Traditions and Adaptations in Literature for Young Children: Appalachian Emphasis

Summer 2005 Schedule

Summer Graduate Program in Children's Literature
Hollins University, English 535

Professor: Tina Hanlon    

Link to Syllabus

READINGS AND REPORTS

Note: In this web version of the class schedule, a few links go to copies of the tales and articles you can read online. Many of the links on titles go to AppLit bibliography pages and other resources where you can find more information on variants and background for particular stories. Some of those bibliography pages contain direct links to tales or articles online. If you are in English 535, you are expected to read the books from the required booklist and library reserve list for each class period. Look at as many of the other works and background materials as your time and interest allow.

Tuesday, June 21

Course Introduction

Begin discussion of traditional literature and Appalachian literature

Introductory discussion of research sources

Introduction to Traditional Literature and Appalachian Literature   Thursday, June 23

Read introduction in Judith V. Lechner, Allyn & Bacon Anthology of Traditional Literature, 2004 (referred to as Lechner below).

Browse in AppLit to become familiar with Appalachian children’s literature, especially folktale bibliographies, which are indexed at http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/FolkBib.htm.

Diagrams of Types of Folk Literature: http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/studyg/folkdiagram.htm

General Guidelines for Teaching with …Short Works of Folklore: http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/studyg/studygfolk.htm.

Alphabet and Counting Books   Thursday, June 23

Hall, Francie. Appalachian ABCs. Illus. Kent Oehm, 1998 (on reserve)

Lyon, George Ella.  Counting on the Woods. Illus. Ann Olson, 1998 (on reserve)

Lyon, George Ella.  A B Cedar: An Alphabet of Trees. Illus. Tom Parker, 1996 (on reserve)

Also recommended (read at least several of these):

Cheek, Pauline. An Appalachian Scrapbook: An A-B-C of Growing up in the Mountains. Overmountain, 1988.

Pack, Linda Hager. A is for Appalachia! The Alphabet Book of Appalachian Heritage. Illus. Pat Banks. Prospect, KY: Harmony House, 2002.

Older alphabet from The New England Primer, in (among other places) Demers and Moyles, From Instruction to Delight, pp. 29-33.

Greenaway, Kate. “A Apple Pie” and “Alphabet” (in The Kate Greenaway Treasury and her book A Apple Pie in library)

Base, Graeme. Animalia.  NY:  Abrams, 1986.  (on reserve)

Feelings, Muriel. Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book.  Illus. Tom Feelings, 1974. (on reserve) 

Johnson, Stephen.  Alphabet City.  NY:  Viking, 1995. (on reserve)  

Pelletier, David. The Graphic Alphabet. NY:  Orchard, 1996. 

Sendak, Maurice. The Nutshell Library.  NY:  Harper Collins, 1962 (books or video with Carole King music)

Dr. Seuss. On Beyond Zebra.  NY:  Random House, 1966.  (on reserve)

Steig, Jeanne and William. Alpha, Beta, Chowder, 1992 (humorous poems for each letter).

Van Allsburg, Chris.  The Alphabet Theatre. . .Z Was Zapped.  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

Nursery Rhymes       Tuesday, June 28

Still, James. An Appalachian Mother Goose. Illus. Paul Brett Johnson, 1998.

Milnes, Gerald.  Granny, Will Your Dog Bite, and Other Mountain Rhymes. Illus. Kimberly Bulcken Root, 1990.

Browse through some of The Annotated Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes Old and New (on reserve) or the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (also in library) by the Opies, 1990.

Bring to class any other nursery rhyme book of your choice, or a printout of some examples if you choose something from a Web page or book you can’t bring.

Mini-report: Tiffany Teofilo on Inner City Mother Goose by Eve Bunting

Follow up from class discussion:

Favorites included Kate Greenaway; Arnold Lobel's nursery rhyme collection with his absorbing illustrations; The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright; old Chinese nursery rhymes that reveal cultural attitudes and customs such as uselessness of girls and foot-binding; The Tree in the Wood: An Old Nursery Song Adapted and Illustrated by Christopher Manson (North-South, 1993); Judith Viorst's The Alphabet from Z to A (rhymes about inconsistency in English spelling, 1994); Lucy Cousins' nursery rhyme books (comical child-like illustrations—Tina forgot to bring to class).

