Children's and Young Adult Literature

Nineteenth-­‐Century Natural Theology, Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology, Russell Re Manning (ed.), (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

by Matthew Daniel Eddy

Natural theology came in different varieties during the nineteenth century. It functioned both as a way of seeing... more Natural theology came in different varieties during the nineteenth century. It functioned both as a way of seeing nature but also as a way of being in the world. This essay explores the intellectual and experiential facets of design arguments by focusing on who promoted them and, just as important, why they appealed to so many people on a daily basis. In short, we learn that natural theology was a way of knowing and doing. The essay is structured around three kinds of natural theologians: philosophers and theologians, savants and scientists, priests and pedagogues. Whilst I take care to address well-known names like William Paley and Charles Darwin and classical disciplines like physics and theology, my larger aim is to show the appeal of design to middle class readers and authors (especially women) and to the founders of the emerging human sciences like biomedicine and evolutionary anthropology.

Artemis, Cadmus, Hecuba, Hermes, Medea, and Menelaus

by Laurel Bowman

encyclopedia articles in Gods, Goddesses and Mythology , ed. by C. Scott Littleton (11 vol.) Marshall Cavendish, Tarrytown, NY. 2005.

Achilles

by Laurel Bowman

Hades

by Laurel Bowman

Handbook of research on children's and young adult literature

by Clementine Beauvais

La guerre pour la jeunesse

by Yan Hamel

Voix et Images (dossier "La guerre dans la littérature québécoise"), no 110, hiver 2012, p. 83-94.

The Red Man: Race, Madness and the Other in Virginia Hamilton’s ‘The Planet of Junior Brown’

by Christopher Michael Luna

This paper examines the way Virginia Hamilton deals with otherness and oppression in the form of race and madness in... more This paper examines the way Virginia Hamilton deals with otherness and oppression in the form of race and madness in her 1971 children’s novel ‘The Planet of Junior Brown.’ Utilizing a symbolic chess game in which the titular character of the novel confesses that he must play red, because red always loses, Hamilton juxtaposes the strength of black resistance to a white world against the relative powerlessness of the schizophrenic.

What Were These Characters Thinking?! Using Sufi Tales to Cultivate Critical Thinking in Children (co-author)

by Jurgis (George) Brakas

The purpose of this essay is to help elementary school teachers use picture storybooks to develop their students’... more The purpose of this essay is to help elementary school teachers use picture storybooks to develop their students’ critical thinking skills, arguably the most important skill students can learn. To achieve that purpose, we selected four delightful Sufi tales written for Western children, tales in which the thinking of the characters has gone or does go awry. Each story raises its own perplexing question: Why would an old woman insist an eagle is a pigeon? How could five men—in the same situation and confronted with the same object—arrive at five widely different and incorrect identifications of that object? How does a chicken frighten a group of townspeople to the point where they want to escape from the earth? Why would villagers be terrified by a fruit? These are all questions that involve critical thinking issues. The framework we use for analyzing the stories is a modified version of Paul and Elder’s Elements of Thought and the work of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge. Our approach is to summarize the stories; to systematically apply our framework to each story, thereby providing teachers with a tool for helping children comprehend them; to offer, on that basis, a brief, narrative account of the significance of each story, indicating in what way the thinking of the characters has gone awry and what principle of thinking would have prevented it; and, finally, to add a few open-ended questions to illustrate how the principles of thinking in each story can be applied to the personal lives of the children. Our approach integrates teaching philosophy and reading comprehension in a way that makes it fit naturally into the elementary school curriculum, literacy activities being an integral part of it. What the children learn can serve as a foundation for them as they begin to develop a system of thought for decision-making and problem-solving that will serve them well throughout their lives.

Exploring the Role of Children’s Literature in the 21st-Century Classroom

by Jodene Morrell

Kersten, J., Apol, L., & Pataray-Ching, J. (2007). Professional Resources: Exploring the Role of Children’s Literature in the 21st Century Classroom. Language Arts, 84(3), 286 - 292.

