Appendix B: A Literary Heritage I. Suggested Authors, Illustrators, and Works from the Ancient World to the Late Twentieth Century All American students should acquire knowledge of a range of literary works reflecting a common literary heritage that goes back thousands of years to the ancient world. In addition, all students should become familiar with some of the outstanding works in the rich body of literature that is their particular heritage in the English- speaking world, which includes the first literature in the world created just for children, whose authors viewed childhood as a special period in life. The suggestions below constitute a core list of those authors, illustrators, or works that comprise the literary and intellectual capital drawn on by those in this country or elsewhere who write in English, whether for novels, poems, nonfiction, newspapers, or public speeches. The next section of this document contains a second list of suggested contemporary authors and illustrators—including the many excellent writers and illustrators of children’s books of recent years—and highlights authors and works from around the world. In planning a curriculum, it is important to balance depth with breadth. As teachers in schools and districts work with this curriculum Framework to develop literature units, they will often combine literary and informational works from the two lists into thematic units. Exemplary curriculum is always evolving—we urge districts to take initiative to create programs meeting the needs of their students. The lists of suggested authors, illustrators, and works are organized by grade clusters: pre-K–2, 3–4, 5–8, and 9– 12. Certain key works or authors are repeated in adjoining grade spans, giving teachers the option to match individual students with the books that suit their interests and developmental levels. The decision to present a grades 9–12 list (as opposed to grades 9–10 and 11–12) stems from the recognition that teachers should be free to choose selections that challenge, but do not overwhelm, their students. Grades pre-K–8 selections have been reviewed by the editors of The Horn Book Magazine. See Appendix B of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects for additional suggestions. Grades Pre-K–2 David McCord A. A. Milne Traditional Literature and Poetry for Christina Rossetti Reading, Listening, and Viewing Picture Book Authors and Illustrators Traditional Literature Edward Ardizzone Aesop’s fables Ludwig Bemelmans Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories Margaret Wise Brown Selected Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales John Burningham Selected French fairy tales Virginia Lee Burton The Bible as literature: Tales including Jonah and the Randolph Caldecott Whale, Daniel and the Lion’s Den, Noah and the Ark, Edgar Parin and Ingri D’Aulaire Wanda Gág Moses and the Burning Bush, the Story of Ruth, David Kate Greenaway and Goliath Shirley Hughes Crockett Johnson Poetry Ruth Kraus Mother Goose nursery rhymes Robert Lawson John Ciardi Munro Leaf Rachel Field Robert McCloskey Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy 157 A. A. Milne British and American Poets Else Holmelund Minarik Stephen Vincent and Rosemarie Carr Benét William Pène du Bois Lewis Carroll Beatrix Potter John Ciardi Alice and Martin Provensen Rachel Field H. A. and Margret Rey Robert Frost Maurice Sendak Langston Hughes Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) Edward Lear Myra Cohn Livingston Grades 3–4, in addition to the David McCord grades pre-K–2 selections A. A. Milne Laura Richards Traditional Literature Greek, Roman, and Norse myths Grades 5–8, in addition to the Stories about King Arthur and Robin Hood grades pre-K–4 selections Myths and legends of indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America Traditional Literature American folktales and legends Grimms’ fairy tales Asian and African folktales and legends French fairy tales The Bible as literature: Tales by Hans Christian Andersen and Rudyard Kipling Tales including Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Aesop’s fables David and Jonathan, the Prodigal Son, and the Greek, Roman, or Norse myths Visit of the Magi; well-known Psalms (e.g., 23, Stories about King Arthur, Robin Hood, Beowulf and 24, 46, 92, 121, 150) Grendel, St. George and the Dragon Myths and legends of indigenous peoples of North, American Authors and Illustrators Central, and South America Natalie Babbitt American folktales and legends L. Frank Baum Asian and African folktales and legends Beverly Cleary The Bible as literature: Elizabeth Coatsworth Old Testament: Genesis, Ten Commandments, Mary Mapes Dodge Psalms and Proverbs Elizabeth Enright New Testament: Sermon on the Mount, Eleanor Estes Parables Jean Craighead George Sterling North American Authors and Illustrators Howard Pyle Louisa May Alcott Carl Sandburg Lloyd