Assignment

        Write a review of a work of literary criticism, such as you might do for an academic journal. I'll post it on the web so that all your classmates can benefit from it. So, when you turn it in, please submit two copies. (1) Give a hard copy to me. (2) Post a copy to the "Book Review" group of the "Groups" component in K-State OnLine for English 830.

Some Reviews by Yours Truly

        These are intended to serve as examples. Please note. These links are accessible only via K-State; if you're not logged in on campus, find these via K-State Libraries' Find e-journal.

• Review of Julia L. Mickenberg's Learning from the Left: Children's Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the United States.  Children's Literature Association Quarterly 32.1 (2007): 80-82. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/childrens_literature_association_quarterly/v032/32.1nel.html>. (Available to subscribers of Project Muse.)
• Review of The American Child: A Cultural Studies Reader, edited by Caroline F. Levander and Carol J. Singley. American Historical Review 109.5 (Dec. 2004): 1587-88. <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/109.5/br_65.html>.

Due dates

• Full schedule of due dates.

The reviews will be due a week before the presentations. Reviewers will choose a book that will be useful to their presentation. There are two benefits of this approach. First, if you are reviewing a book that ties in with your presentation, then one assignment will help you with the other. Second, staggering the due dates over the course of the semester gives everyone a chance to process each review and, perhaps, to consider reading or consulting the book for their term papers.

Books

• Scott Bukatman, Matters of Gravity: Special Effects and Supermen in the 20th Century. Duke UP, 2003.
• Annalisa Di Liddo, Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel. UP Mississippi, 2009.
• Thierry Groensteen, The System of Comics. 1999. Translated by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen. UP Mississippi, 2007.
• Charles Hatfield, Alternative Comics: An Emerging Medium. UP Mississippi, 2005.
• Adam L. Kern, Manga from the Floating World: Comicbook Culture and the Kibyohi of Edo Japan. Harvard, 2006.
• David Kunzle, Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Töpffer. UP Mississippi, 2007.
• Scott McCloud, Making Comics. HarperCollins, 2006.
• David Michaelis, Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography.  HarperCollins, 2007.
• Daniel Raeburn, Chris Ware.  Yale UP, 2004.
• Roger Sabin, Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art. Phaidon, 1996.
• Frederik L. Schodt, The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution. Stone Bridge P, 2007.
• Douglas Wolk, How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. Da Capo, 2007.