children's lit suggestions

I just love this site - I've been sneaking peaks peeks (ouch) all day long. I wish my online classes looked like this.

Any fun suggestions for books that must be included? The list is due at the book store two weeks ago!

So many of our books for really young children are not here in the States with us. Actually I'm wondering about some of them -- which language do we have them in? I'll check the closed room in Beer Sheva in December (words mr. t. dreads like almost no others!).

Comments

[Alice]

Great site! Thanks!

[Jane Dark]

That site is fantastic!

I'm curious -- what books are you thinking of so far? Are you focusing on fantasy/fairytales like the Redwall series, or more local-color works like Girl of the Limberlost/Freckles and Betsy-Tacy? (Or another sort of view altogether?)

[Abbi]

I took a children's lit course in college and I LOVED it. In fact, I used a lot of the Joseph Campbell we learned to write a great paper in grad school.

I hope you will include picture books in addition to fairy tales. If you do, I highly suggest any of the following;

Any Maurice Sendak (but "In the Night Kitchen", Really Rosie and Where the Wild things Are" are musts)

Maira Kalman - I think you would find her very interesting as a personality and an author (she currently has a visual monthly blog on NYTimes.com)

I just dug up this very interesting book to my daughter from my pile: "There's a Nightmare in my Closet" by Mercer Meyer-- so anti-contemporary childhood.

[What Now?]

Are you focusing mostly on contemporary lit, or doing a more historically sweeping course, or focusing on a particular genre, or what?

I've done a more historically specific course (The Golden Age of Children's Literature, 1865-1914) and had great luck with Anne of Green Gables (which the students found hilarious), Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, and A Little Princess. I almost didn't do the latter because I thought it would turn off the male students, but in fact everyone enjoyed it.

Children's Lit is one of my favorite things to teach -- I hope you'll have a great course!