Today the Addison Midday Rotary club — which I am a member of — collected new and slightly used books for the local elementary school. For a small club, we had a HUGE number of books. Every member was quite generous. I remember the slogan “Reading is Fundamental,” and that is so true. It really is the basic building block for all other education. I had friends in college who were education majors, and they often took a children’s literature class, affectionately known as “kiddie lit.” There is such a vast amount and wide variety of children’s books; they really surpass adult literature. I think kids read more than adults, and that’s a shame. Books can be fascinating and compelling; they are portable and don’t require plugging in, although Kindles do — if that’s what you prefer. As a volunteer, I have read many books to children over the years. The most significant time I spent reading to a child was when my baby sister Julie — 18 years younger — was growing up. She had my parents, my sister Barbara and me. We all read to her. I’m sure that’s why she could read before she started to school, but she couldn’t tie her shoes. I teased that she would become a barefoot lecturer traveling across the country. Kudos to children’s book authors and artists. They have more imagination and creativity than I ever will. Let’s learn more about children’s literature.
According to Wikipedia, children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's literature can be traced to traditional stories like fairy tales — that have only been identified as children’s literature in the 18th century — and songs, part of a wider oral tradition that adults shared with children before publishing existed. Before printing was invented, the development of early children's literature is difficult to trace. Even after printing became widespread, many classic "children's" tales were originally created for adults and later adapted for a younger audience. Since the 15th century, much literature has been aimed specifically at children, often with a moral or religious message. Children's literature has been shaped by religious sources like Puritan traditions or by more philosophical and scientific standpoints with the influences of Charles Darwin and John Locke. The late 19th and early 20th centuries are known as the "Golden Age of Children's Literature" because many classic children's books were published then.
Definition
There is no single or widely used definition of children's literature. It can be broadly defined as the body of written works and accompanying illustrations produced in order to entertain or instruct young people. The genre encompasses a wide range of works, including acknowledged classics of world literature, picture books and easy-to-read stories written exclusively for children, along with fairy tales, lullabies, fables, folk songs and other primarily orally transmitted materials, or more specifically defined as fiction, non-fiction, poetry or drama intended for and used by children and young people. One writer on children's literature defines it as "all books written for children, excluding works such as comic books, joke books, cartoon books and non-fiction works that are not intended to be read from front to back, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and other reference materials." However, others would argue that comics should also be included: "Children's literature studies has traditionally treated comics fitfully and superficially despite the importance of comics as a global phenomenon associated with children."
The “International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature” notes that "the boundaries of genre... are not fixed but blurred." Sometimes, no agreement can be reached about whether a given work is best categorized as literature for adults or children. Some works defy easy categorization. J. K. Rowling's “Harry Potter” series was written and marketed for children, but it is also popular among adults. The series' extreme popularity led The New York Times to create a separate bestseller list for children's books.
Despite the widespread association of children's literature with picture books, spoken narratives existed before printing, and the root of many children's tales go back to ancient storytellers. Seth Lerer — in the opening of “Children's Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter” — said, "This book presents a history of what children have heard and read.... The history I write of is a history of reception."
History
Early children's literature consisted of spoken stories, songs and poems used to educate, instruct and entertain children. It was only in the 18th century — with the development of the concept of childhood — that a separate genre of children's literature began to emerge with its own divisions, expectations, and canon. The earliest of these books were educational books, books on conduct and simple ABCs — often decorated with animals, plants and anthropomorphic letters.
In 1962, French historian Philippe Ariès argued in his book “Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life” that the modern concept of childhood only emerged in recent times. He explained that children in the past were not considered as greatly different from adults and were not given significantly different treatment. As evidence for this position, he notes that, apart from instructional and didactic texts for children written by clerics like the Venerable Bede and Ælfric of Eynsham, there was a lack of any genuine literature aimed specifically at children before the 18th century.
Other scholars have qualified this viewpoint by noting that there was a literature designed to convey the values, attitudes and information necessary for children within their cultures, such as the “Play of Daniel” from the 12th century. Pre-modern children's literature, therefore, tended to be of a didactic and moralistic nature, with the purpose of conveying conduct-related, educational and religious lessons.
