Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

A Saga Re-Written: The Character Of Odin And J.R.R. Tolkien's Addition Of Eucatastrophe In "The New Lay Of The Volsungs.", Matthew Gidney

Mythcon

In this paper, adapted from the second chapter of my Master’s thesis, I will argue that Tolkien was not interested in mimicking Norse mythology nor endorsing the Nordic worldview, but rather re-writing Norse mythology in accord with its true light. This concept of “true light” is drawn from a letter by Tolkien to his son Michael in which he laments the corruption of “that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light” (Carpenter, Letters 56). Tolkien had an Augustinian conception of evil, believing that good is primary, …

Adam’S Task: Naming And Subcreation In Good Omens, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythcon

Names are, in one sense, the outward indication of a power negotiation. The namer, the one who bestows a new name or uses an already-given name, reveals, through the choice of name they give or use, their relationship to that which they name. The act may indicate a more or less equal relationship; it may be an attempt to exert power over someone or something by imposing a name on it or by using a name that will influence those who hear it; or it may be a signal of submission and subordination, using a name to flatter or …

The Keystone Or The Cornerstone? A Rejoinder To Verlyn Flieger On The Alleged “Conflicting Sides” Of Tolkien’S Singular Self, Donald Williams

Mythcon

In “The Arch and the Keystone,” Mythlore 38:1 (Fall/Winter 2019), 5-17, Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger argues that the conflicts and contradictions she sees in Tolkien’s essays and fiction do not call for harmonization but rather should be embraced for what they are: “two opposing and conflicting sides of one person, whose contention makes him who he is as well as what he is, the keystone that creates the arch” of The Lord of the Rings out of the friction of the two sides (16). Unfortunately, the alleged contradictions, e.g. between the despair of the Beowulf essay and the hope for …

(Un)Fair(Ly) Unknown: New And Neglected Arthurian Television Programming, Carl B. Sell, Richard Fahey, Michael Torregrossa, Rachael K. Warmington

Mythcon

The Arthurian tradition abounds with Fair Unknowns, characters whose identity and true worth is revealed only slowly over the course of an adventure. In this session, we’d like to adopt the motif to look at new and neglected television series that make interesting use of the legend and deserve more recognition by scholars.

Moderator: Carl B. Sell
Panelist: Michael Torregrossa
Panelist: Richard Fahey
Panelist: Rachael K. Warmington
Tech Mod: Tim Lenz

'Her Enchanted Hair': Rossetti, 'Lady Lilith,' And The Victorian Fascination With Hair As Influences On Tolkien, Kathryn Colvin

Mythcon

The Victorian poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti appears upon first glance to be an unlikely inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium: though both were medievalists, Tolkien’s reputation for chaste prose contrasts sharply with Rossetti’s famously “fleshly” work. However, a close reading of both—setting Rossetti’s poetry, particularly “Lady Lilith” and its accompanying painting, alongside Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and posthumously published material from The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth—reveals a compelling and previously unexplored connection between the Victorian cultural mythology of magic hair (as epitomized by the “hair-mad” Rossetti) and Tolkien’s detailed and often supernatural portrayals of …

Q&A With Mythopoeic Award Winners, Dennis Wise, James Gifford, Theodora Goss, Yoon Ha Lee

Mythcon

Q&A with Mythopoeic Award Winners (Roundtable) Steward of Mythopoeic Awards Dennis Wise will lead conversation and Q&A with some of last year’s Mythopoeic Society Award winners: James Gifford, Theodora Goss, and Yoon Ha Lee.

Tech Mod: Cait Rottler

Cities And Strongholds Of Middle-Earth, Part 1, Cami Agan, Birgitte Breemerkamp, Nicholas Birns, Marie Bretagnolle, Robin Anne Reid

Mythcon

The Cities and Strongholds of Middle-earth panels bring together seven of the chapters to appear in the upcoming volume of the same name from MythPress. The volume explores the habitations of Middle-earth across the ages, as well as the cultures responsible for those built structures. Presenters will briefly explain their chapters in order to leave plenty of room for discussion.

Moderator: Cami Agan
Panelist: Nicholas Birns
Panelist: Birgitte Breemerkamp
Panelist: Marie Bretagnolle
Panelist: Robin A. Reid
Tech Mod: Tim Lenz

Philology And The Lived Imagination: Vico, Collingwood, And Tolkien, Reno Lauro

Mythcon

This paper endeavors to uniquely address a question proposed by Tom Shippey in a guest editorial for Mallorn issue 45. “[R.G.] Collingwood and Tolkien were both Fellows of Pembroke College for nearly a decade till 1934, when Collingwood took up a Chair at C.S. Lewis’s college, Magdalen. Did the three of them ever talk about, agree about, disagree about the subject of folktales, on which Collingwood was working and publicly lecturing in the 1930s?” (Shippey 4). In order to answer Shippey’s question, I suggest that ‘folktales’ may not be the only or best way into this investigation. While we know …

Carrying The Stories Of Las Mariposas: Literacy As Collective And Transformative, Deborah Vriend Van Duinen

Michigan Reading Journal

Literacy is often understood as the acquisition of individual skills and knowledge. In this essay, I explore different approaches to understanding literacy that focus on social meaning-making and action. Drawing on historical examples of literacy learning and my recent experiences in a community-wide reading program focused on Julia Alvarez’s (1994) In the Time of the Butterflies, I use the concept of “carrying stories” to reflect on how literacy learning can be collective and transformative for self and society.

