Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Playing In Literary Landscapes: Considering Children's Need For Fantasy Literature In The Place-Based Classroom, Sarah Fischer

Occasional Paper Series

Are the philosophies and pedagogical practices of literature-based classrooms congruent with place-based classrooms? In this paper, the author argues that not only is imaginative literature compatible with place-based philosophies, but it can become a powerful centerpiece of a curriculum aimed at educating for a sense of place and inspiring life-long readers.

Stealing Revelation: A Screenplay Of The Thief Accompanied By A Religious Analysis, Jean E. Sleight

Honors Projects

Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief follows the story of a thief who seeks to steal an item for fame and glory and to save his country. Though he initially does not believe in the gods, he finds that they exist and are more involved in his life than he would want them to be. The screenplay is a loyal adaptation of the book. The analysis follows the thief’s journey from skepticism to faith and draws a comparison between the gods in the novel and the Christian God.

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 …

Outside Classroom: Unstructured Outdoor Play In Early Childhood Education, Valerie Lockhart

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This independent study examines the benefits of unstructured outdoor play in early childhood education through the lens of an original children's book and correlative research.

Fairy Tales And Adaptations: A Unit Of Study For High School Seniors, Angelica P. Babauta

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project is a unit of study designed for high school seniors in an advanced English class. The topic is fairy tales and adaptations, and through these twelve complete lesson plans, students will be led to examine the way fairy tales and society influence one another based on how a classic fairy tale is adapted over time. Students will study Jeanne Leprince de Beaumont's "Beauty and the Beast," the Brothers Grimm's "Brier Rose," and Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" as the original fairy tales. The adaptations paired with these texts are Alex Flinn's Beastly, James Finn Gardner's "Sleeping …

The Lightbringer: A Novel, Brett L. Butler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Lightbringer is about a collision of two worlds: the world of a contemporary South Florida town and the magical world of Zariel, bringing with it the universal threat of the Terra. Childhood friends, Breck and Tom, are thrown into the middle of an ancient conflict between the Terra—a collection of alien races that have been transformed by darkness—and the forces of good. After an encounter with a magical pool of golden water, the boys must learn to use their new abilities to protect against the growing Terranox army. In the midst of their struggle, however, a mysterious companion—the Lightbringer, …

Hansel And Gretel: A Feature And Study On How Fairy Tales Have Changed, Nazeli Ekimyan

Honors Thesis

Once upon a time, the Little Mermaid watched her Prince marry another woman, the Sleeping Beauty was raped by a Prince and woke up from her deep slumber to find out she was the mother of twins, the Little Red Riding Hood never made it out alive, and Goldilocks broke her neck jumping out of a window. This project examines original fairy tales and how they have changed over the years through various adaptations in media and film. The purpose is to find an answer to the question of why these sugarcoated changes have been made over time. In order …

The Museum Of Small Things: Original Poems And Rationale, Domonique Williams

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This independent study consists of an original children's collection of poems and an accompanying rationale. In addition to the poems, this study includes an examination of child development theories, the benefits of inquiry based teaching and learning, and makes a case for the value of family, museum, and school relationships.

Using Wordless Picture Books With The Language Experience Approach: A Method For Teaching Pre-Emergent And At-Risk Readers, Rachel Luczkowski

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Proposes using wordless picture books in conjunction with Roach Van Allen's Language Experience Approach as a method for teaching pre-emergent and at-risk readers. The original work that comprises the bulk of this study is a wordless picture book of Aesop's fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper. The author describes the developmental and artistic considerations taken during the creation of the book as well as potential classroom applications for its use.

My Backpack : A Children's Book About Separation, Susan B. Bloch

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This thesis opens with a copy of "My Backpack," a fictional book based on actual events to be read to children between the ages of three and four years prior to their entry to preschool and as a support during the separation process during the first weeks and months of school. The author then continues with an explanation of the genesis of the book, a developmental section incorporating theorists' views on separation for children ages 3 and 4, children's reactions and responses to the book, and a review of other valuable books on separation.

