ENG 470: Studies in Literature of Young People

Children's Visual Narratives: Picture Books, Illustrated Books, Comics & Graphic Novels

Syllabus for Fall 2018 Course

Required Texts:

• Perry Nodelman.  Words about Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books.
• Nick Sousanis. Unflattening. Harvard UP.
• Chip Kidd. Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design.  Workman Publishing.
• Heinrich Hoffmann.  Struwwelpeter in English Translation. Dover.
• Lewis Carroll.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass. Illustrated by John Tenniel. Ed. Hugh Haughton, Penguin.
• Beatrix Potter. The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Warne.
• Virginia Lee Burton. The Little House. HMH Books for Young Readers.
• Margaret Wise Brown. Goodnight Moon. Illustrated by Clement Hurd. Harper Trophy.
• Maurice Sendak. Where the Wild Things Are. Harper Trophy.
• Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat. Random House.
• Elsa Holmelund Minark. Little Bear. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Harper Trophy.
• Ezra Jack Keats. The Snowy Day. Puffin Books.
• Faith Ringgold. Tar Beach. Dragonfly Books.
• John Scieszka. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Illustrated by Land Smith. Puffin Books.
• Art Spiegelman & Francoise Mouly. Eds. Big Fat Little Lit. Puffin Books.
• Raina Telgemeier. Sisters. Graphix Scholastic.
• Brian Selznick.  The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  Scholastic.
• Lynda Barry. One Hundred Demons. Sasquatch Books.
• Joseph Gibaldi.  MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Eighth edition.  MLA.

Sendak: Where the Wild Things Are

• Getting to Know Maurice Sendak: 1985 interview on video.
• Maurice Sendak, In His Own Words: Where The Wild Things Are. Video.

Nick Sousanis. Unflattening

Link to Sousanis website: Spin Weave and Cut.  Link to "Frames of Thought" post

Hilary Chute's "Comics as Literature? Reading Graphic Narrative" JStor link and here's the .pdf of article

Charles Hatfield's "An Art of Tension" .pdf

Maps in Children's Books

• Slap Happy Larry blog post on maps in children's literature
• "From Middle Earth to Hundred Acre Wood: putting fiction on the Map" by Ciara Murphy in The Guardian
• "Imaginary Maps in Literature & Beyond: Children's Stories" by Tim St. Onge at Library of Congress

Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter

• VCU comprehensive page with links on Struwwelpeter
• Struwwelpeter museum, in German, but interesting!
• Struwwelpeter with cool graphic designs and updated imagesfrom American artist Bob Staake.  NPR interview by Liane Hansen of Staake about his Struwwelpeter. (April 9, 2006)
• Animated version, in black-and-white, of The story of Little Suck-a Thumb.
• Oompah Loompah's song about Augustus Gloop from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film.  remove dby YouTube
• And just for fun, a Struwwelpeter quiz.

 Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit

• Frederick Warne's Beatrix Potter/Peter Rabbit site
• "How Beatrix Potter invented character merchandising" from The Smithsonian.
• William Moebius "Introduction to Picturebook Codes" Word & Image. April - June 1986

