Children's Literature

(Be ready to take notes)

Main Links for Studying Children's Literature

• Dr. Janice Patten's Study Questions on Books studied in Children's Literature and Young Adult Literature courses
• Add comments and insights into Children's Literature: Visit the Discussion Board

• Children's Literature Web Guide: Provides links to most children's literature sites in the world, for beginners and experienced.
• A new database for Children's literature
• Primis English---books, essays, poetry for grades 1-8. complete and very helpful.
• A wonderful place to find specialized sites for children's and adolescent literature
• Perry Nodelman's Guide to Criticism of Children's Literature--currently being worked on
• An On-Line Book-- Children's Literature: Guide to Criticism
• Internet book discussions about children's literature
• Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site
• Ms.Smith's English page
• Bear Hugs--Front Entrance to the Enchanted Forest
• Propp's classic mythical patterns

Picture Books

• Chris Van Allsburg: Basic information and one image (so far)
• Chris Van Allsburg--The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
  • Examples of a few "beginnings" of stories from students
• views on Where the Wild Things Are and fantasy
• Analyses of Picture books from Kay Vandergrift's site.
• List of Hispanic-Latin American images in picture books
• List of Asian-American images in picture books
• List of Native-American images in picture books
• List of Japanese-Chinese Picture books

Early Childhood Reading Books

• Dr. Suess Home Page
• Seussville
• "A Noiseless Patient Spider" by Walt Whitman

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Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Science Fiction and Sendak
• views on Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are and fantasy
• Ursula le Guin's Introduction to Left Hand of Darkness

Novels

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

• Charlotte's Web site
• Student Activities
• Weaving Charlotte's Web--using technology in the third grade
• E. B. White: Resource for Teachers

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

• SCORE Teachers' Guide
• Tuck Everlasting Web site--discussion, questions, guides to other subjects, lesson plans
• Tuck Everlasting: Cooperative Activities

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

• The Narnia Link
• C.S. Lewis's central site with articles etc.
• An excellent Narnia Site
• Into the Wardrobe
• The Chronicles of Narnia Web site--a really informative place
• A crossword puzzle and all sorts of related items to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• C. S. Lewis Classic Books: Discussion guides and many other excellent sources for adult readers of C. S. Lewis's other works

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

• Sample Questions according to Bloom's Taxonomy
• A pretty thorough summary and analysis (plus educational rationale)
• Beyond Books--a smattering of questions
• Lesson Plans and Resources
  • More lesson plans
  • A summary and analysis by Eric Petersen
• Katherine Paterson's official web site

The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez

• An essay, "The Grapes of Wrath,"about Jimenez's life
• Study Questions for The Circuit
  • Notice from Francisco Jimenez
  • An essay, "The Grapes of Wrath,"about Jimenez's life
  • Watch a live performance of Jimenez
  • The Rise of the United Farm Workers Union--an historical account
  • Books that explore Butterfly tales--Jimenez's La Mariposa
    • See reviews of Jimenez's new book: Breaking Through
• Qualitative analysis of self-narratives

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

• Weaving the Web--third grade and the internet
• Teaching Charlotte's Web--activities
• E. B. White--from HarperCollins
• E. B. White's own story
• Teacher Resource Page for E. B. White

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

• C. S. Lewis site--Into the Wardrobe
• Narnia
• C. S. Lewis and the Inklings
• The Chronicles of Narnia Web site--a really informative place
• A crossword puzzle and all sorts of related items to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• C. S. Lewis Classic Books: Discussion guides and many other excellent sources for adult readers of C. S. Lewis's other works

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

• Interview with Christopher Paul Curtis at Powell's Book Store
• Biography of Christopher Paul Curtis
• Another Biography
• Bud, Not Buddy lesson plan
  • Teacher's guide
  • Web-based teacher's unit
  • web-based thematic unit for students
  • Photos of the Depression era
  • Big Band and the Jazz Hall of Fame
  • The Great Depression--on the History channel.com
  • Tunes and music from the Depression era

