Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- African American Studies (2)
- American Literature (2)
- American Studies (2)
- Literature in English, British Isles (2)
- Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies (2)
-
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (1)
- Education (1)
- Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (1)
- Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching (1)
- Latin American Languages and Societies (1)
- Life Sciences (1)
- Literature in English, North America (1)
- Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority (1)
- Modern Literature (1)
- Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (1)
- Reading and Language (1)
- Secondary Education and Teaching (1)
- Teacher Education and Professional Development (1)
- Women's Studies (1)
- Keyword
-
- Children's literature (3)
- Common Core (2)
- A Christmas Carol (1)
- Adaptations (1)
- Adolescents (1)
-
- Black English (1)
- Bleach (1)
- Charles Dickens (1)
- Child (1)
- Childhood studies (1)
- Children and young adult literature (1)
- Children's (1)
- Children's Literature (1)
- Cinderella (1)
- Code-meshing (1)
- Code-switching (1)
- Comparative study (1)
- Demigod (1)
- Dialects (1)
- Digital writing (1)
- Disney (1)
- Early modern drama (1)
- Ecofeminism (1)
- English Language Arts (1)
- English Language Arts education (1)
- Environmental Injustice (1)
- Environmental Racism (1)
- Fairy tales (1)
- Fanfiction (1)
- Feminism (1)
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Children's and Young Adult Literature
Demigod And Delinquent: Percy Jackson And The American Teenager, Katie Weber
Demigod And Delinquent: Percy Jackson And The American Teenager, Katie Weber
Honors Theses
Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, the first novel in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, has achieved tremendous success with adolescent audiences nationwide since its original publication in 2005. Despite the widespread success of the books, the critical conversation about the novel and subsequent series remains fairly sparse. The existing critical literature on the series addresses its mythological aspects and adolescents’ reactions to the novel but does not analyze Percy’s status as an adolescent or what the novel suggests about adolescents as a whole through its portrayal of Percy. This thesis first provides an overview of the history of …
Coded: Dialect Diversity In The Secondary American Classroom, Madeline Dunn
Coded: Dialect Diversity In The Secondary American Classroom, Madeline Dunn
Honors Theses
This thesis explores the differences between dialects along racial, cultural, and ethnic lines with a specific focus on Black and Latine students inside the public secondary classrooms of America. The focus of the paper is on two linguistic tactics: “code-switching,” a linguistic practice which teaches students to separate their home language from the language they use in formal or professional settings, and “code-meshing,” a linguistic practice to teach students how to mesh together multiple dialects with which a student is familiar. Through the creation of a historical framework and an analysis of existing literature, theory, and pedagogical practices regarding the …
This Was The World And I Was King: Land And Identity In Scottish Children's Literature Of The Golden Age, Rodney Fierce
This Was The World And I Was King: Land And Identity In Scottish Children's Literature Of The Golden Age, Rodney Fierce
Dissertations
This dissertation focuses on Scottish cultural identity and its erasure in nineteenth-century British children’s literature as successful Scottish authors became known as British authors, and British children’s literature was canonized as the genre’s first Golden Age. Specifically, it explores the ways that Catherine Sinclair, George MacDonald, R. M. Ballantyne, Robert Louis Stevenson, J. M. Barrie, and Helen Bannerman—six popular nineteenth-century Scottish authors—maintain a sense of Scottishness in their adventure fiction. By reading the texts in the historical context of the authors’ biographies, I demonstrate that the land in their works and the benevolent colonizers allowed to control it in some …
“Part Of That (Man’S) World”: Analyzing “Cinderella” And “The Little Mermaid” Fairy Tale Variants Through A Feminist Lens, K. Morgan Mitchell
“Part Of That (Man’S) World”: Analyzing “Cinderella” And “The Little Mermaid” Fairy Tale Variants Through A Feminist Lens, K. Morgan Mitchell
Honors Theses
