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ENG 470: Topics in Children's Literature:

Children's Visual Culture from Picture Books to New Media

from Milner Library’s International Collection of Child Art

Syllabus and Presentation Schedule

Final class tonight (Dec. 15):  5:30 to 8:20.  I'm bringing pizza and drinks.

Links to Milner Library art project:

Children's Video Games and Websites

Articles to read for class

Articles and adult ideas on kids' video games.Little Big Planet characters

"Social Networking: A Parent's Guide"  information from the Federal Trade Commission on teaching kids virtual world safety

"Designing-websites-for-kids-trends-and-best-practices/est practices on how to attract kids"  from Smashing Magazine, a journal on web design.  Article explains why Club Penguin and other sites work, or don't.

Understanding Multimedia Learning.  Research, funded by BrainPop, on using educational technology (.pdf)

YouTube videos on analyzing video games and virtual websites

James Paul Gee on "Games and Learning" (1:47 min). From Edutopia on "Grading with Games." (3:58 min). on Global Kids in Teen Second Life from 2007a Pixie Hollow inhabitant

Katie Salen on digital media and learning from MacArthur Foundation. (1:38 min)

"Gaming in Education" from Indiana University School of Education, Robert Appelman. (2:44 Min) with Jackson Creek Middle School Kids

British TV reports on kids using Nintendo DS Brain Game in scientific study

Danah Boyd on "American Teens & Social Media" (7:10 min)

Popular virtual game sites for boys and girls include:

Club Penguin. Children are penguins who decorate their own igloos and waddel around the Club Penguin world.  Popular for parties, kids chatting and weekly newspaper.

Garden Party. Avatars are stylized kids.  They live in treehouses and grow magical objects which they can then use or trade.  Click "Watch video"  to learn about Garden Party.

PopTropica  PopTropica is published by Pearson Education division, so it has educational content. Also lots of puzzles and interactive sites.  More controlled environment than the 2 above.  Puzzles tend to be a little harder.

ToonTown:  good characters try to take over the bad guys (Lawyers and suits) by fighting with gags.  "Taking Over a Building" video shows how toons fight together against the Bossbots.  "ToonTown Funny VP" is similar by more amusing aAction on a PopTropica gamend you see more of ToonTown

Planet Cozmo  A virtual reality site that emphasizes tween/teen pop culture and music.

Nick.com.  Nickelodeon's website, one of the biggest for children with numerous games, links to tv shows and more.

Popular virtual game sites for just girls include:

Pixie Hollow: create a fairy and fly. Video tour of Pixie Hollow by a girl. "Slate's Visit" video of fairies interacting in Pixie Hollow (a review of Pixie Hollow)

BarbieGirls.com virtual reality  And an essay analyzing BarbieGirls.com by Sara Grimes.

BellaSara.  Tales about North of North's mysterious lost herds of horses.  Play online.

GirlGames4U.com  Several online games for girls that feature dress-up characters, restaurants, nail salons and Miley Cyrus.

My Princess Academy  Online site with games on how to be a princess. Article about founder

Educational and entertaining games for middle schoolersMoby robot on BrainPop

Videos of first-person shooter and role playing action games

Izzy Neis's blog

Children's Television

Nickelodeon's website  and NickJr. for preschool set

SpongeBob SquarePants on Nickelodeon

RugRats on Nickelodeon

Ren and Stimpy on Nickelodeon

Blue's Clues on Nickelodeon

 Little Bear on Nickelodeon

Little Bill on Nickelodeon

Max and Ruby on Nickelodeon

Clarissa Explains It All on Nickelodeon

PBS Kids  and PBS Kids Go! for slightly older kids

Barney on PBS

Teletubbies on PBS

Arthur on PBS

Bill Nye the Science Guy

  • "The Three Little Pigs" through the engineer/sciencetific/architect lens of Bill Nye. A nursery rhyme of science.  YouTube. 1:10 min

Sesame Street on PBS

Disney Channel

Doug, which has aired on both Disney and Nickelodeon

Kim Possible on Disney

 Classic Children's Television

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Brian Selznick's site for The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Four color biography of Brian Selznick in .pdf format

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.

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

LA Times article on The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Automatons

George Melies and early cinema

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

Video of The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Brian Selznick.