Existentially Guilty: Where Do I Go From Here?, Devontae Wilson

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

Teachers, students, parents, and even politicians have been forced to confront the by-products of not having difficult conversations about race and class. Political pundits are using this moment in history sparked by recorded injustice and the publicized murders of unarmed black people at the hands of law enforcement to demonize Critical Race Theory (CRT), a framework created to analyze how the law is racialized. This portfolio is largely a result of Dr. Rudine Sims-Bishop’s “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” and contextualizing it through my personal experience as a classroom teacher, as a black man in a majority white, female …

Muffintops, Fat Rolls, And Self Love: Using Fat Young Adult Texts To Promote Body Positivity, Laura M. Davis

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

With the findings of Wood-Barcalow, Tylka, and Augustus-Horwath (2009) as a framework, this essay offers an analysis of two texts portraying fat protagonists: The Summer of Jordi Perez and the Best Burger in L.A. by Amy Spalding and To Be Honest by Maggie Ann Martin. I examine the authors’ depictions of fat characters to determine if the characters align with Wood-Barcalow, Tylka, and Augustus-Horwath’s (2009) definition of body positivity. Using critical content analysis (Short, 2017), I consider how relationships, environment, and self-concept support and work against body positive attitudes. This essay also includes suggestions for how educators can use these …

All Changelings Have Autism: How To Make A Better Book For Autistic Children, Nadia L. Hitchcock

University Honors Theses

How should a content creator, whether they work in film, literature, or sequential art, approach portrayals of Autistic characters? More specifically, how should these altruistic ideas be translated into a better storybook for Autistic children? This is the challenge that I have addressed with my Graphic Design thesis, by writing and illustrating my own children's picture book. The story itself is a spiritual successor to Old World changeling folktales and All Cats Have Asperger's Syndrome (Kathy Hoopman 2006). Though many Autistic people loved Hoopman's book as children, its visual shortcomings and linguistic oversights have marred its intended inclusive, positive message. …

Women Circumventing The Restrictions Of Gender In Homer’S The Odyssey, Ariana Avila

Kentucky English Bulletin

No abstract provided.

Reading The World: American Haredi Children's Literature, 1980–2000, Dainy Bernstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Children’s literature is an important force in building not only linguistic literacy but a literacy of the world, showing the child reader how to make sense of themselves in relation to the many people, objects, experiences, and concepts around them. Haredi children’s texts foster a mode of understanding the world around them as comprehensible through the texts, people, and events of the past. In Reading the World, I demonstrate that Haredi children’s textual culture between 1980 and 2000 fostered a literacy of language, text, time, space, morals, and general knowledge as inextricably intertwined, and that this literacy propelled further …

Connection, Compassion, And Honesty: Using Picture Books To Help Build A Healthier Relationship To Death In A Death-Denying Culture, Kami Sahalie Upshaw Gould

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the ways children are taught about death and dying and how children's picture books can be utilized in difficult conversations of this nature. I go into the historical advent of books specifically for children and research how different ways of explaining death can help or hurt a child. Through this research, I explore how our situationality in a death denying culture has shaped how we explain death to children and what steps can be taken to counter this denial.

To Read Or Not To Read: Navigating Young Adult Literature In The Classroom In The Age Of Trigger Warnings And Banned Books, Ashley Sell

Honors Projects

Most public school libraries or English classrooms celebrate Banned Books Week during the school year, featuring dozens of Young Adult novels that have been challenged or banned in public schools across the country. However, books aimed towards young readers are typically not optimized for educational use in the classroom. In this project, I will explore the benefits of using Young Adult literature in the classroom, while also investigating the obstacles that one might face in order to do so, i.e. censorship, sensitive subject matter. I also want to summarize and respond to an argument for the retainment of classic literature …

Representation Matters: African American Female Readers’ Perceptions Of Young Adult Literature, Asia Harden

Honors Theses

In 2019, only 6% of U.S. children’s books published were written by black authors. This portion of the publishing industry, and particularly the category of young adult literature (YA) has room for improvement when it comes to African American representation. To identify how this lack of representation affects readers, this study was broken into two parts which resulted in obtaining the African American female YA author perspective, as well as African American female readers. J. Elle and Kristina Forest were interviewed in the first portion of the study, and three focus groups were conducted in the second study with 13 …

Asian American Pacific Islander Booklist, Children's Book Committee. Bank Street College Of Education

The Center for Children's Literature

For grown-ups of all races who are having conversations with children to expand inquiry and empathy among Asian and non-Asian peoples, we offer a selection of books from the Children’s Book Committee’s Best Books of the Year, organized by age with child development in mind.

