PART B: Sight Passage (30 marks) – 750-1000 wordsChoose one of the two provided sight passages (excerpts from children’s literature not encountered on this course). Analyze the sight passage in relation to three issues it raises which are central to the study of children’s literature. For each issue you identify, compare the passage to two texts we have studied on this course. Don’t forget to discuss the passage itself, drawing specific comparisons between it and the texts from the course that you have chosen to discuss. You may treat this as three separate answers; in each of your answers you must discuss a different issue and two different texts, for a total of six separate texts representing six different units from the course. DO NOT CHOOSE ANY TEXT THAT YOU HAVE DISCUSSED IN DETAIL IN PARTS A OR C.1. Excerpt from a Children’s BookYesterday, Mom lectured me about how boys my age watch too many violent movies and play too many video games, and that we don’t know what REAL entertainment is. I just stayed quiet, because I wasn’t sure exactly where she was going with all this. Then Mom said that she was gonna start a “reading club” for the boys in the neighborhood so she could teach us about all the great literature we were missing out on. I begged Mom to just give me a regular punishment instead, but she wouldn’t budge.So today was the first meeting of the Reading Is Fun Club. I felt kind of bad for all the boys whose moms made THEM come. … Anyway, Mom told everyone to bring their favorite book to today’s meeting so we could pick one and discuss it. All the guys laid their books on the table, and everyone seemed pretty happy with the selection except Mom. [book covers: Sudoku Insanity, Ultimate Video Game Cheats, Green Wasp, Xtreme Pop-Up Sharks)]Mom said the books we brought weren’t “real” literature and that we were gonna have to start with the “classics.” Then she brought out a bunch of books that she must’ve had since SHE was a kid. [book covers: Little Women, The Yearling, Old Yeller, Anne of Green Gables] These are the exact same types of books our teachers are always pushing us to read at school. They have a program where if you read a “classic” in your free time, they reward you with a sticker of a hamburger or something like that. I don’t know who they think they’re fooling. You can get a sheet of a hundred stickers down at the arts-and-crafts store for fifty cents. I’m not really sure what makes a book a “classic” to begin with, but I think it has to be at least fifty years old and some person or animal has to die at the end.2. “Crazy Dream” – Shel SilversteinLast night I had a crazy dreamThat I was teachin school.My teachers had turned into kids,And I laid down the rules.I gave ’em a hundred hist’ry booksTo memorize each night,And made ’em read ’em on their headsWithout turnin’ on the light.I sent ’em on a field tripTo the outskirts of Mongolia,And gave ’em an overnight assignmentTo grow a twenty-foot purple magnolia.I asked ’em how many awful gradesCan cause how many tears?And if they got one answer wrong,I just hung ’em up by their ears.And when they talked or laughed in class,I pinched ’em ’til they criedLouder and louder–’til I woke upFeelin’ very satisfied.