Professional book review: Encountering Children’s Literature: An Arts Approach (Jane M. Gangi); Negotiating Critical... more Professional book review: Encountering Children’s Literature: An Arts Approach (Jane M. Gangi); Negotiating Critical Literacies with Young Children (Vivian Vasquez); The Power of Reading: Insights from Research (2nd ed.) (Stephen Krashen)

War and the Liminal Space: Situating The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the Twentieth Century Narrative of Trauma and Survival

by Nanette Norris

Forthcoming in C.S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia Casebook, ed. Lance E. Weldy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

The Stones of London: Public Art in Charlie Fletcher’s Stoneheart Trilogy

by Andelys Wood

Published in Literary London Journal 9.2 (Sept. 2011)

“Suffering in Utopia: Testing the Limits in Young Adult Novels.”

by Rebecca Totaro

Utopian and Dystopian Writing for Children and Young Adults. Eds. Carrie Hintz and Elaine Ostry. NY: Routledge, 2003. 127-138.

http://www.amazon.com/Utopian-Dystopian-Children-Childrens-Literature/dp/0415940176/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296875770&sr=1-1

L'enfance colonisée

by Yan Hamel

Immortal Longings and Mortal Repression - The Dark Romance Genre and Young Girls

by Hannah Love

submitted as part of my Mphil in Critical Approaches to Children's Literature

This study comprises of an exploration of the newly emerged ‘Dark Romance’ genre through the use of The Twilight Saga.... more This study comprises of an exploration of the newly emerged ‘Dark Romance’ genre through the use of The Twilight Saga. The Dark Romance novels are generally marketed at teenagers, but I address the decreasing age of the readership and explore the potential effects of such works on pre-adolescent female readers. In particular this thesis explores the possible impact of these texts on the readers’ sexual identity, and how any problems are exacerbated by the blend of genres found in the novels
The introduction provides a justification for a non-empirical research thesis and the necessary background information for the study; such as reading habits of young girls and the risk of identification, a discussion of the genres in Twilight, traditions in vampire literature, a clarification of terms regarding sexuality, and the research questions.

The first chapter addresses the presentation of sex and sexuality itself, using the theories of Michel Foucault as demonstrated in his History of Sexuality. Using J. A. Appleyard’s theory of reading stages, I then argue that the messages portrayed are all the more dangerous for young female readers experiencing literature as Appleyard suggests. The second chapter details the difficulties of identity formation for young girls, affected by their self perception and their interactions with others, using Robyn McCallum’s theory of ideology and identity, with particular reference to the Young Adult Elements of the Saga. The final chapter explores the Saga’s presentation of Bella’s escape from adolescence into a perfect, un-aging vampire, and the unattainable ideals that this portrays. I examine this using Jaques Lacan and Julia Kristeva’s theories of development along with Rosemary Jackson’s views regarding fantasy.
The conclusion explores what has been proved and its importance, as well as including suggestions of how the study could be developed further.

La terre en héritage, l'écriture en partage. Bruno Saint-Hill, de Nampilly à Swedenborg

by Laurent Déom

Published in "Héritage, filiation, transmission. Configurations littéraires (XVIIIe-XXIe siècles)" (ed. by Christian Chelebourg, David Martens and Myriam Watthee-Delmotte), Louvain-la-Neuve, Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2012.

"Que la littérature soit fondamentalement concernée par la question de la transmission est une évidence : en tant... more "Que la littérature soit fondamentalement concernée par la question de la transmission est une évidence : en tant que message adressé par un émetteur à un récepteur, elle relève d’une logique communicationnelle sur laquelle nous n’insisterons pas. Cette logique est souvent mise en exergue dans le cas de la littérature de jeunesse, car les objectifs pédagogiques que de nombreux prescripteurs assignent à celle-ci rendent cruciale sa dimension pragmatique : étant donné que l’émetteur est censé former le récepteur, l’on attend de son message qu’il se conforme aux valeurs en vigueur dans la communauté à laquelle appartiennent les lecteurs visés1.

Dans certaines productions littéraires pour la jeunesse, la transmission est également utilisée comme thématique. La question des relations entre parents et enfants, en particulier, est abordée dans de nombreuses œuvres, qu’il s’agisse d’en louer les attraits, d’en dépeindre les difficultés ou d’en présenter les paradoxes. Il arrive en outre que ce thème se décline en sous-thèmes plus spécifiques, parmi lesquels celui de la problématique patrimoniale.

