Profs & Pints Philadelphia: The Grim(m) and Glorious Story of Children's Lit

Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “The Grim(m) and Glorious Story of Children's Lit,” on the history of tales that stick with us well into adulthood, with Melissa Jensen, award-winning lecturer in English literature at the University of Pennsylvania and scholar of Children's Literature, the Gothic, and adolescence in media and society.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profs-and-pints-black-squirrel/kid-lit .]

Just about every single one of us can quickly invoke a favorite or personally influential children’s book. We can finish nursery rhyme lines and almost instinctively sing along with songs from countless Disney films. But what do we really know about the body of literature that played such a profound role in shaping our young minds?

Join Children’s Literature scholar and author Melissa Jensen for a talk that will have you thinking about the beloved books of your formative years in an entirely new way.

She will explore the evolution and convolution of Children's Literature from the 17th to 21st centuries, discussing the beloved, the famous, and the just plain odd. She’ll help you understand why these books are not just an integral part of the developmental fabric of our youth, but also have critical literary, scholarly, and cultural importance.

Her talk will lean into more than three centuries of grim(m) messaging in books for children, with takeaways from “Do good or get dead” to “Do bad and get dead” to “Do good and get dead anyway.” She’ll discuss whether plunking death front and center in the literature makes perfect sense or is counterintuitive.

We’ll discuss beginnings, endings, and countless other elements that determine the value of “kidlit.” We’ll look at how far Disney’s Ariel is from Andersen’s original Little Mermaid, and how that difference turns a whole new lens on the meaning of “happily ever after.”

Among the questions we’ll tackle: Is there a value in contemporary kids knowing centuries-old nursery rhymes involving babies falling out of trees? Why does it work that Jensen’s all-time favorite novel—not just children’s novel, but novel of any sort—begins with “Where’s Papa going with that ax?” (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Guests are welcome to arrive any time after 5:30. Talk starts at 6:30.)

Image: From an Arthur Rackham illustration of the Brothers Grimm’s “Hansel and Gretel” as published by Dutton and Company in 1920 (New York Public Library / The Internet Archive).