Fall 2012: Adolescent Literature

Welcome back to ISU!  Syllabi for Adolescent Literature, sections 1 and 2, are now availble on my website.  Here's a link.  Looking forward to a great semester learning about great books, films, plays, poems, graphic novels, and multimedia for teens.

Graphic novel interview in ISU Report newsletter

Okay, it is rather cool to be featured in an article in ISU's Report Newsletter.  The article is about the Comics and Graphic Novels class I'm teaching again this spring, and still enjoying teaching it.  Here's a link to the article "Susina on the evolution of the graphic novel."

Mary Blair Googled!

Today would be Mary Blair's 100th birthday and to celebrate Google created a Google Doodle inspired by Mary Blair's art.  Very cool! 

Just wanted to mention again that I have a chapter in my book, The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature, on the Alice in Wonderland book that uses  Mary Blair's original artwork for the Disney film and Jon Scieszka's adaptation. That chapter essay, "Show Me, Don't (Re)Tell Me: Jon Scieszka Revisits Wonderland" is available in .pd format here.  Blair's work continues to show an amazing imagination but the usually funny and clever Scieszka seems a little intimated by adapating Carroll's work.  I'm working on a few other ideas related to Mary Blair's art as well.

Go Mary Blair! 

The Mary Blair Google Doodle.

more artwork from Mary Blair Disneyland exhibitFrom the Mary Blair exhibit at Disneyland in Summer 2011

Lewis Carroll book now available in paperback

My book, The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature, is now available in a paperback edition -- and at aThe Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature is available in paperback. lower price! Go to Amazon to get your copy.

I am thrilled that the Lewis Carroll book is in paperback because I think it will make it more accessible to scholars and readers, particularly those that can't access the library version.

Thanks to Routledge for bringing it out in paperback.

If you have a good comment, please consider posting it on the Amazon website.  Everything helps.

Thanks to the great reviews the book has already received.  These include Dorothy G. Clark's review in The Lion and the Unicorn (April 2010) and Claire Imholtz review in the Winter 2010 issue of The Knight Letter, which is The Newsletter of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Rod McGillis also had a kind review in Children's Literature, and I'll post on that soon.

Course descriptions for my summer & fall classes

Potential students at ISU for this summer's ENG 375: Young Adult Literature and next fall's ENG 272: Literature for Middle Grades can now read course descriptions and book lists for the sections that I will be teaching.

Course description for ENG 375: Young Adult Literature (in .pdf format). This is a four-week, intensive summer-session class that will meet Monday-Thursday 1--3:50 p.m from May 26 to June 9. Be prepared for a considerable amount of reading and writing during an interesting and challenging four-week course.  Attendance is crucial. Since you'll have the book lists, you might want to get a head start on reading now, if you're enrolled in this course.

Course description for ENG 272: Literature for Middle Grades (in .pdf format).  This course will be taught during the Fall 2011 semester and focuses on texts for children 9 - 13.  We will read fiction, including multicultural novels, non-fiction, including information books, and examine children's media and culture.  Be prepared for writing a research paper, a short paper, and several short writing assignments as well as pop quizzes and two exams.

As usual, I expect students to attend class regularly and to actively participate in class discussions. These courses have exams that you will be required to take.

For those of you interested in ENG 470: Topics in Children's Literature, the topic is going to be Tween Literature and Culture.  I am working on that course description.  Any graduate student who's interested might look at ENG 272 for some of the primary texts.  However, it will be different in scope and will have assignments and discussions geared toward the graduate-student level.  I think that there is a need to critically examine this popular and fast-growing segment of children's literature and culture, particularly for graduate students in children's literature.