How did you come to be the reader you are? What ideas about the world and its characters did you gain from the stories you read as a child? Why did you read and reread some books? How did illustrations work with words to create the stories you saw and read? What larger issues of psychological development and culture can be understood in the stories adults create for children? Students will explore these and other questions by reading and discussing various genres and levels of children's literature, including fairy tales, picture books, poetry and novels. Written assignments will include a reader's journal, a short research paper, a children's story and a final project.