Martin Scorsese interviewed while filming Invention of Hugo Cabret

From an email from Melody (Aronson) Debonnel

Dear Dr. Susina,

I had to share with you this wonderful treat I got yesterday. As  you may remember, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" is one of my favorite books, thanks to your graphic novel course. Well, I was going for a walk theBrian Selznick and Melody (Aronson) Debonnel at a bookstore in Paris other day, and just a couple blocks from my apartment is this lovely children's bookstore, and they had a large display in the window announcing that Selznick would be signing books. As it turns out, not only was he there, but they had another special treat for fans. Once we were seated, they dimmed the lights, and set up a projector that displayed the beautiful images from the text, one after the other, to make it feel like a real movie. When they got to a part with text, actor Nicolas Moreau (using a booklight so the lights could stay dim to maintain the sense that it was a theater) read the story. He was simply wonderful! He read/ the projector displayed the first five or six chapters (until the scene with the fire). After the show, Selznick spoke to a few of us about the train stations he'd used as inspiration. One woman who was there with her grandchildren shared that he had helped her remember the works of Méliès-- apparently this is a common sentiment! At any rate, it was just fantastic.

P.S. I included a picture (yes, I am one of those annoying fans that has to have a picture taken, but it's not often I get to meet authors I adore!). At any rate, you can see the projector in the back, to give you a sense of how it was set up, with Selznick's signing area on the left. He commented that only in France would he be brought a bottle of champagne at a children's bookstore signing!

 

Toon Books

Toon Books' website

Professor Garfield's Toon Book website

Francoise Mouly video interview segment "Comic Books: Good for Kids?" on bigthink.com (2.17 min).  Shows Toon Books images

Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly at the Strand Book Store in New York City 9/10/09.  Promoting the Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics and talking in detail about comics, particularly for children and Toon Books. Part 1 of 9 parts.  YouTube Video.  each segment is about 7 - 9 minutes.

Geoffrey Hayes, author of award winning Benny and Penny Toon Book, The Big No-No and over 40 picture books posts on Imagination Soup "Building Reading Skills Through the Language of Comics"

"Luke on the Loose" a kids' readers' theater version at Brooklyn Arts Exchange.  Vimeo. about 3 min.

Video persuing Toon Treasurey of Classic Children's Comics. YouTube 3 min.

Nadja Spiegelman. School Visit. Zig & Wikki Reading. Vimeo Video :38 seconds

Graphic novels and comics

Scott McCloud's website

Comixology discussing comicsDrawing by Alison Bechdel

Sequential Tart a webzine by women about the comicx world

Comic Book Resources

The Comics Journal

Chris Ware's website for Random House

Art Spiegelman's website for Random House

Lynda Barry's website

 Alison Bechdel.  Her website is Dykes to Watch Out For: Life in a Box

Craig Thompson's website Doot Doot Garden

sketches by Craig Thompson for Blankets

Website devoted to Krazy Kat and Coconino County.  Lots of color and b/w images..  Good historyChris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan

Good Edward Gorey site with page by page of text and illustrations from three books

Official Charles Schulz website

The Acme Comic store website in Normal 

Gene Kannenberg's Comic Research website

International Journal of Comic Arts website

 ImageText: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies (University of Florida)

Lambiek Comiclopedia

The Drawn and Quarterly website

 Brian Selznick The Invention of Hugo Cabret website

Gene Yang's website HumbleComics

A Brief History of the Graphic Novel by Stan Tychinski

Comics database

Babymouse by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm

Babymouse by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm

Babymouse official website, housed at Random House

Jennifer Holm's website. a co-creator of Babymouse 

Matthew Holm's official website. a co-creator of Babymouse 

Interview with Jennifer and Matthew Holm about their Babymouse series.  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. June 24, 2008

Jennifer Holm, Babymouse author, and Jacob when she was at the Champaign Public Library in 2009.

 Alphabet Books

David MacaulayDavid Macaulay in his studio

Section of video that is part of an exhibit on David Macaulay, especially his childhood. Second section of the     video, which was initially prepared by Norman Rockwell Museum on Macaulay. Essay about this exhibit, with a few good illustrations by Macaulay.

David Macaulay's website.  Click on "watch video" for several short videos on how he works.David Macaulay discusess his work at a TED conference. 21 minute talk about his creative process and focusing on his book about Rome.

PBS show of Macaulay talking about ancient Rome cities and his Cities book. Google video. 1 hr.

Tacoma Art Museum's exhibit on David Macaulay in 2009

Building Books.  Macaulay exhibit at RISD in 2009.

PBS series "Buiding Big" focuses on explaining architecture through Macaulay's work.  This page features a transcript of an interview with him. 

The Great Pyramid of Giza documentary
Educational ideas for using Pyramid in class, with many good links about Pyramids and Ancient Egypt 

David Macaulay speaks at MIT about creating his books. 1hour talk.

