Course Outlines
Examples of what UVic students are learning, and why

From Mother Goose to Munsch
Course comes with a storybook ending

Forget about Shakespeare, Byron or Austen. The students in Stephen Eaton Hume’s class are more concerned with the power and magic evoked by Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express, or the raw, conflicting emotions in Robert Munsch’s Love You Forever.

As aspiring children’s book authors, the students who take Hume’s continuing studies course, “From Mother Goose to Munsch,” do more than look at the pictures. Over the course of six weeks, they brainstorm concepts for potential picture books, story-board their ideas, learn about the publishing process, talk about censorship, write in-class exercises and read as if books were going out of style.

“I ask them to read as many picture books as possible, because the amount available is so vast, and there’s so much to discover,” says Hume.
One book they read in class is The Polar Express, about a boy who travels to the North Pole on Christmas Eve by boarding a train that pulls up outside his house. “Some adult critics have criticized the book by saying, ‘Well, how can a train pull up if there are no tracks?’ But that’s part of the magic. I really want the students to see that adults can pidgeon-hole reality. The real world is so much bigger than many adults can possibly imagine.”

As a recognized picture book author, Hume shares his knowledge of the publishing industry with his class. “Almost everyone ends up with a picture book manuscript and a cover letter to an editor, and they know where to send the story and how to choose a publisher. They recognize how varied picture books can be, in terms of subject and audience, and how the pacing of a picture book can be like a film.”

One of the first books Hume’s class reads is The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. The book, which has no words, relies on the pictures to dictate pace, story and drama.

Students also look at works for older readers like Faithful Elephants, an anti-war picture book by Yukio Tsuchiya about elephants in Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo during World War II. “The zookeepers had to poison the dangerous animals in case they ran wild in the bombing, but the elephants wouldn’t eat the poison, so the keepers had to starve them to death. You can learn a lot about the tragedy of war in that one simple book.”

When Hume first read that book aloud in class, he heard noises. “I looked up and some of the students were crying. Picture books can be that powerful.”

Photo credit: Joy Poliquin