
Fall 2023 Courses
The Children's Literature Program offers an array of classic and contemporary topics
in children's literature and young-adult studies.
ENGL 306A/W: Children’s Literature and Advanced Composition with Lecturer Tishna Asim
Investigate various themes in children’s literature, spanning multiple time periods, cultures, and schools of thought. Experience many formats of literature—poetry, novel, short story, film, television show/episode, picture book—and visit many genres (fairy tale, quest/adventure narrative, problem novel, etc.) to pinpoint the purposes and pleasures within children’s literature.
What We're Reading
Prietita and the Ghost Woman
1995
By Gloria Anzaldúa
Coraline
2002
By Neil Gaiman
A Tale Dark and Grimm
2010
By Adam Gidwitz
The Gashlycrumb Tinies
1963
By Edward Gorey
ENGL 306A/W: Children’s Literature and Advanced Composition with Lecturer Sequoia
Stone
Read children’s literature that explores the highs and lows of coming-of-age as the protagonists of our texts work to understand and develop their identities apart from, yet still part of, their families, their friends, and their histories. Explore the role of creative expression (and art in general) in both individual identity and the world at large.
What We're Reading
New Kid
2019
By Jerry Craft
A Place at the Table
2022
By Saadia Faruqi & Laura Shovan
Displacement
2020
By Kiku Hughes
The First Rule of Punk
2017
By Celia C. Pérez
ENGL 501: Literature for Children with Professor Joseph Thomas
Investigate the historical moment in which the texts on this syllabus were produced as well as the implicit and explicit ideology within them. Discuss how the reception to these texts may have changed over time.
What We're Reading
Where The Wild Things Are
1963
By Maurice Sendak
Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry
1976
By Mildred D. Taylor
Esperanza Rising
2000
By Pam Muñoz Ryan
Black Folktales
1969
By Julius Lester
ENGL 502: Adolescence in Literature with Professor Lashon Daley
Read middle-grade and YA novels, alongside the groundbreaking work of prominent girlhood studies scholars, in order to investigate girlhood as both a political category and a social identity.
What We're Reading
When You Trap a Tiger
2020
By Tae Keller
Merci Suárez Changes Gears
2018
By Meg Medina
Hearts Unbroken
2018
By Cynthia Leitich Smith
The Hate U Give
2017
By Angie Thomas
ENGL 503: Topics in Children’s Literature with Professor Joseph Thomas
Read and discuss crucial works by J.R.R. Tolkien, including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
What We're Reading
The Hobbit
1937
By J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
1954
By J.R.R. Tolkien
Letters From Father Christmas
1976
By J.R.R. Tolkien
Mr. Bliss
1982
By J.R.R. Tolkien
ENGL 606D: Precarity, Possibility Children’s Literature and YA Gothic with Professor Phillip Serrato
Learn about the efficacy of gothic as a modality for the imagination and assertion of more ameliorative forms of social existence and social relationality over and against the social horrors that it otherwise depicts.
What We're Reading
The Bungalow Mystery
1930
By Carolyn Keene
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs
2006
By Jack Gantos
Ghost Boys
2018
By Jewell Parker Rhodes
Cirque du Freak
2000
By Darren Shan