Frames: A Children's Bibliotherapeutic Tool For Opening Conversations About Divorce, Casey Spellman

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Offers a new resource for children experiencing divorce in the form of a wordless picture book, so that children can openly discuss their personal understanding of divorce rather than being presented with someone else's story.

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; …

When In Doubt: An Exploration Of The Role Of The Oracle In The Harry Potter Series, Emily J. Milner

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The popular Harry Potter series serves as the basis for my study of the oracles that appear throughout the series. By focusing specifically on Professor Sybill Trelawney, Ron Weasley, and the Sorting Hat, I show the relationships between Harry Potter and the Oracles. I also focus on a few of Trelawney's various methods of Divination and her prophecies.

Quilting In Children's Literature: An Analysis Of Stereotypes, Megan Egbert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

For many people, exposure to folk art happens at a young age; however, we may not realize what it is, see its value, or be aware of the terminology used by scholars. The lack of understanding the importance of folk art is especially true for children’s books. This project focuses on the analysis of children’s books about quilts or quilting, primarily because quilts are often found in books and relatable to a wide audience. While the choice in genre and topic may limit the scope of folk art analysis, there are still hundreds of books solely based on quilts or …

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 …

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

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

No abstract provided.

A Spenserian Returns To Earth: The Faerie Queene In That Hideous Strength, Paul R. Rovang

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

Continues to explore Spenserian parallels in the Space Trilogy, following his work on Perelandra in Mythlore #123. Traces The Faerie Queene’s clear influence on That Hideous Strength, particularly on the characters and relationship of Mark and Jane Studdock, drawing a line connecting Spenser’s intent that his poem should “fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline” to Lewis’s point in The Abolition of Man that modern education produces “men without chests.” Spenser’s Amoret and Scudamour particularly parallel Mark and Jane, and Busirane’s castle as a source for Belbury.

The Use Of The Vertical Plane To Indicate Holiness In C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, Sarah Eddings

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

Examines the contrasting symbolism and imagery of perpendicular structures (mountains, trees, built structures, and so on) and waves in the Space Trilogy as a whole. Eddings finds more than simple gendered symbolism in these clusters of images; verticality indicates reaching for the heavens and waves show submission to the will of Maleldil. These symbols are reconciled in the arches of the temple Tor plans to honor Maleldil in Perelandra.

Seven For Seven: The Voyage Of The "Dawn Treader" And The Literary Tradition, Thomas L. Martin

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

Examines the motif of the seven cardinal sins within Voyage, linking each of the seven lost lords of Narnia to a particular vice and showing how the crew of the Dawn Treader resists the vices to which they succumbed. This essay is meant to be read with Schuknecht, Mattison “C.S. Lewis’s Debt to Dante” in the same issue, as each comments on the other.

Breaking The Dragon's Gaze: Commodity Fetishism In Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Steven Kelly

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

Examines Tolkien’s treatment of economics in Middle-earth, using tobacco as an example of a Lukácsian fetishized commodity, and explains why this is important not just as an example of world-building but as an indicator of the power and danger of unexamined economic assumptions.

Mapping Gender In Middle-Earth, John Miller

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

Examines the geography and both natural and created landscapes of Middle-earth in terms of what they reveal about gender and race, and how Tolkien used landscape to “[map] alternative masculinities onto […] different races” and emphasize contrasting depictions of femininity through female characters and races that either “stay put” or wander.

The Black Speech: The Lord Of The Rings As A Modern Linguistic Critique, Cody Jarman

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

Uses the theories of Owen Barfield to analyze the language and rhetoric used in the service of evil in The Lord of the Rings as a critique of modernity and the divorce of true meaning from speech. Ted Sandyman, Saruman, and the Mouth of Sauron are used as particular examples.

Notes And Letters, John Rosegrant, Debra Polesiak, Ryder W. Miller

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

• A Comment on "1904: Tolkien, Trauma, and its Anniversaries".

