Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

The Black Eyes Of Ulspruth-Dimot, Lee Clark Zumpe

The Mythic Circle

A misty morning met the awakening village of Madichi. Dawn made pale the cloudy skies, and upon the breeze cascading down from the mountains was a subtle chill.

Two In One, David A. Sparenberg

The Mythic Circle

As I looked to the high ground, which was indeed shaped in the semblance of a sublime albeit miniature mountain, imagine my amazement to hold in view the monumental figure of a curious two-headed deity.

The Tale Of The Troll Maiden And The Cobbler, David Gilman Frederick

The Mythic Circle

Once, in the lands across the sea, there was a cobbler. Unremarkable as such an occupation may be here, in those lands it is one of high esteem. They have rugged cliffs to scale, unknown steppes to cross, jagged boulders, spiny hedgehogs, mudflats, cacti, flints, vines, thorns— much of that land, I have heard, is picturesque, with sweeping vistas and forests that anticipate the colors of the sunset.

Welcome To The Busty Wench, E. Clarence Peterson

The Mythic Circle

Toby’s step down from the coach was greeted by the damp embrace of cobblestone puddles. Deceptively deep and cold, they were none too fresh, either.

Tricked By The Queen Of Fey, Ella Wallsworth-Bell

The Mythic Circle

Before going to the pub, I take a quick stroll to pluck up courage. Turn along the lane out of the village, my smart shoes softly tap-tapping on the tarmac. A few early stars shine bright in the clear autumn sky and my stomach does somersaults.

Two Souls On A Shore, Geoffrey Reiter

The Mythic Circle

The elf and the Kuparean man were hungry as they walked along the shore of the island. They did not remain at the rock-choked shallows that had disemboweled their trireme.

How The Dryad And The Naiad Got Or Didn't Get Together, Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

The Mythic Circle

Once, in the river-land of Sopenya, near Lake Chellu, there lived a naiad and a dryad. They were a boy and a girl, respectively.

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 …

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.

Despite Controversy, #Ownvoices Is Here To Make A Difference, Shannon Steffens

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

When author Corinne Duyvis created the #OwnVoices hashtag on Twitter in 2015 as a way to recommend diverse books written by diverse authors, she could not have imagined it would spark a movement. Six years later, #OwnVoices is still being discussed in the world of fiction publishing and continues to push for increased diversity in books, authors, and the industry itself.

This paper explores the impacts the movement has had on the industry, both positive and negative. While critics argue the push for #OwnVoices books can limit and potentially harm authors, I have come to the conclusion through my research …

Billion-Dollar Bride: Book 1—Godric's Academy For Young Ladies, Kaylin N. Stickley

MSU Graduate Theses

This thesis contains the first five chapters of a young adult romance novel featuring a young woman named Theadosia Lee. The plot is heavily influenced by Cinderella, and the biblical braiding technique is heavily influenced by that of Kiera Cass and C. S. Lewis. The piece was inspired by my desire to create more young adult romance novels that contain the biblical values that are sorely lacking in most modern young adult literature. I seek to write a love story that is based on mutual respect, a strong foundation of friendship, and an intentional decision to avoid sexual activities …

Falling For A Cornish Maid, Ella Wallsworth-Bell

The Mythic Circle

It’s the girl’s blue eyes that hook me in. She sits at the back of the pub, staring at me through a sea of cigarette smoke and a chatter of voices, incessant as waves on rocks.

Read by Adrian Watts

Betrothal, Lawrence Buentello

The Mythic Circle

Grayson first saw her as she rode from the trees of the forest beyond his small house. The sun, with the last of the light it threw over the hills to the west, illuminated her astride her horse in burnished gold and yellow streaks.

Read by Phillip Fitzsimmons

What Iphigenia Knows, Ama Kirchner

The Mythic Circle

1. Iphigenia is in a void. The space surrounding her is not black or gray, nor is it faded light that tapers off at the edges of her vision.

Read by Victoria Gaydosik

Epic, David Sparenberg

The Mythic Circle

A back-to-the-future Shamanic telling for public recitation Sing in me, Muse, the epic tale of that Earth daughter who shook the foundations of the Dark Towers and challenged in combat the dread lords of tyranny and their master the Patriarch of Death. Before the Book, back in The Dreaming— over eons of Shaman Lore—it is attested that light is restoration for those who are eaten by their own shadows and fire is the bane of phantoms. From somewhere here, Muse, begin.

Read by David Sparenberg

Troll, Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

The Mythic Circle

Once upon a time there lived a troll who guarded a tollbooth on a bridge.

Read by Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

Working Title, S. Dorman

The Mythic Circle

Mark Twain had gone into outer darkness on a comet, leaving his friend Jack Lewis at his desk musing on their great experience together—an awful vision of the crucifixion in which the crucified Christ was nothing but an insect.

Read by Scott Long and Steve Strickler

The Tree That Stood Forever, Mary Alice Dixon

The Mythic Circle

One day not long ago, as time is measured by trees, a woman wandered fields of thyme and lavender near a small, hard-to-find town. She was a traveler who had become lost looking for home. Her memory was lost, too.