Alexander George Selden Isaac Asimov Louis Slobodkin Natalie Babbitt James Thurber L. Frank Baum E. B. White Nathaniel Benchley Laura Ingalls Wilder Ray Bradbury Carol Ryrie Brink British Authors and Illustrators Elizabeth Coatsworth Michael Bond Esther Forbes Frances Hodgson Burnett Paula Fox Lewis Carroll Jean Craighead George Kenneth Grahame Virginia Hamilton Dick King-Smith Bret Harte Edith Nesbit O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) Mary Norton Washington Irving Margery Sharp Jack London Robert Louis Stevenson L. M. Montgomery P. L. Travers Sterling North Scott O’Dell Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy 158 Edgar Allan Poe Grades 9–12, in addition to the Howard Pyle Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings grades 5–8 selections Elizabeth Speare Traditional Literature Booth Tarkington James Thurber A higher level re-reading of Greek mythology Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Classical Greek drama: E. B. White Aeschylus N. C. Wyeth Euripides Sophocles British Authors and Illustrators Substantial selections from epic poetry: James Barrie Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey Lucy Boston Virgil’s Aeneid Frances Hodgson Burnett The Bible as literature: Lewis Carroll Genesis Carlo Collodi Ten Commandments Daniel Defoe Selected Psalms and Proverbs Charles Dickens Job Arthur Conan Doyle Sermon on the Mount Leon Garfield Selected Parables Kenneth Grahame American Literature: Historical Rudyard Kipling C. S. Lewis Documents of Literary and George MacDonald Philosophical Significance29 Edith Nesbit The Declaration of Independence (1776) Mary Norton The United States Constitution (1787) and Bill of Rights Philippa Pearce (1791) Arthur Rackham Selected Federalist Papers (1787–1788) Anna Sewell George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) William Shakespeare Selections from Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in Isaac Bashevis Singer America, volumes I and II (1835, 1839) Johanna Spyri The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Robert Louis Stevenson Resolutions (1848) Rosemary Sutcliff Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech (1851) Jonathan Swift Frederick Douglass, Independence Day speech (1852) J. R. R. Tolkien Abraham Lincoln, “House Divided” speech (1858) T. H. White Gettysburg Address (1863), Second Inaugural Address (1865) British and American Poets Theodore Roosevelt, “The New Nationalism” speech William Blake (1910) Lewis Carroll Woodrow Wilson, “Peace without Victory” speech (1917) John Ciardi Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Four Freedoms” speech Rachel Field (1941) Robert Frost William Faulkner, Nobel Prize lecture (1950) Langston Hughes John F. Kennedy, inaugural speech (1961) Edward Lear Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham City Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Jail” (1963), “I Have a Dream” speech (1963) David McCord Lyndon Johnson, speech to Congress on voting rights Ogden Nash (1965) Richard Wilbur Excerpts from Supreme Court decisions; e.g., Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Brown v. Board of Education (1954) 29 For additional selections, see the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework. Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy 159 Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century: H. L. Mencken American Memoirs and Essays, Eleanor Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt Poetry and Fiction Robert Penn Warren Memoirs and Essays Booker T. Washington Frederick Douglass E. B. White Jonathan Edwards Richard Wright Ralph Waldo Emerson Malcolm X Olaudah Equiano Memoirs and other works about the immigrant Benjamin Franklin experience (e.g., Abraham Cahan, Younghill Kang, Angelina and Sarah Grimké Leo Rosten, Ole Rølvaag, Anzia Yezierska) Harriet Jacobs Thomas Jefferson Poetry Thomas Paine Louise Bogan Henry David Thoreau Arna Bontemps Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Countee Cullen E. E. Cummings Poetry Richard Eberhart Emily Dickinson T. S. Eliot Paul Laurence Dunbar Robert Frost Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Allen Ginsberg Edgar Allan Poe Langston Hughes Phillis Wheatley Randall Jarrell Walt Whitman Robinson Jeffers Amy Lowell Fiction Robert Lowell Ambrose Bierce Edgar Lee Masters Kate Chopin Edna St. Vincent Millay James Fenimore Cooper Marianne Moore Stephen Crane Sylvia Plath Nathaniel Hawthorne Ezra Pound Henry James John Crowe Ransom Sarah Orne Jewett Edward Arlington Robinson Herman Melville Theodore Roethke Edgar Allan Poe Gertrude Stein Harriet Beecher Stowe Wallace Stevens Allen Tate Sara Teasdale Grades 9–12, in addition to the William Carlos Williams grades 5–8 selections Fiction Twentieth century to about 1970: James Agee Saul Bellow American Memoirs and Essays, Ray Bradbury Poetry, Fiction, and Drama Pearl Buck Memoirs