Animal Tales      Thursday, June 30

In Lechner: Browse through chap. 2 on fables, p. 47 on animal tales, and the Cherokee tale “Rabbit Escapes from the Wolves” (p. 144)

Ross, Gayle. How Turtle's Back Was Cracked: A Traditional Cherokee Tale. Illus. Murv Jacobs. Dial, 1995 (on reserve)

Ross, Gayle.  How Rabbit Tricked Otter and Other Cherokee Trickster Stories, 1994 (on reserve)

Roth, Susan L. Kanahena: A Cherokee Story, 1988 (on reserve)

The story of Grandmother Spider and the First Fire is an important Cherokee legend. This AppLit link contains a link to a version you can read. And there is a link to Cherokee storyteller Gayle Ross performing at the Kennedy Center. At the beginning she tells about the creation, including Grandmother Spider getting fire. She then teaches the audience a Cherokee song and later tells about Rabbit.

FYI: Native Americans: A Resource List for Teaching - to or about - Native Americans, by Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, 2005.

Hooks, The Three Little Pigs and the Fox, 1989 (on reserve)

(There are also Appalachian 3 little pigs tales in Chase’s Grandfather Tales and in AppLit’s Fiction and Poems section.)

Potter, Beatrix, The Tale of Peter Rabbit (on reserve, or online at http://www.tcom.ohiou.edu/books/kids/beatrix/p1.htm.)

Read a few tales from Lester and Pinkney, Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales, especially the Tar Baby tale (there is one in Lechner, p. 140).

Lowell and Harris, The Three Little Javalinas (on reserve)

Lowell and Harris, The Tortoise and the Jack Rabbit (on reserve)

Lobel, Arnold. Fables, 1980 (on reserve)

Steig, William.  Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, 1969 (on reserve)

"The Wonderful Tar-Baby" is on p. 442 of Saltman's The Riverside Anthology of Children's Literature—the popular but now controversial version by Joel Chandler Harris. The original Uncle Remus tales are also online at http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7EUG97/remus/contents.html. BUT I recommend that instead you read a modernized version of the Brer Rabbit/Tar Baby story, such as this contemporary retelling : http://www.otmfan.com/html/brertar.htm, or the version in Virginia Hamilton's collection The People Could Fly or Julius Lester's retelling of Uncle Remus illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. (AppLit's Annotated Index has some of these links and other material on the Brer Rabbit page.)

(On the issue of literature using dialect in the classroom, see AppLit's web page by Stephanie Humphries.)

See an illustration of Brer Rabbit and links to the covers of more recent books, as well as comments from an anti-racist organization that uses Brer Rabbit as its symbol, at http://www.pipeline.com/~rgibson/rouge_forum/brer.htm. Compare the Disney image of Brer Rabbit at http://stp.ling.uu.se/~starback/dcml/chars/brers.html.

Brer Rabbit statue in Eatonton, GA (birthplace of Joel Chandler Harris).

Even though our schedule saves Jack Tales for next week, one Jack Tale that has a big cast of animals, like "The Bremen Town Musicians" (which doesn't have a human as the ringleader like Jack) is "Jack and the Robbers" or "Jack and the Animals" (title of a picture book by Donald Davis) or "Jack Seeks His Fortune." You can read Orville Hicks' version of "Jack and the Robbers" at his Web site.

"The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear is online at this link, with some background and illustrations. Also available at http://edwardlear.tripod.com/ns/pussy.html with Lear's illustrations. See also cover with Jan Brett's illustration.

FYI:  Animal tale index in AppLit: http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/tales/animals.htm

For an animal tale by Hollins students, see "Mountain Marbles" by Tracy Roberts and Stella Reinhard

Other Pourquoi and Cherokee Tales  Tuesday, July 5

Lechner, Pourquoi or Why Tales section, pp. 156 ff.

