reading canada
Table of contents
1 Introduction: More than Wheat and Snow
Curating our Narrative Culture
A Word about Book Choice
Concerns for the Teacher: Censorship and Appropriation
Structure and Layout of the Book
Chapter Summaries
Chapter Two: Re/Presenting the Present: Contemporary Realism In Canadian Fiction.
Chapter Three: Historical Fiction: “Making and Remaking the Past”
Chapter Four: Speculative Fiction: Imagining the World Otherwise
Chapter Five: Visual Literacy, Dual Text, and the Expanded Eye
Chapter Six: Young Adult Literature in the Digital Age
Chapter Seven: “A Nation Taking Shape”
2 Re/Presenting the Present: Contemporary Realism in Canadian Fiction
A Recognizable Vision of the Human Condition
The Evolution of “Real” Youth Literature
Context and Challenge in Social Realism: Friends, Fears, Families, Fitting In
Tesserae in the Canadian Mosaic
Aboriginal Narratives
African-Canadian Narratives
Asian-Canadian Narratives
The Gender Spectrum
Capabilities Differing
Curriculum and Pedagogy: The Why, What, and How of Canadian Literature in the Classroom
Why Narrative is Important
Canadian Content: The What of Canadian Fiction Pedagogy
The How: Teaching Canadian Fiction
Case Studies
What Fear Makes Us Do
What Friendship Makes Possible
3 Historical Fiction: “Making and Remaking the Past”
Intersections: Historical Thinking and Literary Insight
Historical Thinking and Primary Evidence
Historical Fiction and Interpretive Insight
Expanding Perspectives: Theoretical Lenses
“The Past is a Foreign Country”
Representing Canada in Fictional Overviews and Series
“A History of Bindings”: Pre-Contact, Exploration, and Early Settlement
Personal and National Identity in the Nineteenth Century
The “Psycho-Geography” Emerges: American and British Cultural Templates
The Company Store: Unpacking “Heroic” Myths
Drawing Boundaries: From Colony to Nation
Where Does “History” End?
Entering the Century, Entering the Country
World War I: War Literature and the YA Reader
Between the Wars
The World War II Decade
Reading Postwar Canada
Teaching Historical Fiction
Case Studies
Historical Thinking and Literary Insight in The Crazy Man by Pamela Porter
Historical Thinking and Literary Insight in the Canadian Section of Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes
4 Speculative Fiction: Imagining the World Otherwise
Speculative Genres: “Nailing Jelly to the Wall”
Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction
Speculative Genres and Canadian Identity
Myth, Magic, and the Transcendent Imagination
Mythic Foundations
High Fantasy Influences and Perilous Realms
Hybrid Heroes
Intertextuality
Historical Fantasy: Illuminating Our Collective and Individual Past
Contemporary Speculation
Modern Fairy Tales
Urban Fantasy
Paranormal Powers
Things That Go Bump in the Night
Dystopian Warnings and New Cartographies of the Imaginary Future
Speculative Fiction Pedagogy: Educating the Imagination: Multiple Worlds, Imaginative Bridges
Case Studies
Archetype and Future-Vision in The Keeper of the Isis Light
Who is Rocking the Blue-Green Cradle? Studying Symbolism in Wake by Robert Sawyer
5 Visual Literacy, Dual Texts, and the Expanded Eye
Picture Books: A Metacognitive View
Picture Books and the Older Reader: “Crossover” Appeal
Illustrated Genres: Text or Image as Carrier of Meaning?
Alphabets of Visual Literacy: Line and Colour, Style and Medium
Synthesis: Text, Metatext, Peritext
Graphica and the Canon: Adult Prohibition and Guilty Pleasures
Comic Book Ancestry and Edgy Issues
“Crossover” Maps of Place and Memory
Pedagogy: In/Visible Reading, Expanding Vision
Visual Literacy and the Dual Text
Visual Learning and the Twenty-First Century Learner
Case Studies
The Dual Text and Sense of Place in Josepha
Loss and Imagination: Child’s Experience, Adult World
6 The YA Reader in the Digital Age
Literary Thinking and Digital “Continuous Partial Attention”
What Changes? What Abides? Finding Spaces of Thoughtful Attention
Literary Resources Online: Journals, Media, Organizations
More Online Resources: Author and Publisher Websites
The Electronic Style Migration: Digital Characteristics of YA Literature
Navigating Non-Linear Literature: Hypertext and Rhizomes
Literature, Pedagogy, and Community in a Digital World
Engaging the Digital World: Enhancing the Reading Experience
Theoretical Frames for Digitally-Enhanced Pedagogy
Media, Literature, and Implications for the Teacher
Changing Relations of Power
Instructional Scaffolding in the Digital Classroom
Implications for Evaluation
Case Studies for a Digital Age
Cross-Country Bookshelf: National Bio-Literary Mapping Project (Age 12 and up)
Classroom Reads Canada (mid-late teens)
7 Conclusion: “A Nation Taking Shape”
“Real People Wrote These Books!”
