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AustLit

Children's Literature (EL300)
Semester 1 / 2009

Texts

y separately published work icon Give Peas a Chance Morris Gleitzman , Camberwell : Puffin , 2007 Z1412589 2007 selected work children's fiction (taught in 3 units)

'Surprise your mum with a chainsaw, be a bigger star than Tom Cruise, save the world with a plate of veggies, start your new life in a taxi, rescue your family with a tomato, send your dad into a panic with a tractor, do a good deed with a paper bag on your head pack your bags for a trip to the spleen, upset your auntie with ten kilos of chocolate, swap a bomb for three ice-creams on a train . . . and lots more.' (Publication summary)

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The Witches!$!Dahl, Roald!$!!$!Penguin!$!2007
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Peter Pan!$!Barrie, J.M.!$!!$!Penguin!$!2008
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y separately published work icon Jimmy and Pat Meet the Queen Pat Lowe , Jimmy Pike (illustrator), Broome : Backroom Press , 1997 Z844983 1997 single work picture book children's (taught in 1 units)

'Jimmy and Pat Meet the Queen is a fantasy about Native Title, in which Jimmy, a traditional owner of land in the Great Sandy Desert, challenges the Queen to visit his camp and prove to him that she is the rightful owner of this so-called ‘vacant Crown land’. Her Majesty accepts the invitation, and soon learns what it really means to be a landowner in the Australian desert. A light-hearted look at a serious subject, suitable for readers of all ages.' 

Source: Publisher's blurb.

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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!$!Lewis, C. S.!$!!$!HarperCollins!$!2000
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban!$!Rowling, J.K.!$!!$!Bloomsbury Publishing PLC!$!2000
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y separately published work icon Lizzie Nonsense Jan Ormerod , Jan Ormerod (illustrator), Surry Hills : Little Hare Books , 2004 Z1141335 2004 single work picture book children's historical fiction (taught in 3 units) Her mother calls it nonsense when Lizzie pretends that their house is pretty or that a bath is the sea, but it turns out that imagination runs in the family.
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y separately published work icon The Mark of the Wagarl Lorna Little , Janice Lyndon (illustrator), Broome : Magabala Books , 2004 Z1155895 2004 single work picture book children's Indigenous story (taught in 3 units) This is a story about the Wagarl, the sacred water snake who inhabited the waterways in the country belonging to the Nyoongar people. It tells how a little boy came to receive the Wagarl for his totem.
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Pippi Longstocking!$!Lindgren, Astrid!$!!$!Oxford University Press!$!2004
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A Wizard of Earthsea!$!Le Guin, Ursula!$!!$!Penguin!$!1971
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Description

In this course, students examine literature told to or written for children and adolescents. The course takes an historic, generic and thematic approach and asks how children and their literature have been and are conceptualized as we move into the twentyfirst century. Is childrens literature a cultural artifact or a means by which culture defines itself? What is the changing nature of the adultchild relationship? How do we discern and evaluate a poetics of Childrens Literature? Students examine oral tradition as well as the written tradition and screen adaptations. Texts range from Peter Pan and Pippi Longstocking to Harry Potter. The unit also includes works by C.S Lewis, Roald Dahl and Ursula Le Guin.

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate
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