Simmons College

Department/Program:
English/Center for the Study of Children’s Literature

Institution Address:
300 The Fenway
Boston, MA
02115-5898
USA

Degree(s) granted:
M.A. in Children’s Literature
M.F.A. in Writing for Children
M.A./M.F.A. joint degree
M.A./M.A.T. dual degree

Faculty involved in the program:
Cathryn M. Mercier (Director) cathryn.mercier@simmons.edu
Kelly Hager kelly.hager@simmons.edu
Susan P. Bloom (emerita) susan.bloom@simmons.edu

Courses offered:
CHL 401: Criticism of Literature for Children
Develops the individual critical voices of students and acquaints them with the literary canon and a variety of literacy perspectives through exposure to many influential schools of literacy criticism. Applies critical skills in the examination of a range of novels (realism and fantasy), short stories, biographies, nonfiction, and translated works published for children.

CHL 403: The Picturebook
Explores picturebooks and their histories in detail. Considers medium, technique, and technology to investigate the development of the picturebook as a distinct artistic form. Develops a discerning eye and critical vocabulary essential for appraising text and illustration.

CHL 404: Poetry for Young Readers
Analyzes contemporary poetry accessible to children and young adults, following a brief historical overview of children’s poetry. Studies influential individual poets as well as respected anthologies as a means of developing a critical sense of poetry and identifying poetry that sings for young readers.

CHL 411: Victorian Children’s Literature
Examines the wide variety of Victorian literature written for children, from fairy tales and nonsense verse to didactic fiction and classic examples of the Victorian bildungsroman. Authors may include Lewis Carroll, Charles Kingsley, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Dinah Mulock Craik, Christina Rossetti, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charlotte Mary Yonge, and Rudyard Kipling.

CHL 413: Contemporary Realistic Fiction for Young Adults
Studies the adolescent’s quest for a sense of self as she or he must struggle to affirm identity in ever-expanding Joycian circles of influence. Focuses on fiction published for both young adults and adults, drawing from the work of Brock Cole, Robert Cormier, M.E. Kerr, Chris Lynch, Kyoko Mori, Walter Dean Myers, and Virginia Euwer Wolff, among others.

CHL 414: Fantasy and Science Fiction
Provides a historical study and critical analysis of the development of fantasy and science fiction for children. Traces the growth of themes and genres in works studied and examines underlying themes as serious expressions of human hopes and fears in the past and for the future.

CHL 416: Modern British Fiction for Young People
Involves lectures, workshops on books and extracts, discussions, and student input in various form to survey contemporary British authors and illustrators and trends. Uses specific authors and genres to direct a critical discussion of how to talk about British children's and young adult books.

CHL 417: Canadian Children’s Literature
Examines Canadian children’s books in English as they reflect the evolution from a colonial to a pluralistic society, including a study of domestic and historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction, the realistic animal story, picturebooks, and folklore. Uses examples of children’s books from other Commonwealth nations, especially Australia and New Zealand, for comparison and contrast.

[CHL 418: Australian Children’s Literature
Not offered in 2006-2008.]
Examines the growth of an indigenous literature for children and its contemporary flowering in both writing and illustrating. Emphasizes work published since 1970, except for some major writers such as Ivan Southall, Patricia Wrightson, Joan Phipson, and Eleanor Spense. Includes all genres.

CHL 420: Project-Thesis Tutorial
Requires preparation of a monograph, essay, or bibliographic compilation with a scholarly orientation.

CHL 421: History of Children’s Book Publishing
Surveys the history of children’s book publishing in the U.S. and then focuses on the various stages of the contemporary children’s book publishing process – editing, art direction and design, and marketing. Practitioners from each of these areas will share their expertise and involvement in the evolution of a book’s creation. The final assignment requires that each student will develop a publishing project and show how such a book would be published.

[CHL 423/Eng 423: 19th Century American Children’s Literature
Not offered in 2006-2008]
This course will focus on literature written in America during the nineteenth century for children, including both canonical (Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott) and noncanonical writers (Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Susan Warner, Maria Cummins). Presents an historical overview of the genre, an advanced seminar in American literature and culture, and an in-depth inquiry into one of the most important and influential areas of children’s literature.

CHL 425: Folk and Fairy Tales
Examines fairy and folktales from classical origins to modern anthologies, orality to literacy, focusing on the Grimms and the phenomenon they canonized. Considers the cultural and psychological messages encoded in the tales, the various frames placed around them by their tellers (old women, male philologists, jongleurs, and modern anthologizers), and the various historical and social functions tales have filled at different times. Also surveys the major 19th and 20th century schools of tale interpretation. Develops skills in close reading and analysis of tales.

[CHL 426: The Child in Fiction
not offered in 2006-2008]
Examines art, literature, history, and critical theory as well as education, psychology, and media studies to consider the multiple ways literature about and for children constructs notions of childhood. Addresses portrayals of race, class, and gender in children’s books that take childhood itself as subject. Includes readings crossing age (from picturebooks to young adult novels) and genre (folklore, poetry, fantasy, and realism).

CHL 430: Writing for Children I
Investigates the process of writing fiction for children through written assignments and class discussion of both assignments and of published books. Examines different narrative forms and techniques and the elements and development of a story. Includes individual conferences and an opportunity to work on individual projects if desired. Requires a willingness to participate and experiment, but previous creative writing experience is not necessary.

CHL 431: Writing for Children II
Investigates the process of writing fiction for children through written assignments and class discussion of both assignments and of published books. Examines different narrative forms and techniques and the elements and development of a story. Includes individual conferences and work on projects in process.

CHL 425: Contemporary Considerations: The Writer’s Achievement
Provides a rare opportunity to examine the entire body of a writer’s work. Develops critical skills through study of the completed works of three important writers of children’s literature. Requires corollary readings of literary criticism pertaining to each author. A book-by-book exploration of the writer’s evolution, style, themes, ideology, and ultimately achievement with an eye to the connections between books and to the author’s work as a whole.

CHL 436: Nonfiction: The New Frontier in Children’s Books
Studies the vital and diverse genre of children’s nonfiction. Considers the history of the genre while focusing on contemporary nonfiction titles and authors. Discusses varied issues that the field generates, including its intersections with fiction. Substantially considers biographies from picture books through young adult fiction.

ChL 441: M.F.A. Mentorship I
Provides M.F.A. students individual mentoring from a children’s book author, editor, or critic to develop a single project from its initial conception to submission in manuscript form to a publishing house.

ChL 442: M.F.A. Mentorship
Provides M.F.A. students individual mentoring from a children’s book author, editor, or critic to develop a single project from its initial conception to submission in manuscript form to a publishing house.

CHL 450: Independent Study
Provides students an opportunity to study a topic of their choosing in the area of curriculum development or literature education. Project should have practical application to the candidate’s professional work and represent a model for use by others.

CHL 500: Summer Symposium in Children’s Literature
Examines all genres of children’s literature, from picture book through young adult novel, nonfiction, and poetry, through a thematic lens. Culminates in a long weekend in which authors, illustrators, editors, and critics of children’s literature bring their unique vision to the theme. Past summer symposia have been “Let’s Dance” (2005),“Midnight Gardens” (2003), “Brave New Worlds” (2001), “Halos and Hooligans” (1999), and “As Time Goes By”(1997).

For more information:
http://www.simmons.edu/gradstudies/childrens_literature/index.shtml