Shelley Isaacson teaches children’s literature courses for graduate and undergraduate students. She enjoys mentoring students preparing for careers in the field, and equally, guiding students studying varied disciplines become passionate, informed readers and lifelong advocates of literature for young people. Her interests are broad, but she is especially focused on the study of picturebooks as multimodal texts, including how picturebooks portray the relationship between humans and the natural environment and how they depict people with disabilities.
In addition, Isaacson is increasingly attentive to international and translated picturebooks, inspired by her first trip to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and by her students’ knowledge of and curiosity about books published and consumed globally. Isaacson serves as a free-lance editor of books for young people, as a reviewer for The Horn Book, and as the coordinator for the Simmons Summer Institute in Children’s Literature. She was also a Trinkett Clark Intern at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Earlier in her career, Isaacson worked as a researcher and curriculum designer for children’s television projects and STEM and literacy curricula for use in schools and informal education settings.
Outside of Simmons, Isaacson sits on the board of the SeriousFun network, an organization founded by Paul Newman that provides traditional camp experiences for children living with serious illnesses.
Education
MA, Children’s Literature and MFA, Writing for Children, from Simmons University
MEd, Harvard Graduate School of Education
BA, Psychology and English Literature, from the University of Michigan
Courses
BOS 101 Boston Childhoods Real and Imagined
CHL 403 The Picturebook
CHL 415 The Whole Book Approach
CHL 313-513 Survey of Literature for Children and Young Adults
Presentations and Exhibitions
Boundless: Picture Books about Disabilities, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, July 2021-January 2022.
“All Aboard a Wrong-Way Ship: Narratives and Counter Narratives in Three Robinsonade Picturebooks for Children.” In Crusoe’s Footsteps: Robinson Crusoe and the Robinsonade—A Tercentenary Appraisal. University of Roehampton, 6 Sept. 2019.