Children's Lit-Spiration: The Dream Keeper

I promised more non-Seuss inspiration, so I['m delivering! Here's a little inspiration for those of you chasing your hopes and dreams, a message that might be especially relevant for our recent grads. By the way, if you're looking for a great children's poetry anthology, I highlight recommend The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury with poems selected by Jack Prelutsky, one of my personal favorite poets. We used Janet Schulman's The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury in our children's lit class and didn't focus a lot on poetry, but if the course is offered in the future, this would be my go-to text for examining poetry for children. Enjoy!

Bring me all of your dreams, 

You dreamers, 

Bring me all of you

Heart melodies

That I may wrap them

In a blue cloud-cloth

Away from the too-rough fingers 

Of the world.

--Langston Hughes, "The Dream Keeper"

Tributes to and Interviews with Maurice Sendak

Many tributes to Maurice Sendak have been cropping up in the wake of his recent passing, and as these tributes describe Sendak's groundbreaking contributions to the world of children's literature much more eloquently than I could, I'll let them speak for themselves. From interviews with NPR and PBS to The Colbert Report, it's clear that, like his Wild Things protagonist Max, Sendak wasn't afraid to "let the wild rumpus start!"

Children's Lit-Spiration

Congratulations to Denison’s Class of 2012 on their graduation this afternoon! I know nearly all of the “Children’s Lit-Spirations” so far have been from Dr. Seuss, and I promise that I have a greater variety lined up for future posts, but it seems foolish not to share a bit from Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go! on this exciting occasion. Best of luck, everyone! The hill won't be the same without you.

"Congratulations!

Today is your day!

You're off to great places!

You're up and away!

You have brains in your head,

and feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself in

any direction you choose.

You're on your own.

And you know what you know.

And YOU are the one

who'll decide where to go."

--Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Lights, Camera, Action!

For me, movie sets have always had a certain glamour and allure, and for as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to get to actually be on a movie set. For some, there’s a luster to standing in a Hogwarts corridor or dining in the same restaurant where Edward and Bella shared their first date. Popular movie sets or locations have sometimes been turned into tourist sites and fan shrines for people who want to enter a literary world, whether that be a magical boarding school or a future dystopic society.



Harry Potter fans, for instance, don't have to wait for their Hogwarts letter to visit Hogwarts. They can experience the wizarding world by traveling to  Harry Potter: The Exhibition now in Sydney, Australia; the Wizarding World of HarryPotter at the Universal Orlando theme park and planned to open in 2015 or 2016 at Universal Studies Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan; and the recently opened Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London.  Gloucester Cathedral,  Alnwick Castle, and King's Cross Station all also offer access to sites featured in the films. For a Harry Potter tourbook of sorts, check out Steve Vander Ark’s In Search of Harry Potter , which chronicles his journey throughout the U.K. to find the locations described in the books.



In the US, Twilight tourism is alive and well in Forks, Washington, where you can see where the movies were filmed. A special guidebook  was created for fans interested in taking a “Twilight Tour” around Washington, and even the Food Network Magazine featured an article on eateries from the Twilight books and films.


The U.S. also provided the backdrop for scenes filmed in the cinematic adaptation of The Hunger Games, and a decrepit town in North Carolina served as the backdrop for Panem’s District 12 , a town that is currently up for sale. Fans of The Hunger Games trilogy can travel through locations used in the film and have a hands-on Hunger Games experience by taking a day-long or weekend-long Hunger Games Fan Tour that includes a lottery, survival training, and a Hunger Games simulation.


So, whether you're hoping for your Hogwarts letter, an eager Twi-hard, or an aspiring Tribute, literary tourism has something for you!

Children's Lit-Spiration

In honor of finals week, remember a little engine who huffed and puffed and persevered, thanks to the power of positive thinking: 

“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I know I can.”

--Watty Piper, The Little Engine That Could

Save a Childhood Studies' Program!

Only a handful of Childhood Studies programs exist across the country, and one of the pioneering programs and the first to offer a PhD in this area--the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers-Camden--faces the threat of being dismantled completely with a possible merger between Rugters-Camden and neighboring Rowan University. Find out more about the proposed merger and its implications for the Rutgers’ Childhood Studies program, and sign a petition against this here. 

Tales of the Titanic for Children

April 15, 2012 marked the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and various children’s book outlets compiled lists of picture or chapter books that tell the tale of the Titanic. In the March/April 2012 edition of The Horn Book Magazine, editors created an annotated bibliography of picture books about the Titanic, and a book blogger suggested a group of books that also work well supplemented with other reference books that aren’t specifically written with a child audience in mind. While you’re at, take a look at a book recently published by Marlene Tromp—a former professor of English and Women’s Studies at Denison—called Untold Titanic.