Overview
This course takes as its focus the history and critical analysis of children's literature in Britain from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, with an emphasis on nineteenth-century works for children.
The first half of the course concentrates on poems, short stories, and excerpts of other prose works included in the anthology From Instruction to Delight and is designed to survey the development of a literature shaped specifically for children from its beginnings to the Golden Age of the nursery at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The second half of the course will sample various genres in children's literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, such as animal stories, fantasy, historical fiction, trauma literature, and picture books. Our historical and geographic lens will expand to include works published in the United States and Canada. Central to our study will be an examination of the construction of childhood across the centuries; an extended consideration of the intersections and relationships between literature, politics, philosophy, commerce, religion, economics, and art; and an investigation of the dynamics between literature written for adult audiences and books read by children.
A foundational principle of our course is that children’s literature performs important socio-cultural work and that the best examples of works read by young readers invite well informed, thoughtful, sophisticated, and engaged close analysis. As we progress through our course we will interrogate hackneyed clichés and popular assumptions such as that the primary function of books read by children (past or present) is to stimulate the imagination of the child; that children's literature is simplistic, conservative, or moral; that children are naturally sweet, innocent little angels; and that childhood is a period of sweetness and light safely removed from adult concerns.
Terms
Evaluation
15% - Discussion Forum (x3)
5% - MLA Style Quiz
15% - Short Close Reading Essay
30% - Analytical, Argumentative, Comparative Essay
35% - Proctored Final Exam
**Evaluation Subject to Change**
Exam Centre Location, Eligibility, and Fees
Students enrolled exclusively in online courses may choose one of two options to write this course's proctored assessments:
You may choose to write the assessments online under supervision of an online proctoring service. A $100 fee will be charged to your SOLUS account. This fee is known as the Off Campus Exam Admin Fee and is applied in SOLUS at the earlier of: term tuition posting date, or the date at which exam writing method is changed to online. The fee is assessed once per ASO course with proctored assessments.
You may choose to write the assessments in-person on ÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ campus in Kingston at no additional charge.
Students enrolled in at least one on-campus course are expected to write this course's proctored assessments on-campus during the scheduled exam time. They will not be permitted to write this course's proctored assessments online.
Students were prompted to indicate their preferred exam writing method when enrolling in the course in SOLUS. The exam writing method may be changed by contacting the ASO Exams Team at aso.exams@queensu.ca.
Information for students writing online assessments
Selected assessments in this course will be administered in onQ using online proctoring provided by a third-party, cloud-based service. This proctoring solution was chosen to support our efforts in maintaining academic integrity when online proctoring is required. Queen&rsquos has conducted an extensive privacy and security review of the service and has entered into a binding agreement with terms that address the appropriate collection, use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with Ontario's privacy legislation. To learn more about online proctoring, please see the information provided by the Office of the University Registrar.
If you registered to write online with the service, all information pertaining to the technical requirements and preparation for writing online will be posted in onQ well in advance of your exam.
The use of the service as described is unique to courses offered by the Faculty of Arts and Science Online. Other Faculties use online proctoring solutions in different ways under different regulations. Students should contact the appropriate Faculty examination team if they have questions.
Timing of Final Examinations
The exam period dates for each Term are listed on the Faculty of Arts and Science webpage under "Important Dates". Student exam schedules for the Fall Term are posted to SOLUS immediately prior to the Thanksgiving holiday; for the Winter Term they are posted on the Friday before Reading Week, and for the Summer Term they are individually noted on the Arts and Science Online syllabi. Students should not make any travel plans until after the examination schedule has been posted. Exams will not be moved or deferred to accommodate employment, travel/holiday plans or flight reservations. Students experiencing extenuating circumstances preventing them from writing their exams as scheduled should review the information about the Academic Consideration process.
Textbook and Materials
Please refer to the Campus Bookstore website at to obtain the most up-to-date list of required materials for this course before purchasing them.
Demers, Patricia, ed. From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of Children's Literature to 1850. 4th ed. Oxford UP, 2015.
Note: The first half of the course focuses on material in this textbook, so it is imperative that students acquire a copy of the anthology by the beginning of the course to avoid falling behind on readings and assignments.
Earlier editions of this anthology are not recommended.
An e-book version of the anthology is also available for purchase and rent through both (in Canadian dollars) and (in US dollars). Both VitalSource and RedShelf offer 180-day rentals.
- Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden. Illustrated by Tasha Tudor, HarperCollins Canada, 2010. ISBN 9780064401883.
- Campbell, Nicola I. Shi-shi-etko. Illustrated by Kim LaFave, Groundwood Books, 2005. ISBN 9780888996596.
- Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy, Random House, 2002. ISBN 9780440413288.
- Dahl, Roald. Danny, the Champion of the World. Illustrated by Quentin Blake, Puffin, 2007. ISBN 9780142410332.
- Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Illustrated by Ernest Shepard, Aladdin, 1989. ISBN 9780689713101.
- Klassen, Jon. The Rock from the Sky, Candlewick Press, 2021. ISBN 9781536214625.
- Kogawa, Joy. Naomi’s Road. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2005. ISBN 9781550051155.
- Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001. ISBN 9780547577098.
- Pearce, Philippa. Tom’s Midnight Garden. Oxford UP, 2015. ISBN 9780192734501.
- Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Warne, 2012. ISBN 9780723247708.
- Snicket, Lemony. A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning. Illustrated by Brett Helquist, HarperCollins Canada, 1999. ISBN 9780064407663.
- Vander Zee, Ruth. Erika’s Story. Illustrated by Roberto Innocenti, Creative Paperbacks, 2013. ISBN 9780898128918.
Editions of the required novels, novellas, and picture books other than those listed above, including ebooks, are acceptable, but you may have trouble following the course notes, which may affect your performance on assessments. Additionally, some of the works have been selected to feature specific illustrators; by relying on different editions, you may miss out on this aspect of the material. ISBN numbers may vary.
Time Commitment
To complete the readings, assignments, and course activities, students can expect to spend, on average, about 10 - 12 hours per week (120 hours per term) on the course.