Lewis Carroll's Alice books

• 
• The British Library's virtual tour of the original manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground.  1. Opening description with images only (not as interactive).  .  2. Shockwave version so it's easy to turn pages. 3.  A page with link to Silverlight version (most interactive)
• Jan Susina's interview with Martin Gardener on Annotated Alice from Five Owls. (.pdf file)
• Lewis Carroll Society of North America.  Filled with links.  Lewis Carroll home page, hosted by the LCSNA.
• Lenny's Alice in Wonderland page.  Good links to basic info on the book.
• Victorian Website links on Lewis Carroll
• Lewis Carroll's scrapbook from Library of Congress
• Illustrations of Alice that are not by Tenniel
• Florence Milner's 1903 essay explaining poems in Alice and original
• Lesson Plan for teaching Alice in high school. From Discovery Channel
• 
• Alice near the jury box, as illustrated by John Tenniel
• Pronouncing Liddell
• Ruth Ann Zarnoff's interactive Alice site.
• Tim Burton talks with Johnny Depp about Alice in Wonderland and Batman in LA Times (Oct. 15, 2008)
• Blog on Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland and pop culture related materials
• Notes on Mary Blair's idea illustrations for Disney's Alice in Wonderland that have been reposition into an Alice book with text by Jon Scieszka
• Penguin Books USA's reader's guide to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.  Middle school and high school level.
• Cooper-Hewitt Museum video of page-by-page of Tony Sarg's Treasure Book.  Video focuses on Alice in Wonderland and shows the pop-ups and details. YouTube. 1.5 min.
• Trailer for 1999 television version of Alice in Wonderland. YouTube 1 min.
• Unusual online text version with illustrations by many artists from many books.  A Bedtime Story Classic
• Link to information on Jan Susina's The Place of Lewis Carroll in Children's Literature

Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House 

• "Making Picture Books" Burton's talk in .pdf format
• Link to Houghton Mifflin's office Mike Mulligan site
• Link to podcast of interview of director and producer of documentary on Virginia Lee Burton (22 min
• Link to website of documentary about Virginia Lee Burton, A Sense of Place (2008)
• Link to catalogue of Virginia Lee Burton exhibit at the Eric Carle Museum of
• Link to librarian Elizabeth Bird's blog about Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House.  includes the Disney animated video (8 min) based on the book.  Bird, writing on Publisher's Weekly site, is also fond of Mike Mulligan.
• Photo is of Virginia Lee Burton in her studio in Cape Ann, Massachusetts

Margaret Wise Brown's Good Night Moon

Margaret Wise Brown informationMargaret Wise Brown

HarperCollin's 60th anniversary site for Good Night Moon

Link to every MW Brown book with illustrations & bibliographic info

YouTube related videos

• Good Night Moon animated video with Susan Sarandon reading.
• Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd.
• Samuel L. Jackson reading Go the F to Sleep.  One minute introduction, then he begins with illustrations.

Clement HurdThe Little Island (under Golden MacDonald pen name). Illus.Leonard Weisgard

 A few books by Margaret Wise Brown

Readings for October 2

• Joe Sutliff Sanders. "Chaperoning Words: Meaning-Making in Comics and Picture books" from Children's Literature. Vol 41. 2013
• Lawrence R. Sipe. "The Art of the Picturebook."
• Virginia Lee Burton. "Making Picture Books" (Acceptance Paper 1943)

Dr. Seuss

• "Picturebooks and Comics" article by Lara Saguisag (.pdf)
• Snafu videos from World War II on YouTube

• Private Snafu - Spies (1943)
• Private Snafu Fighting Tools

  Dr. Seuss book

• Random House's website for Dr. Seuss
• Dr. Seuss Goes to War. The Mandeville Collection 
• "The Political Dr. Seuss." a presentation on PBS' Independent Lens 
• Dr. Seuss National Memorial in Springfield, Massachusetts. History of Ted Geisel
• Snopes message board with people commenting on Dr. Seuss' political cartoons 
• 
• 5000 Fingers of Dr. T film links
• Promo video for 5,000 fingers of Dr. T  (YouTube) 
• "Ten Little Fingers" song from 5,000 Fingers from Dr. T movie. (YouTube)37 sec. Catchy tune.
• "Just Because We're Kids" song.from 5,000 Fingers. (YouTube) 1:52.
• Climax of movie when kids revolt at pianos. from 5,000 Fingers
• Opening to animated version of "The Cat in the Hat." version co-produced by Dr. Seuss. YouTube. 2:09 minutes
• What it would sound like if Led Zepplin sang Dr. Seuss books. Mike Rayburn sings in this YouTube video. 1:04 seconds.  Amusingly smart. 