"What Camelot Means": Women And Lgbtq+ Authors Paving The Way For A More Inclusive Arthuriana Through Young Adult Literature, Jeddie Mae Bristow

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Arthurian literature has long been regarded as the domain of “dead white men,” dominated by Thomas Malory and Lord Alfred Tennyson. However, since medieval times, women have also been producing Arthurian literature that not only treats the women characters of the story more equitably, but makes social commentary on how the marginalized of their societies are treated. More recently, women and LGBTQ+ authors (basically, authors who are not cisgender white men) have answered the call for more diverse Young Adult literature with an Arthuriana that has a place for all, both creating a more diverse and equitable Camelot and giving …

From Byronic To Gothic Blood Sucker: Subversion Toward A Non-Gendered Identity, Hannah Hoover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Analyzing Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and linking trends of the Byronic hero that have merged into a variety of genres reveal that the hero is a mode of subversive gender expression, which has evolved within the Gothic through feminine desire. Delving into Bram Stoker’s Dracula will provide unique insight into the audience’s desires/expressions of gender. Finding the transition point from the monster vampire of Dracula to Stephanie Meyer’s desirous, sparkling boy-next-door in Twilight will track the trajectory of gender and sexual norms through time. From the foundational adaptation of the Byronic hero in Wuthering Heights to the repressed vampiric desire …

The Infinite Crisis: How The American Comic Book Has Been Shaped By War, Winston Andrus

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis project argues that war has been the greatest catalyst for the American comic book medium to become a socio-political change agent within western society. Comic books have become one of the most pervasive influences to global popular culture, with superheroes dominating nearly every popular art form. Yet, the academic world has often ignored the comic book medium as a niche market instead of integrated into the broader discussions on cultural production and conflict studies. This paper intends to bridge the gap between what has been classified as comic book studies and the greater academic world to demonstrate the …

Briefly Noted: Review Of Fafnir: Nordic Journal Of Science Fiction And Fantasy Research, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam: Richard C. West, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Richard C. West (1944-2020) was one of the pioneers of serious Tolkien scholarship. He was the founder of the Tolkien Society at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. West is known particularly for his invaluable resource Tolkien Criticism: An Annotated Checklist. Among West’s other scholarly works, his 1975 essay, “The Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings” (in Jared Lobdell’s collection A Tolkien Compass) has proven to have particularly long-lasting impact. West had a long affiliation with the Mythopoeic Society.

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Amanda Baldwin's Master's Portfolio, Amanda Baldwin

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This is the final portfolio for my Master's of Arts in the field of English. It includes an analytical narrative along with four projects that I feel best illustrate my knowledge, skills, and growth. These four pieces are entitled "Putting a Feminist Twist on Classic Literature," "Teaching Antigone in the Modern Classroom," “Feminism and Racial Studies in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees,” and “Literacy Narrative Analysis.”

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Girlhood In The Creation, Content, And Consumption Of Victorian Children’S Literature, Betsy Barthelemy

English Honors Projects

The Golden Age of (British) Children’s Literature was famous not only for the proliferation of fiction it hosted, but also for how much of that work featured young heroine protagonists. Starting with the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and examining two other fantasy works compared with three realistic children's novels from this half-century period, this project elucidates the differences between these genres and examines how authors used the characteristics of each to empower their heroines. It argues that these fictitious heroines influenced real-world readers to create progressive futures by providing examples of rebellious girl characters finding happy endings.

Tarot, By Jessica Hundley, And Astrology, By Andrea Richards, Emily E. Auger

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The repository PDF of this review includes an online-only supplement.

20 Things, Reann Parker

Honors Theses

20 Things is a short young adult novel that explores a variety of topics and themes, from mental health, recovery, and self discovery to race, love, and friendship. Beginning with a high school girl named Halle waking up in a hospital after a suicide attempt, the novel is a coming of age story about the help Halle receives and what she goes through in trying to find reasons to keep living. The novel is divided into ten chapters: “Waking Up,” “Going Home,” “Arriving,” “Being Honest,” “Keeping the Faith,” “Soul Searching,” “Willingness,” “Maintaining,” “Checking In,” and “Living.” Each chapter represents the …

Entertainment Media Perceptions Of Minorities In Young Adult Adaptations, Kynnadie Bennett

Scholars Week

This is an exploration of stereotypical and racist portrayals of minorities, specifically African-American, Latinx, and Native American communities, in film and television in the past and how that has affected representation in film adaptations of young adult literature. Young adult literature is one of the highest-selling genres in literature, purchased by both young adults and actual adults. In recent years, young adult literature has been adapted into film and television series and while representation has improved since the early years of entertainment history, there are still problems in the industry: many of the stereotypes remain, some minorities lack representation, and …

Adventure Book Club - The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Courtney Helseth, Jillian Jacoba

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

This after school club serves to improve reading comprehension, teach ideas such as storyline and character development, and to add creativity to reading to encourage love of reading. The club utilizes the text, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and includes various crafts, worksheets, and games to improve comprehension and make reading fun.