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

• A super visual site for Harry Potter--excerpts from the movie
• The Harry Potter Lexicon
  • Word Meanings and Word/Name Derivations in Harry Potter books
  • Other games and exercises on Harry Potter
• Articles from the NYTimes on Harry Potter
  • Daily Lesson Plan from the NYTimes on Harry Potter
  • Another Daily Lesson Plan on Harry Potter books
• "The Dark Underbelly of Writing Children's books" from NYTimes, July 8, 2000
• Harry Potter and J. K.. Rowling at Scholastic --a great site from the US publisher
• Childhood friend of Rowling provided original concept of Harry
  • Harry Potter in the News--January 26, 2000
  • A new Children/YA site from UK: view to find out more about Rowling
    • An Interview at Amazon.com with Rowling
    • a newspaper column by Joanne Jacobs---rational comments about censoring the Potter series
      • Salon.com site: Harry Potter
      • Harry Potter and Girl Trouble: The feminist article discussed in class March 13
  • Discussion questions for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Discussion guide written by Kylene Beers and Teri Lesesne at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas. **TM & © 1997-99 Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved.
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: an activity guide by Nancy Polette, with questions
  • Questions and Answers to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  • A Reading Response by William Brown from English 112B, Spring 2000
  • Another Reading Response by Francesa Ferracuti
  • Cyber guide to Harry Potter
  • Harry Potter Class Findings--more to come
  • A Unit Plan by Allison Moss-Fritch for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
  • "At Last Harry Gets Back to School"--a review of Book IV from The New York Times

Cousins--Philomel, 1990 ISBN 0399221646. Hardcover, Paperback.
The cousins are two girls, Cammy and Patty Ann. Cammy has a good relationship with most of her family
but her relationship with her grandmother, Tut, is particularly strong and loving. Patty Ann, however, is a
different cup of tea. She's beautiful and smart but spoiled, selfish and rude. In exasperation, Cammy wishes
Patty Ann were dead. Then Patty Ann drowns. Not only that, Patty Ann dies a hero by rescuing another
cousin, Elodie. Cammy must handle guilt and remorse and it's her loving family, particularly Gram Tut that
helps her through it. The book is short but the characters are fully developed.

• Virginia Hamilton Home Page
• Excerpt from Illusion and Reality
• Virginia Hamilton--lesson plans etc.
• Bibliography
• Discussion guide for Second Cousins and Cousins

Holes

• Study Questions for Holes
• Brief Biography of Louis Sachar
• the Absurd in connection with Sisyphus--consider in connection with Stanley Yelnats.
• A complete and thorough discussion of Post-Structuralism
• A brief quotation from Alice in Wonderland
• the Absurd in connection with Sisyphus--consider in connection with Stanley Yelnats.
• Deconstruction--by Jack Lynch
• A complete and thorough discussion of Post-Structuralism

The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsberg

• Teacher's cyber gude--score
• supplemental unit on View
• Bookclub and Lesson Plan and Teacher discussions on View
• Web Links for View--turtle information and calligraphy
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• "A Noiseless Patient Spider" by Walt Whitman

The Little Prince

• The Little Prince--first chapter and "the hat."
• The Prince: an explication and research project by Jacqui Ghodsi

Eighth grade Reading List

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But how do I do all of this? Skills and other important information. Visit my pages on writing and poetry.

• Key Points to Remember When Writing Reading Responses
• Suggestions for writing strong literary interpretations
• Student Examples of Reading Responses
• Close Reading: 12 steps to recovery of literary awareness (Explication de texte)
• How to Read a Book: instructions on how to read, how to mark up a text, condensed from Mortimer Adler
• Literary Terms with definitions
• Poems for Children's Literature and Young Adult Literature
• William Wordsworth's Spots of Time
• Optical Illusions related to the way we read texts
• Example from Chapter 1 of The Little Prince
• Format for turning in papers (more general, but still correct)
• Understanding Children: developmental theories of childhood--for Research Paper
• Lesson Plans: how to do--see teaching link
• Common Grammatical Errors to avoid
• Need help writing a thesis statement?

Writings by Graham Patten, when he was 14-years old