English (ENGL) 305
Literature for Children

This version of ENGL 305 closed March 12/03. To current version.

Delivery mode: Individualized study
Credits: 6 - Humanities
Prerequisite: ENGL 211 and ENGL 212 or equivalent first year English course(s) are strongly recommended but not required.
Centre: Centre for Language and Literature
Challenge for Credit: This course has a Challenge for Credit option.

>> Overview | Outline | Evaluation | Course Materials | Course Fees


Overview

This course introduces the student to children's literature, its history and development, and its rich variety of forms and techniques. The required reading is not exhaustive but acquaints the student with some of the more important and representative forms, authors, and works of children's literature.

Note: Since this is a senior course, we expect students to have good reading and writing skills as well as the basic critical tools and knowledge of literary forms and techniques that are acquired in an introductory university English literature course like Athabasca University's English 211 and 212. Students who do not have the recommended credits in an introductory English literature course may experience significant difficulty with the essay assignments and examinations.

Outline

  • Lessons 1-2 History and Trends
  • Lesson 3 Folklore: The Folktale
  • Lesson 4 The Folktale and its Literary Descendants
  • Lessons 5-7 Literary Fantasy
  • Lessons 8-9 Realistic Fiction
  • Lesson 10 Special Interest Fiction
  • Lesson 11 Non-fiction
  • Lessons 12-13 Nursery Rhymes, Nonsense Verse, and Poetry
  • Lesson 14 Illustration and the Picture Book
  • Lessons 15-16 The Classics Reclassified
  • Lesson 17 Conclusion

Evaluation

To receive credit for ENGL 305, students must achieve a composite course grade of at least "D" (50 percent) and a grade of at least 50 percent on each examination. The weighting of the course assignments is as follows:

Essay 1 Essay 2 Essay 3 Mid-term Exam Final exam Total
10% 15% 25% 25% 25% 100%

Note: The Challenge for Credit process in this course will be graded on a pass/fail rather than a percentage basis.

Course Materials

Textbooks

Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms

Babbit, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting.

David, Alfred, and Mary Elizabeth Meek, eds. The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Other Fairy Tales.

Egoff, Sheila. The New Republic of Childhood, A Critical Guide to Canadian Children's Literature in English.

Ellis, Sarah. Pick-Up Sticks.

Fine, Anne. Crummy Mummy and Me.

George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves.

Hautzig, Esther. The Endless Steppe, A Girl in Exile.

Jacobs, Joseph, ed. English Fairy Tales.

Kipling, Rudyard. Just So Stories.

Lee, Dennis. Alligator Pie.

Le Guin, Ursula. Wizard of Earthsea.

Lewis, C. S. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Milne, A. A. Winnie-the-Pooh.

Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables.

Munsch, Robert N. The Paper Bag Princess.

Opie, Iona, and Peter Opie, eds. The Puffin Book of Nursery Rhymes.

Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Richler, Mordecai. Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.

Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are.

Tolkein, J. R. R. The Hobbit.

Townsend, John Rowe. Written for Children. New Edition.

White, E. B. Charlotte's Web.

Other material

The course materials include a student manual.

Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice.
Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized-study counterparts.

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This page was updated by G. Zahara