Ainsi, le roman de Bruno Saint-Hill Tempête sur Nampilly (publié en 1950 aux éditions Alsatia dans la collection « Signe de piste ») raconte l’histoire d’un héritage menacé que le héros tente de recouvrer. Si cette thématique présente un intérêt dans cet ouvrage, ce n’est pas seulement parce qu’elle est associée à un certain nombre d’enjeux culturels, politiques et sociaux, que nous n’évoquerons d’ailleurs qu’au passage, mais aussi parce qu’elle occupe une place considérable dans la démarche de création de l’écrivain. La transition du thématique au poétique va toutefois de pair avec une modification sensible de la façon dont Saint-Hill conçoit l’héritage, comme nous le montrerons."

Change of Seasons

by Trent Hergenrader

Originally appeared in Cicada Sept./Oct. 2006

Hunger Games and Ancient Israel: May the God be ever in your favor

by Jonathan Jordan

The Hunger Games series, written by Suzanne Collins to address the impact of war and violence on adolescents, has... more The Hunger Games series, written by Suzanne Collins to address the impact of war and violence on adolescents, has captured the imagination of more than just its target audience. In the wake of the conclusion of the Harry Potter series, students as well as their parents and teachers have embraced these three novels as perhaps the next great young adult book sensation. With a movie contract set to release the first two films in 2012 and 2013, its impact will continue to be seen for years to come.

It is both the popularity as well as the subject matter of the Hunger Games series that makes it such a valuable teaching tool in a variety of religious education courses. Not only are hoards of Middle and High School students currently reading the series, by the time the last film is released, many of the series’ earliest fans will be entering college. The value of integrating this series into religious education courses could be demonstrated in a variety of contexts. This author wishes to explore the possibilities of using modern fiction such as the Hunger Games series in the context of a middle and high school Old Testament course.

Primary among correlating themes between the HG series and the Old Testament are the effect that various forces have on a given community. Several of these forces will be explored and evaluated as effective teaching tools in a Middle and High School context. For both Ancient Israel (OT) and District 12 (HG), four primary forces greatly impacted their respective communities: war and violence, music and art, identity as underdog and flawed yet inspiring leadership. The impact of these four ideas on Ancient Israel can perhaps be more fully understood when using the Hunger Games series as illustration.

Pratiques de prise en charge des jeunes suicidants dans les établissements habilités à accueillir des urgences en région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur

by Lionel Dany

Panique dans le ciel intertextuel Bob Morane et les avatars du roman d’aventures géographiques au temps de la décolonisation

by Matthieu Letourneux

Résumé

Lancée en 1953, la série des Bob Morane hérite des modèles narratifs du roman d’aventures coloniales... more Résumé

Lancée en 1953, la série des Bob Morane hérite des modèles narratifs du roman d’aventures coloniales et de ses reformulations anglo-saxonnes d’après-guerre dont elle investit massivement les stéréotypes ; mais elle se retrouve rapidement confrontée au  processus de décolonisation qui condamne à terme les conventions sur lesquelles repose le genre investi par Henri Vernes. L’histoire de la série est donc celle d’un processus de réarticulation des codes d’un genre, celui du roman d’aventures coloniales, suivant des contraintes géopolitiques et un nouveau système architextuel dont elle illustre les mutations. Au croisement de problèmes historiques et esthétiques, cette série au long cours pose à la fois la question des pratiques de fictions sérielles et celle de la prise en compte par la littérature de jeunesse du phénomène de la décolonisation, mettant en évidence les tensions qui existent entre les logiques référentielles intertextuelles et la mise en scène de l’espace référentiel extratextuel. Si elle tend à privilégier les logiques sérielles, elle assimile l’évolution des représentations, mais de biais, par le détour des intertextes et des imaginaires romanesques. Dès lors, le discours sur le monde ne peut être saisi que médiatement, comme réalité sous-jacente au jeu des imaginaires intertextuels, quand ceux-ci tendent à pérenniser les héritages du genre, comme autant de couches archéologiques du récit. Procéder à cette archéologie de l’œuvre sérielle, décomposer les couches narratives et les imaginaires successifs dont elle est le résultat, déterminer la façon dont l’auteur les organise en un discours propre, c’est à la fois révéler la part des idéologies dont le récit est le produit, et échapper à une lecture trop monologique d’une œuvre qui est aussi la manifestation en un discours auctorial unique d’une multitude de voix.

Revisiting Lost Gardens: The Expulsion from Childhood in the Writings of Penelope Lively. Projections of Paradise. Dreams of Ideal Refuge in Migrant and Postcolonial Literature. Ed. Helga Ramsey-Kurz. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2011. 1-28.

by Vera Alexander