Beyond the Canon
National Myths and Literary Traditions
Canadian Fiction, Canadian Readers Photo: Leah Fowler
Curating our Narrative Culture
A Word about Book Choice
Concerns for the Teacher: Censorship and Appropriation
Structure and Layout of the Book
Chapter Summaries
Chapter Two: Re/Presenting the Present: Contemporary Realism In Canadian Fiction.
Chapter Three: Historical Fiction: “Making and Remaking the Past”
Chapter Four: Speculative Fiction: Imagining the World Otherwise
Chapter Five: Visual Literacy, Dual Text, and the Expanded Eye
Chapter Six: Young Adult Literature in the Digital Age
Chapter Seven: “A Nation Taking Shape”
2 Re/Presenting the Present: Contemporary Realism in Canadian Fiction
A Recognizable Vision of the Human Condition
The Evolution of “Real” Youth Literature
Context and Challenge in Social Realism: Friends, Fears, Families, Fitting In
Tesserae in the Canadian Mosaic
Aboriginal Narratives
African-Canadian Narratives
Asian-Canadian Narratives
The Gender Spectrum
Capabilities Differing
Curriculum and Pedagogy: The Why, What, and How of Canadian Literature in the Classroom
Why Narrative is Important
Canadian Content: The What of Canadian Fiction Pedagogy
The How: Teaching Canadian Fiction
Case Studies
What Fear Makes Us Do
What Friendship Makes Possible
3 Historical Fiction: “Making and Remaking the Past”
Intersections: Historical Thinking and Literary Insight
Historical Thinking and Primary Evidence
Historical Fiction and Interpretive Insight
Expanding Perspectives: Theoretical Lenses
“The Past is a Foreign Country”
Representing Canada in Fictional Overviews and Series
“A History of Bindings”: Pre-Contact, Exploration, and Early Settlement
Personal and National Identity in the Nineteenth Century
The “Psycho-Geography” Emerges: American and British Cultural Templates
The Company Store: Unpacking “Heroic” Myths
Drawing Boundaries: From Colony to Nation
Where Does “History” End?
Entering the Century, Entering the Country
World War I: War Literature and the YA Reader
Between the Wars
The World War II Decade
Reading Postwar Canada
Teaching Historical Fiction
Case Studies
Historical Thinking and Literary Insight in The Crazy Man by Pamela Porter
Historical Thinking and Literary Insight in the Canadian Section of Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes
4 Speculative Fiction: Imagining the World Otherwise
Speculative Genres: “Nailing Jelly to the Wall”
Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction
Speculative Genres and Canadian Identity
Myth, Magic, and the Transcendent Imagination
Mythic Foundations
High Fantasy Influences and Perilous Realms
Hybrid Heroes
Intertextuality
Historical Fantasy: Illuminating Our Collective and Individual Past
Contemporary Speculation
Modern Fairy Tales
Urban Fantasy
Paranormal Powers
Things That Go Bump in the Night
Dystopian Warnings and New Cartographies of the Imaginary Future
Speculative Fiction Pedagogy: Educating the Imagination: Multiple Worlds, Imaginative Bridges
Case Studies
Archetype and Future-Vision in The Keeper of the Isis Light
Who is Rocking the Blue-Green Cradle? Studying Symbolism in Wake by Robert Sawyer
5 Visual Literacy, Dual Texts, and the Expanded Eye
Picture Books: A Metacognitive View
Picture Books and the Older Reader: “Crossover” Appeal
Illustrated Genres: Text or Image as Carrier of Meaning?
Alphabets of Visual Literacy: Line and Colour, Style and Medium
Synthesis: Text, Metatext, Peritext
Graphica and the Canon: Adult Prohibition and Guilty Pleasures
Comic Book Ancestry and Edgy Issues
“Crossover” Maps of Place and Memory
Pedagogy: In/Visible Reading, Expanding Vision
Visual Literacy and the Dual Text
Visual Learning and the Twenty-First Century Learner
Case Studies
The Dual Text and Sense of Place in Josepha
Loss and Imagination: Child’s Experience, Adult World
6 The YA Reader in the Digital Age
Literary Thinking and Digital “Continuous Partial Attention”
What Changes? What Abides? Finding Spaces of Thoughtful Attention
Literary Resources Online: Journals, Media, Organizations
More Online Resources: Author and Publisher Websites
The Electronic Style Migration: Digital Characteristics of YA Literature
Navigating Non-Linear Literature: Hypertext and Rhizomes
Literature, Pedagogy, and Community in a Digital World
Engaging the Digital World: Enhancing the Reading Experience
Theoretical Frames for Digitally-Enhanced Pedagogy
Media, Literature, and Implications for the Teacher
Changing Relations of Power
Instructional Scaffolding in the Digital Classroom
Implications for Evaluation
Case Studies for a Digital Age
Cross-Country Bookshelf: National Bio-Literary Mapping Project (Age 12 and up)
Classroom Reads Canada (mid-late teens)
7 Conclusion: “A Nation Taking Shape”
“Real People Wrote These Books!”
Beyond the Canon
National Myths and Literary Traditions
Canadian Fiction, Canadian Readers Photo: Leah Fowler
