English 380 is Children’s Literature and a requirement of my degree, but it is also a very rewarding class. I had the pleasure of taking the course with Dr. Chris McGee and he made every day fun. It was one of the only in-person classes I have had since COVID-19 hit, and I enjoyed every second in that room. We read children’s novels from Matilda to Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Dr. McGee told us on the very first day that this class was not a class about children; rather a class about the literature that is catered toward children. I learned a lot in the class about the techniques used in that realm of literature, such as agency, defamiliarization, and carnivalesque. I learned that children’s literature can and should be enjoyed by people of all ages. I also learned that in my classroom I should encourage children to read books of all kinds.
My favorite assignment we did in that class was the first exam we had. We could do the assignment in any way we like as long as we conveyed at least two of the points he asked about. We also were to choose a book from outside of class, so I chose Sophie Hartley and the Facts of Life. It was a fun assignment to do because I got to read a children’s book and analyze all of its parts. This assignment taught me that there is so much going on in a children’s book that is not explicitly written and can impact the way we think and perceive characters.