Fairy tales are often reduced to nothing more than the moral lesson that can be taught to children. However, when we move past the impulse to search for the simplified moral of the story, we can begin to ascertain the impact of fairy tales on different audiences. This thesis uses both impact theory, which yields a close reading of the textual and cinematic evidence, and reception research, which provides an opportunity to discuss the significance of the material by speculating about the message that readers receive. Under consideration are four variants each of the “Cinderella” and “The Little Mermaid” fairy …
Epic Adolescence: Contemporary Adolescence In Philip Pullman’S His Dark Materials, Chloe Felterman
Epic Adolescence: Contemporary Adolescence In Philip Pullman’S His Dark Materials, Chloe Felterman
Master's Theses
To find the truth of a societal construct or phenomena, it can help to look at the world of fiction and fantasy. Though this idea may seem ironic or counter-intuitive, one will find that fictional literature can reveal the working order of its respective society. Philip Pullman’s epic fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, uses and manipulates the traditional constructs of the genre to reflect and re-imagine the concepts of adolescence of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Eleven-year-old protagonist Lyra Belacqua and subsequently her cohort, Will Perry, reveal the complications and difficulties modern American and British adolescents experience as …
Mind Over Magic: Repetition-Compulsion, Power Instinct, And Apprehension In Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard Of Earthsea, Phillip Snyder
Mind Over Magic: Repetition-Compulsion, Power Instinct, And Apprehension In Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard Of Earthsea, Phillip Snyder
The Catalyst
This paper analyzes what the actions of Ged, the protagonist in Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, say about fear and its master and how these actions add to our understanding of Sigmund Freud’s concepts of repetition-compulsion, Power Instinct, and Apprehension.
"Your Reclamation”: The Gothic Child And Moral Restoration In Charles Dickens’S A Christmas Carol, Ashten Roberts
"Your Reclamation”: The Gothic Child And Moral Restoration In Charles Dickens’S A Christmas Carol, Ashten Roberts
Master's Theses
Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843), an example of Victorian Gothic literature, portrays spirits escorting Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey through time in order to transform him from a miser to a benefactor. Dickens’s text has received much critical attention, and while most critics agree that the novella includes various elements of the gothic, few draw attention to the possibility of the child characters as gothic elements. I argue that Carol’s child characters can be read in terms of what Margarita Georgieva calls “the gothic child.” According to Georgieva, the gothic child can be an adult’s memory from childhood …
Decolonizing The Ya North: Environmental Injustice In Sherri L. Smith’S Orleans, Micah-Jade M. Coleman
Decolonizing The Ya North: Environmental Injustice In Sherri L. Smith’S Orleans, Micah-Jade M. Coleman
Master's Theses
Young Adult (YA) dystopias, in recent years, have imagined a future world fueled by the overuse and misuse of technology, the advancement of science for human gain, as well as societies ruled by governments that govern based on their own self-interests and economic gain. Such novels have opened the door for discussion about how the present-day actions of societies can impact the future of the environment; yet many only focus their attention on societies in the North— regions considered “developed” by the western world. In her YA novel, Orleans (2014), Sherri L. Smith focuses attention on the aftermath of Hurricane …
Fanfiction Communities And Plagiarism: An Academic Inquiry, Claudia I. Hicks
Fanfiction Communities And Plagiarism: An Academic Inquiry, Claudia I. Hicks
Honors Theses
Fanfiction communities give would-be authors a place to practice their craft. This study focused on how fanfiction community members defined and policed plagiarism. The aim of this study was to conduct qualitative analysis of plagiarism cases in online fanfiction communities. The data sources were analyzed using Grounded Theory. Analysis found that fanfiction communities use certain protocols to police plagiarism except when it violates their highest value, popularity. This study contributes to our understanding of plagiarism in a digital age.
