Things to think about regarding the canon of children's
literature:
Questions to consider:
- Are there differences between an expert's canon, a
reader's canon, a canon for teaching?
- In what ways is having a canon useful, especially to
a marginalized type of literature?
- What are the implications for you as a
teacher/scholar of children's literature of Deborah Stevenson's distinction
between a "canon of sentiment" and a "canon of significance"?
- To what degrees should canons focus more on breadth
of representation, longevity, popularity, and literary quality? What other
considerations go into canon making?
- Is children's literature to a point where
canon-breaking is an issue? What specific omissions need to be addressed?
Why?
- To what degree do anthologies like the Norton
determine canon? What approach does the Norton seem to have taken with
regard to canon?
- Is there an invisible canon, or an assumed canon,
that established scholars pay homage to, and should you pay attention to
that?
Articles addressing canonicity in children's literature:
Stevenson,
Deborah, “Sentiment and Significance: The Impossibility of Recovery in the
Children’s Literature Canon or, The Drowning of The Water Babies” The
Lion and the Unicorn 21.1 (1997) 112-130.