Your mention of past college courses reminded of a professor I had that updated and coauthored a book called Philosophy Through Science Fiction which included chapters on different ideas from philosophy but paired them with discussions on sci-fi shows and movies and also science fiction books and short stories. More importantly for me, it got me really into reading sci-fi short stories for a while, and it includes a lot of great short stories between the chapters as well.
The children's literature class sounds cool too. I don't recall too many formative children's books that I could revisit now, but I do like reading highly acclaimed children's books now and will have to check out A Wrinkle in Time.
I use these books when I teach Philosophy 101. You might like them if you dig science fiction.
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Through-Science-Fiction-Coursebook/dp/0415957559
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Philosophy-Travel-Superintelligence/dp/1405149078