ATS2519 Children's and young adult literature
Faculty of Arts
ATS2519 Children's and young adult literature is a level 2, 6-credit-point, undergraduate unit from the Faculty of Arts, offered in 2025 in Semester 1 at Clayton. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2025
- Semester 1
- Clayton
- Assessment
- No exam
- 3 tasks
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2025 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before ATS2519
No prerequisites or corequisites besides the enrolment rules below.
After ATS2519
No unit lists ATS2519 as a prerequisite in the 2025 handbook.
Enrolment rules
Prerequisite: Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units.
Prohibition: ATS3519
Overview
In this unit, you will be introduced to major developments in children's literature from the Victorian "Golden Age" to contemporary dystopian fiction. You will examine canonical works by British, American, and Australian authors in a range of genres and forms, including the picture book and young adult fiction. Specific issues examined include changing notions of childhood and the child figure, and the concept of the implied child/adolescent reader. You will consider the ideological implications of the adult interests vested in the production of children's literature, and how the genre works to socialise children into dominant views about gender, race and class.
Offerings in 2025
| Teaching period | Campus | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| First semester | Clayton | On campus |
Assessment
- Class/Forum participation taskExercise15%
- EssayWritten35%
- EssayWritten50%
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
explain the historic context of the development of the main genres of children's and young adult literature, and of contemporary trends and issues;
- 2
discuss the ways in which different cultures construct different ideas of childhood and adolescence, and of implied child readers;
- 3
critically analyse the ways in which adult and child readers learn to construct cultural paradigms, particularly relating to gender and race, through their reading;
- 4
apply skills pertaining to narratology, deconstruction and discourse analysis;
- 5
recognise and analyse the ideological significance of childhood and adolescent reading;
- 6
explore the cultural contexts surrounding the production and reception of children's and young adult literature.
Workload and teaching
- Tutorials24 hours
- Lectures12 hours
- Teaching approachCase-based teaching
- Teaching approachResearch activities
- Teaching approachActive learning
Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.
This unit includes case-based teaching, where you apply your knowledge and engage in analytical and reflective thinking to solve complex contextual scenarios. Activities are often designed so that there is not one clear answer, but students need to work together to examine, analyse and make decisions to resolve the situation.
This unit allows you to develop your research skills by engaging in structured inquiry using a systematic approach and discipline-specific methodologies.
This unit engages you in actively applying your knowledge, skills and attributes in interactive, collaborative and reflective activities.
Learning resources
Required resources
There are required texts for this unit. Required texts are usually available for purchase through the University Bookstore (https://www.monash.edu/retail/books) and are sometimes available for short-term loan or as eBooks through the library (https://www.monash.edu/library).
Where it fits
ATS2519 is part of 2 areas of study in the 2025 handbook.
Contacts
- Unit Coordinators
- Associate Professor Michelle Smith
- Chief Examiners
- Associate Professor Michelle Smith
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for ATS2519?
ATS2519 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is ATS2519 offered?
In 2025, ATS2519 runs in Semester 1 at Clayton.
How much work is ATS2519?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does ATS2519 have an exam?
No. ATS2519 has 3 assessment tasks and no exam.
Which majors and minors include ATS2519?
ATS2519 is part of Literary studies.