Lechner Legends section pp. 261 ff., especially Cherokee “Legend of the Corn Beads” and “Spearfinger”

Bruchac and Ross. The Story of the Milky Way (on reserve)

Selu and Kan’Ti legends – see http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/tales/selu.htm (and other Native American legends in this section of AppLit).

Jack Tales      Tuesday, July 5

Lechner’s introduction to folktales, pp. 41 ff., as well as introductions to wonder tales and trickster tales in this chapter.

Hicks, Ray. The Jack Tales. As told to Lynn Salsi. Illus. Owen Smith, 2001, and/or read several tales in Chase’s The Jack Tales. Chase’s “Jack and the Varmints” is in Lechner, p. 135. The other tales that are in Hicks as well as Chase are "Jack and the Robbers," "Jack and the Bean Tree," and "Jack and the North West Wind."

Johnson, Paul Brett. Fearless Jack, 2001 (on reserve, a variant of "Jack and the Varmints")

Still, James. Jack and the Wonder Beans. Illus. Margot Tomes, 1977 (on reserve)

Haley, Gail.  Jack and the Bean Tree, 1986 (on reserve)

Wooldridge, Connie Nordhielm.  Wicked Jack.  Illus. Will Hildebrand, 1995 (on reserve)

For criticism, see Mikkelsen, Nina. "Richard Chase's Jack Tales: A Trickster in the New World." Touchstones: Reflections on the Best in Children's Literature. Viol. 2: Fairy Tales, Fables, Myths, Legends and Poetry. Ed. Perry Nodelman. West Lafayette, IN: Children's Literature Association, 1987. pp. 40-55. And look for other references on Jack Tales at bibliography of Background Resources on Appalachian Folktales.

Other Jack Tales available on reserve, in Holt, Ready-to-Tell Tales: "Jack and the Haunted House," "The Time Jack got the Silver Sword," English "Jack and the Magic Beans."

Tina has audio and video recordings of a number of Appalachian storytellers telling these tales.

Mini-report: Candice Ransom on retelling the folktale "The Woodman and the Goblins" with Appalachian setting

Tales of Strong Women   Thursday, July 7

The best examples in Chase’s Grandfather Tales:  “Mutsmag,” “Whitebear Whittington” (if interested in variants directly from oral tradition, see also "Munsmeg" and “The Three Gold Nuts” in AppLit Fiction & Poems section. For picture book see Snowbear Whittington by Hooks, on reserve), and “Ashpet.”

Read "Mutsmag" adaptation by Rex Stephenson, with illustrations by school children (be sure to read the story itself and give it time to load the whole tale if you are using a slower Internet connection; some links at this page also go to background and variants in U.S. and Europe).

Also like "Mutsmag": "Three Girls with the Journey-Cakes" in Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales and Songs (on reserve)

Tales like "Rumpelstiltskin":

Mushko, Becky.  “Ferradiddledumday” in AppLit’s Fiction and Poems section

Moser, Barry.  Tucker Pfeffercorn: An Old Story Retold (on reserve)

(See note in Lechner, p. 178, on a related Scandinavian tale with three wise women, "The Three Aunts," available at Web site for this anthology)

Moser, Barry.  Polly Vaughn (on reserve; could discuss with ballads next week. Note that AppLit includes an audio version of a similar song, "Molly Vaunder")

Hamilton, Virginia. The Girl Who Spun Gold. (West Indian variant). Illus. Leo and Diane Dillon. New York: Blue Sky/Scholastic, 2000.

For criticism, see Stone, Kay. "Things Walt Disney Never Told Us." The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 88, No. 347, Women and Folklore (Jan.-Mar. 1975), pp. 42-50. Available online through JSTOR.

For other references and links to other feminist tales and collections, see http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/FolkBib.htm#StrongWomen. (Tina Hanlon's essays on the "transplanted tales" in Moser's books and on strong women in Rex Stephenson's folktale adaptations are in the Articles section of AppLit but these aren't required reading).

