Course: Honors English 380 Children’s Literature (Fall 2020)
As a future educator, I found this course to be incredibly eye-opening and insightful. Throughout this course, our class focused on looking critically and analyzing various children’s books. One term used in the analysis of these various texts that has changed the way I read and view literature is ideology. Ideologies are different beliefs, ideas, perceptions, and values that are often introduced or reinforced through literature. Examples of ideologies include the ideas that girls love pink and glitter. These are things that are often present in many children’s books, and once ideologies are pointed out, they are difficult to ignore.
Throughout the course, I found some of the most captivating books to be the ones that challenged common ideologies. My favorite book that we read during this course that strayed away from the typical depiction of young female characters was Coraline by Neil Gaiman. It is important that young readers have access to stories that push boundaries and stereotypes and offer the audience new perspectives, and Coraline is a perfect example of this. Her strengths and abilities are not defined by her age, which is empowering to her as a character, as well as the audience.
I have chosen to attach my analysis on this book, because it discusses the important aspects of productive children’s literature that I learned about in this course. Coraline Analysis.pdf