This course will study the development of children's book illustration in the work of three masters of the twentieth century.  You will explore the picture books of Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, and Peter Sis, considering issues such as the use of history made by each illustrator and his concern for social context, the relationship of image to text and of illustration to a linear narrative, and repeating motifs and symbols that join individual publications into an organic whole. Students in the course will be divided into groups which will explore the three illustrators; this exploration will include a look at work by other important 20th century contemporaries such as Hillary Knight, Mitsumasa Anno, and Quentin Blake. The final weeks of the semester will be a conference period during which the groups will share some of the papers they have written and together discover how different perceptions, research, and group dynamics led to alternate hypotheses about these three masters.