Oral report: Candice Ransom on folklore in forthcoming novel
Mini-report: Shelby Mahan on Marshall Ward, Appalachian storyteller

Ballads and Legends     African American Tales   Tuesday, July 12

PAPER DRAFTS OR OUTLINES DUE

Langstaff and Rojankovsky. Frog Went A-Courtin’ (on reserve; poem is in Grandfather Tales also )

Lester, Julius. John Henry. Illus.  Jerry Pinkney. New York:  Dial, 1994. 

San Souci, Robert. The Boy and the Ghost. Illus. Jerry Pinkney (on reserve)

Songs "Billy Boy" and others in Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales and Songs (on reserve)

Hamilton, Virginia.  Her Stories (on reserve)

Yolen, Jane. Tam Lin: An Old Ballad. Illus. Charles Mikolaycak (on reserve)

"Tailypo" is a scary tale with African American variants (a link to Jackie Torrence telling it online is at this link)

Revisit Uncle Remus tales today (see references above under Animal Tales)?

Revisit "Wicked Jack/John," which has African American variants?

Another connection from last week: "Polly Vaughn" and "Pretty Polly" ballads

Mini-report: Heidi Quist on ghost tales

Tall Tales       Thursday, July 14

“John Henry” fits here, too.

Isaacs, Anne.  Swamp Angel.  Illus. Paul O. Zelinsky (on reserve)

Schanzer, Rosalyn. Davy Crockett Saves the World (on reserve)

Kellogg, Steven. Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett (on reserve)

Tony Beaver tales from WV – see “Tony Beaver and the Watermelon Party” link in AppLit Fiction and Poems section.

Another option: "Davy Crockett meets his Match" in Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales and Songs (on reserve)

Osborne and McCurdy, American Tall Tales (on reserve)

Lechner anthology, pp. 47, 95, 294. Paul Bunyan is on pp. 110-12.

For other Appalachian tall tales, see Appalachian Folktales in Picture Books: Tall Tales, Tall Tales in Annotated Index of Appalachian Folktales, Folk Heroes section of West Virginia's Appalachian Music and Literature, and Tall Tales and Jack Tales: Literature and Writing Activities.

Also recommended: San Souci, Robert D. Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale. Illus. Brian Pinkey (ntroduction by Jane Yolen. NY: Philomel Books, 1993; in Hollins library)

Oral report: Shelby Mahan on "Mutsmag" in relation to postmodernism and theories of resilience

Trip to Lime Kiln Theater to see Sing Down the Moon, 8 p.m. performance

Other Folktales, Including Tales with Dragons  Tuesday, July 19

Haley, Gail.  Jack and the Fire Dragon, 1988 (on reserve)

“Old Fire Dragaman” in Chase’s Jack Tales (also found in Saltman, Riverside Anthology of Children’s Literature; other variants and references listed at this link)

Dragons Elsewhere:

Jane Yolen and Li Ming. Merlin and the Dragons, 1995 (on reserve)

Jane Yolen and Dennis Nolan. Dove Isabeau, 1989 (in library; description at JaneYolen.com; older variants of this tale include "The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh"; for another version, see excerpts from The Loathsome Dragon by Wiesner at Amazon.com—it's been reprinted this year)

Munsch and Martchenko.  The Paper Bag Princess, 1980 (on reserve)

Yolen, Jane. Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie and Folklore in the Lit. of Childhood.  2nd ed., 2000.

FYI: Tina's Dragons in Children's Literature Web site

Oral report: Danyel on The Mitten (how picture books by Brett and Tressalt adapt Ukranian folktale). She recommends article "Folktales for Children" by Gertrude B. Herman. Jump Over the Moon. Ed. Pamela Petrick Barron, 1984, pp. 291-99.

Realistic and Historical Picture Books   Thursday, July 21 rescheduled for Mon., July 25, 11-2

Discuss Roberta Herrin essay on Appalachia and childhood from Higgs, Robert J., et al. Appalachia Inside Out: Culture and Custom. 2 Vols. Knoxville: Tennessee U Press, 1995 (article on handout).