Little Bear by Else Minarik and Maurice Sendak

• Sendak's fantasty sketches
• "Birthday Soup" from Nickelodeon Little Bear show.  YouTube.  7 min.
• "I'm Going to the Moon" from Nickelodeon's Little Bear show. YouTube. 7:27 min.
• HarperCollins site for Little Bear books.  Brief biography on Else Minarik
• New Hampshire Public Radio interview of Minarik from 2003.  (Requires Windows Media player or Mac adapter for Quicktime.)
• Links on book editor Ursula Nordstrom.  Review of Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom by Rebecca Pepper Sinkler (New York Times March 22, 1998)  Review of Dear Genius by Katherine Wolfe in Salon April 13, 1998.  Hornbook's obituary of Nordstrom by Mary Stolz (1988)

Diversity in Children's Picture Books

Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day

• Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.  Official website.
• Ezra Jacket Keats virtual exhibit, from the deGrummond collection
• Art Exhibition: The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keatsat The Jewish Museum in New York.
• An article about the exhibit in The New York Times "Homage to a Picture Book Rebel" (12/8/11)
• Overview video of the exhibit by The Jewish Museum. YouTube 4:28 min
• The Snowy Day read aloud on YouTube
• Biographical video on Keats on YT (3:36)
• Nancy Larrick's essay "The All White World of Children's Books." This is a pdf document that links to a copy of Larrick's essay originally published in The Saturday Review, September 11, 1965.

Johanna Drucker

"Artists's Book and Picturebooks"

Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach

• Faith Ringgold's website.
• PBS website on Faith Ringgold.  PBS Video interview with Ringgold
• Ringgold talks about creating the Tar Beach quilt. YT. 3:49

Design Matters

article by Jon Scieszka

Chip Kidd's Kidd's GO: Guide to Graphic Design

• Official website of Chip Kidd
• Go: The book's Tumblr
• Chip Kidd's TED talk
• Inside Random House: "The Art of Cover Design" with Chip Kidd and numerous publishing people. YouTube
• Book Cover Archive: Chip Kidd's book covers
• "Chip Kidd: Start Making Sense" by Julie Lasky. Oct. 16, 2013. The New York Times. he talks about writing his graphic design book for kids
• Q&A with Chip Kidd at Publisher's Weekly. Oct. 17, 2013.
• Brain Pickings by Maria Popov analyzes Go: Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design.
• Chip Kidd guests DJ playlist at KCRW

Charles Schulz and Peanuts

Perry Nodelman "Picturebook Guy Looking at Comics:  Structural Differences in Two Kids of Visual Narratives." from The Lion and The Unicorn. 2012.

Art Spiegelman "Out of the Trash and into a Treasury." 

• official Charles Schulz website
• Charles M. Schulz museum website  
• Play the Peanutizer game: which character are you?
• Peanuts animation website, from MIT developer

YouTube videos on Schulz and Charlie Brown

• American Masters: Good Ol' Charles Schulz: PBS. 3:18
• "Charles Schulz Draws Charlie Brown"  from an unreleased documentary.
• Clip from A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1963)
• Genesis of A Charlie Brown Christmas 3:20
• Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson on genesis of A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Bill Melendez on animating A Charlie Brown Christmas 3:11
• American Master's website for documentary on Schulz.  
• Video segment from 1985 documentary about Schulz, especially on animated specials. 6:31 on YTV
• Video segment from American Master's documentary on Schulz creating Charlie Brown. 3:28 on YT 
• Author David Michaelis on Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts. 4:36 video on YT, 
• Clip from 1963 documentary "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" 4:36 video on YT
• Documentary: A Little Love: The Art of Bill Melendez.  YouTube.  9:31 min

"Comic Art, Children's Literature and the New Comic Studies" by Charles Hatfield published in The Lion and the Unicorn vol. 30.3 (Sept. 2006): 360-382. link to pdf of essay

Little Lit

• "A Mash Note to Crockett Johnson" by Dorothy Parker (.pdf).
• Little Lit site of Art Spiegelman and Francois Mouly.
• "Back to the Future" Time magazine article on Little Lit (2003).
• "It was a dark and silly night" by Neil Gaiman and Gahan Wilson from Little Lit. Animated version (5 min).
• "Comics for kids?" Review of Little Lit in January magazine by Claude Lalumière. Nov. 2000.

