Children’s Literature

This course surveys books written for children, examining how children’s literature developed from its roots in traditional fairy tales, fantasy, and nonsense literature into a broad array of genres for children today. Topics include the needs and interests of children at various age levels, criteria for assessing the value of a children’s book, and resources that highlight wholesome literature for classroom use and library shelves. Through the strands of theme, tone, character, setting, point-of-view, figurative language, and plot, students will develop tools for literary analysis, the examination of how form and content combine to create good literature.