graduate programs in Children’s Literature, please contact Kate Capshaw Smith: capshaw@uconn.edu
Office: CLAS 136
Office Phone: 860-486-4048