 "Photo: Lisle Alderton")
Philip Nel is an English professor, but his heart belongs to the brightly-colored pages sandwiched between cardboard covers that many people stop reading after their age reaches double digits.
The books he has written have titles like “The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Dr. Seuss and His Cats,” and “J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Novels: A Reader’s Guide.” The bookshelves in Nel’s office are filled with children’s books, and he said he takes movie adaptations of these books seriously.
“I hope to show people that it’s fun to take children’s literature seriously,” said Nel. “That’s why I teach the courses I do. Children’s literature: not just about how to read, but that reading is fun.”
There may be some who doubt children’s literature can be analyzed in a critical and thought-provoking way, but critics indicate Nel’s passion is not mere child’s play.
“Nel does a terrific job of supplying the backstory behind both the book and the man, and explaining why and how Cat became a worldwide favorite,” said Ilene Cooper, a critic for the American Library Association, about “The Annotated Cat” in a review from Booklist magazine.
Several of Nel’s students also appreciate Nel’s grown-up approach to children’s literature. Elizabeth Williams, graduate student in English, said she has a class with him every semester. This semester she is taking Comics and Graphic Novels from Nel, where the reading material runs from the light-hearted “Calvin and Hobbes” to the more serious “Maus.”
Williams said the class is currently reading “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick, which won the Caldecott Medal for children’s picture books. Williams also said she anticipates a good in-class debate on whether “Hugo Cabret” was a graphic novel, a picture book or something else.
“The class is a lot of fun,” said Williams. “The discussion is really good.”
Christina Gaines, graduate student in English, is also in the Comics and Graphic Novels class, and had Nel for another class last semester, entitled Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature.
“It was very eye-opening,” Gaines said. “We looked at childhood and the ideas of children’s literature. He’s a great professor. I’m really glad that I’m in his classes.”
Nel has had a fair amount of practice in encouraging people to think critically about children’s literature. In addition to the classes he teaches, he has written two books about Dr. Seuss and is nearing the completion of a biography about married authors Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss, a labor of love that has taken him 10 years.
“No one has ever written a biography about them,” Nel said.
This might surprise some people, as Johnson is the author of one of the most famous children’s books of all time, “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” first published in 1955. His wife and frequent collaborator, Krauss, wrote over 50 books, many of which are still in print.
Nel said he likes watching movie adaptations of children’s books, but is sometimes disappointed by the results.
“They think children are stupid,” he said. “They think they have to fill it full of endless gags to hold their attention. I’m definitely going to go see [‘Where the Wild Things Are’]. It looks like it’s aiming a little higher.”
7 comments