Early-modern Europe
During the seventeenth century, the concept of childhood began to emerge in Europe. Adults saw children as separate beings, innocent and in need of protection and training by the adults around them. The English philosopher John Locke developed his theory of the tabula rasa in his 1690 “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.” In Locke's philosophy, tabula rasa was the theory that the human mind is at birth a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences. A corollary of this doctrine was that the mind of the child was born blank and that it was the duty of the parents to imbue the child with correct notions. Locke himself emphasized the importance of providing children with "easy pleasant books" to develop their minds rather than using force to compel them: "Children may be cozen'd into a knowledge of the letters; be taught to read, without perceiving it to be anything but a sport, and play themselves into that which others are whipp'd for." He also suggested that picture books be created for children.
In the 19th century, a few children's titles became famous as classroom reading texts. Among these were the fables of Aesop and Jean de la Fontaine and Charles Perraults's 1697 “Tales of Mother Goose.” The popularity of these texts led to the creation of a number of 19th-century fantasy and fairy tales for children which featured magic objects and talking animals.
Another influence on this shift in attitudes came from Puritanism, which stressed the importance of individual salvation. Puritans were concerned with the spiritual welfare of their children, and there was a large growth in the publication of "good godly books" aimed squarely at children. Some of the most popular works were by James Janeway, but the most enduring book from this movement — still read today, especially In modernized versions — is “The Pilgrim's Progress” in 1678 by John Bunyan.
Chapbooks — pocket-sized pamphlets that were often folded instead of being stitched — were published in Britain; illustrated by woodblock printing, these inexpensive booklets reprinted popular ballads, historical re-tellings and folk tales. Though not specifically published for children at this time, young people enjoyed the booklets as well. In “From Chapbooks to Plum Cake,” Johanna Bradley said that chapbooks kept imaginative stories from being lost to readers under the strict Puritan influence of the time.
Hornbooks also appeared in England during this time, teaching children basic information such as the alphabet and the Lord's Prayer. These were brought from England to the American colonies in the mid-17th century.
The first such book was a catechism for children, written in verse by the Puritan John Cotton. Known as “Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes,” it was published in 1646, appearing both in England and Boston. Another early book, “The New England Primer,” was in print by 1691 and used in schools for 100 years. The primer begins with "The young Infant's or Child's morning Prayer" and evening prayer. It then shows the alphabet, vowels, consonants, double letters and syllables before providing a religious rhyme of the alphabet, beginning "In Adam's fall We sinned all..." and continues through the alphabet. It also contained religious maxims, acronyms, spelling help and other educational items, all decorated by woodcuts.
In 1634, the “Pentamerone” from Italy became the first major published collection of European folk tales. Charles Perrault began recording fairy tales in France, publishing his first collection in 1697. They were not well received among French literary society, who saw them as only fit for old people and children. In 1658, Jan Ámos Comenius in Bohemia published the informative illustrated “Orbis Pictus” for children under six learning to read. It is considered to be the first picture book produced specifically for children.
The first Danish children's book was “The Child's Mirror” by Niels Bredal in 1568, an adaptation of a Courtesy book by the Dutch priest Erasmus. “A Pretty and Splendid Maiden's Mirror,” an adaptation of a German book for young women, became the first Swedish children's book upon its 1591 publication. Sweden published fables and a children's magazine by 1766.
In Italy, Giovanni Francesco Straparola released “The Facetious Nights of Straparola” in the 1550s. Called the first European storybook to contain fairy tales, it eventually had 75 separate stories and was written for an adult audience. Giulio Cesare Croce also borrowed from some stories children enjoyed for his books.
Russia's earliest children's books — primers — appeared in the late 16th century. An early example is “ABC-Book,” an alphabet book published by Ivan Fyodorov in 1571. The first picture book published in Russia — Karion Istomin's “The Illustrated Primer” — appeared in 1694. Peter the Great's interest in modernizing his country through Westernization helped Western children's literature dominate the field through the 18th century. Catherine the Great wrote allegories for children, and during her reign, Nikolai Novikov started the first juvenile magazine in Russia.