Read by Phillip Fitzsimmons

The Dreaded Tome Of Urawn, Lee Clark Zumpe

The Mythic Circle

"Curse you, mortal," shouted the great gray dragon vexedly as the mortal on her back fidgeted nervously in his saddle. "By the gods, be still!"

Read by Kelley Logan

Equuleus Of Troy, Dc Mallery

The Mythic Circle

In the waning days of The Trojan war, as Agamemnon's Army was losing hope, the Towering Horses of the wilds of North Africa were but myth and fable to both Greeks and Trojans.

Read by Helen Taylor

Course Syllabus For English 1120 - Speculative Fiction, Chad Luck

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This document contains a syllabus for a new version of the large-lecture course English 1120: Speculative Fiction. This version of the class focuses on horror fiction, in particular, and structures the course according to a series of discursive contexts crucial to that genre. So, the course is organized around five thematic units including: psychology, religion, gender, race, and science. Each of these units presents key texts in that given area and asks students to think critically about the relationship of fiction to that particular cultural context. The course, in general, cultivates in students the ability to analyze cultural objects—in this …

The Gen Z Zombie: Ya Takes On The Undead, Jason Mccormick

Theses and Dissertations

After the terror attacks of 9/11, zombie stories experienced an unprecedented boom, or for some critics, a renaissance. Fears of mass death, infiltration by the Other, and life before and after the apocalyptic moment were played out through zombie stories. The longevity of the boom also saw the zombie myth move into strange new places including Young Adult novels, resulting in what I refer to as the “Gen Z zombie.”

In his discussion of the sympathetic zombie, Kyle William Bishop mentions YA zombie texts including Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies but groups …

Representing The Angakkuq: Exploring Inuit Mythology Through Fiction, Abigail Studebaker

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

This project is both a creative and critical foray into Inuit mythology. The Critical Preface unpacks how magical realism, young adult literature, and multicultural literature shaped the writing of the project, which is the first five chapters of a novel-in-progress titled Angakkuq. Angakkuq tells the story of a teenage girl, Alasi, of Inuit and American heritage living in the U.S. who begins experiencing strange, seemingly magical phenomena. As her story unfolds, she finds herself at the intersection of the past and the present, struggling to formulate her own identity while more and more is revealed about her father’s childhood growing …

Maiden Voyage (A Novel), Kyra Bauske

English

Maiden Voyage is an adventure story. It didn’t start out that way, but that’s what it has become. The story follows a young woman who stumbles onto her father’s secrets. Alexandra feels trapped in an 18th century English settlement on Nassau. Under her father’s protection, Alexandra is expected to marry and remain on the island. When she discovers a letter in her father’s office naming her as an “asset” she finds herself asking who her father really is. Who is the business associate who comes every month? Why does he really want her married to Lord Dewhurst? When her best …

The Wolf Is Back By Robert Priest, Kelly Shepherd

The Goose

Review of Robert Priest's The Wolf is Back.

A Steady Journey - Critical And Self-Analysis, Ashley Gonzalez

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Analysis of the composition of A Steady Journey, a young adult fantasy novel featuring a disabled protagonist by Ashley Gonzalez.

The Montagnards, Jarred J. Marlatt

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Merrier World:' Small Renaissances Engendered In J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium, Dominic Dicarlo Meo

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

After surviving the trenches of World War I when many of his friends did not, Tolkien continued as the rest of the world did: moving, growing, and developing, putting the darkness of war behind. He had children, taught at the collegiate level, wrote, researched. Then another Great War knocked on the global door. His sons marched off, and Britain was again consumed. The "War to End All Wars" was repeating itself and nothing was for certain. In such extended dark times, J. R. R. Tolkien drew on what he knew-language, philology, myth, and human rights-peering back in history to the …

Return To Sender, Katherine Noelle Nypaver

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Return to Sender is a fictional short story that illustrates the potential consequences of neglecting to take others seriously. River Ellison, a high school senior at St. Jude’s Academy struggling with depression and habitual self-harm, receives a note from his peer regarding his thoughts on suicide. His ordinary school day transforms into twenty-four hours of repercussions that force River to see his peer for what she is—an equal. Prefacing the short story, my critical essay explains why I find C.D. Payne, John Green, Jesse Andrews, and J.D. Salinger so inspiring to the young adult literature world. I also analyze how …

Golden Fantasy: An Examination Of Generic & Literary Fantasy In Popular Writing, Zechariah James Morrison

Honors Projects

This essay attempts to analyze critical theory concerning the division between generic fantasy fiction and higher fantasy literature. In examining how these two different types of fantasy writing are identified by popular criticism, the space in-between is defined and labeled "golden fantasy". This kind of fantasy is identified by maintaining a balance between subversive originality, and derivative reproduction, and is generally popular among consumers and academics as a source of both entertainment and scholarly research. The essay is then followed by 3 original chapters by the essay writer, in an attempt to demonstrate some of the elements of golden fantasy …