A letter responding to Nancy Bunting’s provocative article on Tolkien’s traumatic family history in Mythlore #127.

By John Rosegrant.

• Jean Louise to the Dark Tower Came.

Explicates a pattern of references to Browning’s “Childe Roland” in Harper Lee’s recently published Go Set a Watchman.

By Debra Polesiak.

• American Survivor: William Faulkner's A Fable.

Draws our attention to American World War I veteran William Faulkner’s A Fable as an example of the fantastic in response to the war’s trauma.

By Ryder W. Miller.

C.S. Lewis's Debt To Dante: The Voyage Of The "Dawn Trader" And Purgatorio, Mattison Schuknecht

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

Compares imagery of sun and water in Voyage and Purgatorio; contrasts the horizontal structure of Voyage with the vertical orientation of Purgatorio. This essay is meant to be read with Martin, Thomas L. “Seven for Seven” in the same issue, as each comments on the other.

The Helmholtz, The Doctor, The Minotaur, And The Labyrinth, Buket Akgün

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

Compares the use and resolution of Minotaur and Labyrinth themes and imagery, and the identification of the Theseus hero-figure with the monster, in Victor Pelevin’s novel The Helmet of Horror and the sixth season Doctor Who episode “The God Complex.”

C.S. Lewis's Two Satyrs, Joe R. Christopher

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

Two very different satyrs appear in C.S. Lewis’s works, one in his early pre-conversion poem “The Satyr” in Spirits in Bondage and one in his more mature Narnia books (Mr. Tumnus, but Narnia is also home to a whole race of Fauns). Lewis handles the imagery and associations of the satyr or faun quite differently at these points in his writing career, but both represent a split in the psychology of the human male.

Reviews, Rebekah Choat, Joe R. Christopher, Cait Coker, Janet Brennan Croft, Mike Foster, Melody Green, Kristine Larsen, Scott Mclaren, Emily Moniz Mirova, Kelly Orazi, Brian Roberts, Andrew C. Stout

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

Charles Williams: The Third Inkling. Grevel Lindop. Reviewed by Scott McLaren.

The Chapel of the Thorn: A Dramatic Poem. Charles Williams. Edited and Introduced by Sørina Higgins. Reviewed by Scott McLaren.

Women and C.S. Lewis: What His Life and Literature Reveal For Today’s Culture. Carolyn Curtis and Mary Pomroy Key, eds. Reviewed by Rebekah Choat.

Tolkien Among the Moderns. Edited by Ralph C. Wood. Reviewed by Andrew C. Stout.

Tolkien. Raymond Edwards. Reviewed by Cait Coker.

Children into Swans: Fairy Tales and the Pagan Imagination. Jan Beveridge. Reviewed by Brian Roberts.

Trilby/The Crumb Fairy. Charles Nodier. Translated and adapted by …

Victorian Counter-Worlds And The Uncanny: The Fantasy Illustrations Of Walter Crane And Arthur Rackham, Amzie A. Dunekacke

UCARE: Research Products

I will prepare an in-depth examination of the different, often opposing ways illustrators Walter Crane and Arthur Rackham portray elements of fantasy in their fairy tale illustrations. Fantasy in fairy tales became very popular during the “Golden Age of Illustration” in Britain, which lasted from the mid nineteenth century until the First World War. Fantasy served as a form of escapism from the rigidity of Victorian society and the increasingly industrialized culture. In my examination, I will focus on how Crane and Rackham’s separate styles use or abandon elements of fantasy such as the horrific and grotesque, anthropomorphism of animals …

The Shadow Of The War: Postwar Destabilization, Nostalgia, And Fragile Truth In The Works Of A. A. Milne, Sarah E. Johnson Labarbera

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Tales From Rugosa Coven, By Sarah Avery. Reviewed By Emilee J. Howland-Davis., Emilee J. Howland-Davis

Mythprint Book Reviews

Mythprint is the quarterly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local discussion groups.