The campus community is welcome to join students in professor Nicole Markotić’s graduate class “Monsters in Children’s Lit” Thursday, Nov. 26, for a presentation on the young adult novel A Monster Calls.

Speaker Debra Dudek is an associate professor in the English program at Edith Cowan University, Australia. Her research focuses on visual and verbal texts for young people, including graphic novels, picture books, television, film, and novels. Dr. Dudek is particularly interested in how texts for young people engage with social justice issues.

Working from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, author Patrick Ness won multiple awards for A Monster Calls, including the Children’s Book Award from the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, Children’s Book of the Year from the National Book Awards, and the Carnegie Medal from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Illustrator Jim Kay received the Kate Greenaway Medal recognizing distinguished illustration in a book for children. The American Library Association magazine Booklist placed A Monster Calls at the “Top of the List” for 2011 youth fiction.

Thursday’s one-hour webinar will begin at 3 p.m. It is free and open to all. To request an invitation to the Microsoft Teams event, email Dr. Markotić at markotic@uwindsor.ca.