Comics and Graphic Novels

• Robin Brenner's "Comic and Graphic Novels" in .pdf format
• Robin Brenner's "Graphic Novels 101 in .pdf format
• Charles Hatfield's "Graphic Novels" in .pdf format

Raina TelgemeierRaina Telgemeier

• Raina Telgemeier's website.
• Charles Hatfield on graphic novels. encyclopedia entry.
• Scholastic's website for Smile.  Scroll down for short video, too. 
• First chapter of Smile, which began as a webcomic.  Scroll down to see entire comic in web form.
• NYC Graphic Novelists website has a long, lively interview with Raina Telgemeier. Feb 26, 2010.
• "Teeth Marks: An Interview with Raina Telgemeier" at the Graphic Novel Reporter website.
• School Library Journal's interview with Telgemeier from June 13, 2010.
• Girlamatic: a webcomics magazine where Telgemeier began Smile.
• The Baby-sitter's Club in graphic novel format by Telgemeier.  the Scholastic site.
• Raina Telgemeier visits the middle school of Churchill School, an independent school in New York City for kids with learning disabilities.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Brian Selznick's site for The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Brian Selznick talking about his childhood and writing books for children.  Video

Interview with Selznick for BookPage, "Every picture tells a story in Selznick's 'Invention' " 2007.

Hugo film released in November 2011

• Trailer for Hugo.  YT lasts 2:46. detailed.
• Official site for Hugo film
• Roger Ebert's review for Hugo
• Interviews with Scorsese and actors in Hugo film
• "Magical book behind Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' " Telegraph (11/29/11)

Hugo Cabret Quilt: The Value of Gears. A video on a quilt about Hugo Cabret.

Al Roker on the summer reading club of The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  Overview, Meliere images, & Roker talks with kids about book. Video. 7:30 min

LA Times article on The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Automatons

• Henri Maillardet's Automaton at The Franklin Institute.  video.  51 sec
• Franklin Institute's Maillardet Automation Demonstration (Nov 4, 2007).  Video. 7:11 min.
• Mechanics of Memory, information about automatons.
• Nancy, the automoaton who knits.  Video. 45 seconds
• Artist Automaton.  A contemporary automaton that draws.  Available in a kit.  Video

George Melies and early cinema 

Still from George Melies. A Trip to the Moon. 1902

• "A Trip to the Moon" 1902. Video.  6:52 min
• "The Vanishing Lady" 1896 Video 1:17 min 
• "The Astronomer's Dream" 1898 video 3:22 min
• Documentary on George Melies. Video. 15:14 min
• "Le Diable Noir" 1905 Video 3 min
• "The Train Arrives" The Lumiere Brothers 1895. 50 sec.

Video of The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Brian Selznick.

Martin Scorsese interviewed while filming Invention of Hugo Cabret

Lynda Barry

• Lynda Barry's "Two Questions" in .pdf
• Lynda Barry's website, in progress
• Marlys Magazine
• Hillary Chute interviews Lynda Barry in The Believer (.pdf)
• Interview with Lynda Barry on NPR radio program, June 2008
• "Lynda Barry will make you believe in yourself" article in The New York Times Oct. 2011.
• A fan's site to Lynda Barry, comprehensive, but not recently updated.
• News briefs featuring Lynda Barry (from Drawn and Quarterly site)
• A few links to her  book One Hundred Demons: At Copacetic Comics.  A Books Blog reviews it with photos