Discovering more about Ancient Egypt

Review in Wired of Macaulay's Built to Last

David Macaulay receives the Eric Carle Honor Award in 2010. Article in Publisher's Weekly. Nov. 18, 2010

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 Picture Book Art (.pdf format) Block

Link to open pdf of a May 2008 Vogue article about Virginia Lee Burton

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

Fish Tail design by Virginia Lee (Burton) Demetrios. Click on link to Folley Cove Designer website. Check out Life magazine article

 

  Caldecott winner

 

 

Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak's 1963 Where The Wild Things Are received the 1964 Caldecott Award, for picture book of the year.Maurice Sendak

Caledecot Medal Acceptance talk by Sendak (.pdf) from his book Caledecott & Co.

Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, which has the best collection of Sendak materials.

Rosenbach Museum's DVD segment on Sendak on his work, childhood, inspiration.  YouTube. 10 min.  Sendak on what being an illustrator means.  YouTube. 3 min.  Sendak on his childhood and movies.  YouTube. 1 min.     Sendak on Images and Words. You Tube 2:25 minScene from Where The Wild Things Are film

Original Wild Things animated short. YouTube video 6:50 min.

  Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, 1963

"A Conversation with Maurice Sendak" by Jennifer Ludden on NPR, June 4, 2005, with additional links

Terrible Yellow Eyes, website devoted to other artists' renditions of Wild Things

Horn Book interview with Sendak. Nov./Dec. 2003 by Roger Sutton

Jan Susina discusses the popularity of Where the Wild Things Are book and film with R.C. McBride on WJBC Oct 19, 2009.  Link to mp3 file

Crockett JohnsonThe Carrot Seed by Crockett Johnson

artwork by Paul Klee

Mies van der Rohe information. "Less is More"

Carrot Seed record information with album cover art and mp3 

Brief biography of Crockett Johnson on Lambiket.net 

Sony Pictures' website for the TV series "Harold and the Purple Crayon." includes brief video promo.

Mathematical paintings by Crockett Johnson at the National Museum of American History

Phil Nell's Crockett Johnson page

Crockett Johnson biographical information

Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter and Benjamin Bunny, on a lead.

Frederick Warne, official pubblisher of Beatrix Potter  Information on Potter, games, news, eating healthy.

Beatrix Potter's life in Cumbria.  Lots of info about her life there, many book suggestions, photographs, and info about the film Miss Potter

"The Tale of Miss Potter" Daily Telegraph article about the film Miss Potter and her life in England. (16 Dec. 2006)

Beatrix Potter, Fabulist.  Online exhibit from Cotsen Children's Library at Princeton.  Click on the images on top of the screen.

A biography of Potter from University of Pittsburgh site.

The Beatrix Potter Society website.

The National Trust's homes of Beatrix Potter and links to more information about her.

 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel

Carroll's drawing from a Rectory MagazineLewis Carroll's drawing of himself

The caterpillar with hookah in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Illustration John TennielFrog footman by John Tenniel

The Mad-Hatter's Tea Party by John Tenniel

 The White Rabbit by John TennielAlice Liddell as a flower girl. Photographed by Lewis Carroll

Last page of original version by Lewis Carroll

"'A Grotesque Old Woman' (1513)" by Quentin Massys

Alice and the Duchess by Tenniel

Lincoln's Two Difficulties. 1862 political cartoon for Punch magazine by John Tenniel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Lewis Carroll. Photograph by O.J. Reijlander

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 ChannelAlice 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

Lucy Crane's Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Walter Crane.

Bluebeard's Picture Book. Illustrations by Crane 1899Abroad by Ellen Houghton, illustrated by Walter Crane (1882). Click on image for more from book.

Walter Crane. Beauty and the Beast. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1874

Childhood & Globalization: An International Colloquium. Sept. 13-17, 2010.  Remember: Our class is attending the Wednesday evening session rather than our regular meeting time & place.  See you there!

I Took the Moon for a Walk by Carolyn Curtis & Alison Joy

Picture This by Molly Bang

Picture This by Molly Bang

Molly Bang's website

Molly Bang & Visual Basics
View more presentations from jadeblue.From website by Marvin Bartel
More links on visual basics

Upcoming readings

"Painkiller Deathstreak" by Nicholson Baker.  The New Yorker. Aug. 9, 2010. Or, link to a .pdf of the essay here.

"Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8-12 year olds" a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Readings of note

 "Picture Books No Longer A Staple for Children" from the New York Times, Sept. 2010 (.pdf format)

Visual Literacy Resources

Interesting links related to course

 YouTube video ad of iPhone being inserted into picturebook. (1:52min)

Visual literacy introduction a PowerPoint document

American Library Association's Banned Book Week.