MODULE 8

LECTURE: “Nonfiction: Biography, Travel, History, and Science”

READINGS:
Read Introductions in The Riverside Anthology of Children’s Literature:
“Nonfiction: The Real and Changing World” pp. 947-949
“Biography” pp. 950-954
“Travel and History” pp. 998-1002
“Science” pp. 1030-1033

Read from The Riverside Anthology of Children’s Literature:
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Frank p. 959
Langston Hughes: A Biography by Meltzer
Gandhi by Cooledge
Journey toward Freedom: The Story of Sojourner Truth by Bernard p978
To Be A Slave by Lester p. 1015
Red Hawk’s Account of Custer’s Last Battle: The Battle of the Little Bighorn Goble and
Goble p. 1020
Hiroshima No Pika by Maruki p. 1026
A Natural History of Giraffes by MacClintock p. 1036
Oak & Company by Mabey
Wrapped for Eternity by Pace 1044

PAPER #2 DUE: Critical Analysis of Tuck Everlasting or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

ASSIGNMENT #8: Find two articles on Children in a current newspaper or magazine. Prepare a summary of the article. Be sure to credit the author and cite publication. Use MLA format. In your summary include a quote or excerpt from the article.

TEST #8: Saltman points out that childhood is a sharply limited time, resonant with the future life of the adolescent and the adult. Children easily see themselves in other guises, imagining themselves taking action, undergoing danger, and savoring victories. They seek to know the difference between right and wrong, to understand the consequences of actions. In realistic fiction they find the humor, pathos, complexity, and joy of human life, in the form of a deeply emotional experience…. after having read the last page of a good novel, children are more aware of the emotional realm, more developed in imagination, and more responsive to art as an element of life (p.667). Given the violent images many children are exposed to in the media, and given the limited stereotypes children are urged to fit into, the value of children seeing themselves in other guises while engaging in fiction for children becomes more urgent, more important, more necessary. For when children explore through literature, a variety of emotional, psychological, and physical guises, they have a more clear sense of both who they are and the ways they fit into the world around them. Explain the value (in terms of the above statements) of encouraging children to read literature in a culture that displays such narrow, often stereotyped boxes into which boys and girls must fit. Refer to at least five of the works from Encounters and Adventures: Realistic and Historic Fiction (pp.667-806) in framing your response.

lectures l assignments/projects l readings/novels l modules
tests/exams l syllabus l links l resources l writing tips l email instructor
ssu/library l sandra's learning paradise l ukiah home page l course home page