Constructing Reality: The Role Of Mass Media In The Hunger Games Series, Jordan E. Nettles
Constructing Reality: The Role Of Mass Media In The Hunger Games Series, Jordan E. Nettles
Honors Theses
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins is an incredibly popular Young Adult series that has had a large impact on both children and adults. The media environment within The Hunger Games trilogy can provide insight into our own world. This thesis seeks to discuss how governing structures in the trilogy, the Capitol and District 13, manipulate the media to secure their own power. Using contemporary research on media theories, media methods, and media effects, this thesis focuses primarily on the Capitol and District 13’s efforts to create and use the media image of Katniss Everdeen, the central character of …
In Absentia Parentis: The Orphan Figure In Latter Twentieth Century Anglo-American Children’S Fantasy, James Michael Curtis
In Absentia Parentis: The Orphan Figure In Latter Twentieth Century Anglo-American Children’S Fantasy, James Michael Curtis
Dissertations
Childhood development theory tells us that there are certain psychological processes that we all undergo during childhood, regardless of our national or cultural background. These developmental struggles can include some of the more ambivalent cycles—such as regression, which can be both a positive and negative phenomenon—but can also include some of the more beneficial processes like overcoming separation anxiety and creating and establishing a sense of self. One figure that is often marginalized in discussions of childhood development in children’s fantasy fiction is the orphan. In fact, book-length studies on the orphan figure in children’s literary fantasy are virtually non-existent; …
Protecting Dixie: Southern Girlhood In Children's Literature, 1852-1920, Laura Anne Hakala
Protecting Dixie: Southern Girlhood In Children's Literature, 1852-1920, Laura Anne Hakala
Dissertations
Most scholarship about girlhood in children’s literature tends to rely on national models of girlhood. My project complicates those models by demonstrating how region shapes distinct forms of American girlhood. In particular, I examine representations of southern girlhood in children’s literature published between 1852 and 1920, drawing on the four types of literature that most featured southern girls during this time period: abolitionist literature, Confederate literature, postbellum plantation fiction, and family stories. Using a historicist methodology and spatial analysis, I place these texts in relation to information about the spatial arrangements and protocols of southern domestic sites. By viewing girlhood …
The Implementation Of Common Core: Graphic Novels In The Classroom, Chesnie R. Keeler
The Implementation Of Common Core: Graphic Novels In The Classroom, Chesnie R. Keeler
Honors Theses
The Common Core State Standards are alive and thriving in schools across the nation, and teachers are constantly looking for the best possible ways to implement these rigorous standards with student interests in mind. These standards set goals, or benchmarks, for students to reach at any specified grade level throughout their primary and secondary education; school districts, administrators, and teachers have the choice of deciding how students meet these standards. As a pre-service teacher who will enter the teaching profession, I examine how graphic novels can be implemented into the English Language Arts classroom by analyzing Maus, Persepolis, …
The Importance Of Appearances In Literature: What Does It Mean To Be A Redhead In Literature?, Chelsea J. Anderson
The Importance Of Appearances In Literature: What Does It Mean To Be A Redhead In Literature?, Chelsea J. Anderson
Honors Theses
In literature, appearances always seem to play a major part of each character. The physical descriptions of each character are important to the development of the story. Therefore, it seems that a character’s physical appearance becomes an important part of character development, and his/her physical traits help to determine the type of character he/she will be. Often times, different hair colors carry associations along with them. Redheads have been associated with certain temperaments and personality traits throughout history. In literature, red-headed characters often have the temperaments, traits, and negative connotations associated with redheads. One of the major assumptions made about …
Shakespeare And Boyhood: Early Modern Representations And Contemporary Appropriations, Marvin Tyler Sasser
Shakespeare And Boyhood: Early Modern Representations And Contemporary Appropriations, Marvin Tyler Sasser
Dissertations
This dissertation demonstrates that Shakespearean boyhood, both in early modern plays and contemporary reimaginings for young readers, critiques patriarchal and hegemonic ideals through the rhetoric and behavior of boy characters. Although critics have called Shakespeare’s boy characters indistinguishable, I find that they provide Shakespeare a unique resource to offer persuasive skepticism about heroic conventions, education, and political instability. This project begins by examining the lexical network of boy in order to chart its uses in early modern England. The subsequent three chapters establish how Shakespeare uses boys to comment on a range of ideal manhoods, such as the chivalrous …
The Complexity Of Common Core: Teaching Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince As A 7th Grade Complex Text, Allyson R. Jones
The Complexity Of Common Core: Teaching Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince As A 7th Grade Complex Text, Allyson R. Jones
Honors Theses
With the implementation of the Common Core State Standards occurring across the country, schools and students are seeing changes in the organization of education. These standards, grounded in English Language Arts and Mathematics, are designed to push students’ critical thinking skills, writing ability, and methods of communication to prepare them for their life beyond secondary education. For English Language Arts, there is an emphasis on teaching complex texts. In this study, I examined the qualities of complex texts to determine if Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince could be considered a teaching tool for seventh grade students. To do this, …