general information on the lectures

Every week, in addition to the novels, stories, poems, etc. that you are assigned, you are required to read the lecture material for that week. I recommend you read it early, even before you read the fiction; it will often give you some ideas to look for as you are reading. But if you fear that reading about the works in advance will spoil the surprise, you are welcome to read them after reading the fiction.

Some weeks the lectures go beyond one page; in those cases you will find "continue" links at the bottoms of those lecture pages. Be sure to read all of the lecture pages for the week. They will give you some new perspectives, some possible insights, some clues that will help you in your discussions and essay assignments.

the links

Use the links below to get to the lecture you want.

Lecture 1: Introduction to Children's Literature

Lecture 2: The History of Children's Literature

Lecture 3: Folk and Fairy Tales

Lecture 4: The Classics - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lecture 5: The Classics - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Lecture 6: The Classics - Boy and Girl Books

Lecture 7: Poetry

Lecture 8: Picture Books

Lecture 9: Some Contemporary Trends - Science Fiction

Lecture 10: Some Contemporary Trends - Historical Fiction

Lecture 11: Some Contemporary Trends - New Realism

Lecture 12: Censorship

You can also get to each week's lecture(s) from the course schedule page.