Writing For Children: The Tales We Can t Seem to Forget (Intersession 2016) Course Number: AS

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1 Writing For Children: The Tales We Can t Seem to Forget (Intersession 2016) Course Number: AS The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University Dates and Times: June 20, 2016 to July 1, 2016 Monday through Friday (five days a week), from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Instructor: Sarah Harrison Smith (The instructor is the former Children s Book Editor at the New York Times Book Review.) Contact information: ssmit263@jhu.edu; cell Course Description: In this 20-hour, 10-class intersession course, students will a. Consider how canonical works of children's literature change over time, reading them alongside contemporary examples of the genre, including those that veer into the realm of adult readers. b. Write their own work for children, using the canonical tales as a starting point. c. their writing in class and write second drafts of their work based on in-class feedback. d. Discuss the impact of illustration, trends in children's literature, and the publishing process. Course Objectives: To study the evolution of the genre of children s literature through a selection of its canonical works and to practice writing in the genre using those works as inspiration. Course Topics: Fairy and folk tales, old and new. Verse for children. Versions of dystopia in fiction for children. Course Texts: Instructor will provide copies of all texts under discussion except for: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, and The Giver, by Lois Lowry, which students should plan to buy or borrow. Both are available in paperback.

2 Procedure: This course is structured so that students discuss the longest texts late in the course. Students can use the days leading up to that to read the longer works. For workshop classes, students should bring enough printed, stapled copies of their work so that each member of the class and the instructor can have their own copy. Grades: Intersession courses are graded pass/fail. Successful students will receive one credit for the course. Attendance: This course is a two-week intensive. Students are expected to attend every class. Prompt arrival is an essential courtesy to fellow students. Unexcused absences, repeated late attendance, and failure to prepare for classes may result in a failing grade. Syllabus: Class I: THE BROTHERS GRIMM AND THEIR LEGACY. To read and discuss in class: THE FROG KING (1812), THE FROG PRINCE (1815), and KING GOLDENLOCKS (1850) The Frog King, Or Iron Henry, from The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; Translated and Edited by Jack Zipes (Princeton, 2014), p. 13 ff. The Frog Prince, also from Zipes, pp. 331 ff. King Goldenlocks, by Franz Xaver von Schonwerth, translated by Maria Tatar. Published in the New Yorker, April 2, Class II: LITTLE SNOW WHITE and SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS Little Snow White, from The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; Translated and Edited by Jack Zipes (Princeton, 2014), p. 170 ff. Bruno Bettleheim s analysis of Snow White, from The Uses of Enchantment. Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Tale from the Brothers Grimm Translated by Randall Jarrell, illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert (Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1972).

3 Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, by Anne Sexton, from Transformations (1971). Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs, by Roald Dahl, from Revolting Rhymes. BRIAR ROSE and SLEEPING BEAUTY Briar Rose from The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; translated and edited by Jack Zipes (Princeton, 2014), p. 162 ff. The Sleeping Beauty, retold and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (Little Brown, 1973) Excerpts from Madeleine Is Sleeping, by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum (2005). The Sleeper and the Spindle, by Neil Gaiman, from Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales, edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Little Brown, 2013), p. 52 ff. Class III THE LEGACY OF HOFFMAN AND PERRAULT To be read before class for discussion and reading in class: The Sandman, by E.T.A. Hoffman, from The Golden Pot and Other Tales: A New Translation by Ritchie Robertson. A Toy Princess by Mary de Morgan, reprinted in A Book of Princesses, selected by Sally Patrick Johnson (Puffin/Penguin, 1963) Beauty and the Beast, by Charles Perrault, from Charles Perrault: The Complete Fairy Tales. (Oxford World Classics) Excepts from Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and The Beast, by Robin McKinley (1978). The Tiger s Bride, by Angela Carter, from The Bloody Chamber and Other Tales (1979). This copy reprinted in The Penguin Book of Western Fairy Tales, edited by Jack Zipes. Additionally, to be read in class:

4 Beware of the Storybook Wolves, written and illustrated by Lauren Child. Class III Students own fairy tales due (5 pages, double spaced, 12 point, maximum). Reading aloud of the fairy tales in class; workshopping of tales. Overnight, before Class IV, students will revise their stories based on feedback; hand in revised work to instructor at the beginning of Class IV. Class IV Verse for children. To read before class and discuss in class: Selected poems from The Oxford Book of Children s Verse, ed. Iona and Peter Opie. Edward Lear (p ) Lewis Carroll (p ) Hilaire Belloc (p ) A.A Milne (p ) Selected poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends: the Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein. Selected poems from Polka Bats and Octopus Slacks: Fourteen Stories, written and illustrated by Calef Brown. Selected poems from Opposites, by Richard Wilbur, from Richard Wilbur: Collected Poems ( ) Class V. Students verse for children due; reading and workshop discussion in class. Class VI

5 Dystopia Students revisions of their Children s verse assignment to behanded into instructor at the beginning of class. Discussion of The Giver, by Lois Lowry (1994 Newbery Medal). Class VII Dystopia Discussion of The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Class IX Reading and workshopping of students dystopian writing. Revisions of work that is workshopped in this class are due at the next class. Class X Continuing discussion of students dystopian writing. Revisions of work that is workshopped in this class are due in the instructor s Writing Seminars office in-box the following day. End of class celebration.