Houston, Gloria. My Great-Aunt Arizona.  Illus Susan Condie  Lamb, 1992.

Lyon, George Ella.  Who Came Down That Road? Illus. Peter Catalanotto, 1992 (on reserve)

Lyon, George Ella.  Cecil’s Story Illus. Peter Catalanotto, 1991 (on reserve)

Lyon, George Ella.  Mama is a Miner. Illus. Peter Catalanotto, 1994 (on reserve)

Lyon, George Ella.  A Regular Rolling Noah. Illus. Stephen Gammell (on reserve)

Bradby, Marie. More than Anything Else. Illus. Chris K. Soentpiet (on reserve)

Ransom, Candice.When the Whippoorwill Calls. Illus. K. B. Root (on reserve)

Rylant and Moser. Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds (on reserve)

Rylant, Cynthia. The Relatives Came. Illus. Stephen Gammell (on reserve)

Rylant, Cynthia. When I Was Young in the Mountains. Illus. Diane Goode (on reserve)

Smucker, Anna Egan. No Star Nights.  Illus. Steve Johnson (on reserve)

Waxman, Laura Hamilton. Sequoyah (on reserve)

Picture books on contemporary life: report by Dorina

Picture books on environmental issues - see Nature and the Environment in Appalachian Literature and Picture Books and the Environment

AppLit reference: Realistic Appalachian Picture Books

Oral report by Ricky on African dilemma tales

Humor, Satire, Spin-offs of Traditional Literature   Tuesday, July 26

Lechner: Noodlehead Tales, Tall Tales, and Other Humorous Tales, pp. 92 ff.

Birdseye, Tom. Soap! Soap! Don’t Forget the Soap (on reserve) – and/or “The Boy Who was Sent for Soap” and "The Soap Tale" in AppLit Fiction and Poems section

Johnson, Paul Brett. Old Dry Frye (on reserve; there is a version in AppLit also)

Another option: "Twist-mouth Family" in Diane Goode Book of American Folk Tales and Songs (on reserve)

King and Monkman, A Coyote Columbus Story (on reserve)

Scieszka, Jon.  The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Fairy Tales.  Illus. Lane Smith. NY:  Viking Penguin, 1992 (on reserve) 

Dahl, Roald.  James and the Giant Peach.  (1961), 1996. 

Zipes, Jack.  Happily Ever After (on reserve)

AppLit reference: Appalachian Humor section of West Virginia's Appalachian Music and Literature

See also "Lazy Jack" reference in Lechner, p. 176, tale available on web site for this anthology, or references at "Jack and the Three Sillies."

Mini-report by Danyel on Cajun folktales

Mini-report by Ricky on what makes texts funny

Oral report by Heidi Quist

Tom Davenport's Mutzmag

Adaptations of Traditional Tales   Thursday, July 28

FINAL PAPERS DUE

Be prepared discuss at least one adaptation you have viewed carefully, from the following choices:

Tom Davenport film series From the Brothers Grimm, especially Mutzmag (story book of the films is on reserve; Hollins Library has all 11 films)

Jack Tale Players script by R. Rex Stephenson on reserve, Tina has old video of performance

The Polar Bear King video (Tina has a copy)

Ever After: A Cinderella Story (Hollins has film)

Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim, et al. (Hollins has DVD)

Old Dry Frye, 1986 (Hollins has video)

Faerie Tales Series (Tina has several videos)

Sing Down the Moon. See photos and background on how the retellings were developed a this link. Also produced as set of 2 CDs. Picture, summary of each tale and downloadable script excerpts at Dramatic Publishing Online Catalog. Also produced at Theater at Lime Kiln (Lexington, Virginia, July 2005).

Walt Disney Snow White, 1937 (Hollins has video)

Oral report by Tiffany on The Neverending Story in novel and film

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This page created June 2005. Last update: July 19, 2005

Link to Syllabus