Origins of the modern genre
The modern children's book emerged in mid-18th-century England. A growing polite middle-class and the influence of Lockean theories of childhood innocence combined to create the beginnings of childhood as a concept. In an article for the British Library, professor MO Grenby writes, “in the 1740s, a cluster of London publishers began to produce new books designed to instruct and delight young readers. Thomas Boreman was one. Another was Mary Cooper, whose two-volume ‘Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book’ in 1744 is the first known nursery rhyme collection. But the most celebrated of these pioneers is John Newbery, whose first book for the entertainment of children was ‘A Little Pretty Pocket-Book.’”
Widely considered the first modern children's book, “A Little Pretty Pocket-Book” was the first children's publication aimed at giving enjoyment to children, containing a mixture of rhymes, picture stories and games for pleasure. Newbery believed that play was a better enticement to children's good behavior than physical discipline, and the child was to record his or her behavior daily. The book was child–sized with a brightly colored cover that appealed to children — something new in the publishing industry. Known as gift books, these early books became the precursors to the toy books popular in the 19th century. Newbery was also adept at marketing this new genre. According to the journal The Lion and the Unicorn, "Newbery's genius was in developing the fairly new product category, children's books, through his frequent advertisements... and his clever ploy of introducing additional titles and products into the body of his children's books." Professor Grenby writes, ”Newbery has become known as the ‘father of children's literature’ chiefly because he was able to show that publishing children’s books could be a commercial success.”
The improvement in the quality of books for children and the diversity of topics he published helped make Newbery the leading producer of children's books in his time. He published his own books as well as those by authors such as Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith; the latter may have written “The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes,” Newbery's most popular book.
Another philosopher who influenced the development of children's literature was Jean-Jacques Rousseau who argued that children should be allowed to develop naturally and joyously. His idea of appealing to a children's natural interests took hold among writers for children. Popular examples included Thomas Day's “The History of Sandford and Merton,” four volumes that embody Rousseau's theories. Furthermore, Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth's “Practical Education: The History of Harry and Lucy” in 1780 urged children to teach themselves.
Rousseau's ideas also had great influence in Germany, especially on German philanthropism, a movement concerned with reforming both education and literature for children. Its founder, Johann Bernhard Basedow, authored “Elementarwerk” as a popular textbook for children that included many illustrations by Daniel Chodowiecki. Another follower, Joachim Heinrich Campe, created an adaptation of “Robinson Crusoe” that went into over 100 printings. He became Germany's "outstanding and most modern" writer for children. According to Hans-Heino Ewers in The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, "It can be argued that from this time, the history of European children's literature was largely written in Germany."
The Brothers Grimm preserved and published the traditional tales told in Germany. They were so popular in their home country that modern, realistic children's literature began to be looked down on there. This dislike of non-traditional stories continued there until the beginning of the next century. The Grimms's contribution to children's literature goes beyond their collection of stories, as great as that is. As professors, they had a scholarly interest in the stories, striving to preserve them and their variations accurately, recording their sources.
A similar project was carried out by the Norwegian scholars Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe who collected Norwegian fairy tales and published them as “Norwegian Folktales,” often referred to as “Asbjørnsen and Moe.” By compiling these stories, they preserved Norway's literary heritage and helped create the Norwegian written language.
Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen traveled through Europe and gathered many well-known fairy tales and created new stories in the fairy tale genre.
In Switzerland, Johann David Wyss published “The Swiss Family Robinson” in 1812, with the aim of teaching children about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world and self-reliance. The book became popular across Europe after it was translated into French by Isabelle de Montolieu.
E. T. A. Hoffmann's tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" was published in 1816 in a German collection of stories for children, “Kinder-Märchen.” It is the first modern short story to introduce bizarre, odd and grotesque elements in children's literature and thereby anticipates Lewis Carroll's tale Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. There are not only parallels concerning the content — the weird adventures of a young girl in a fantasy land — but also the origin of the tales, as both are dedicated and given to a daughter of the author's friends.
Golden age
The shift to a modern genre of children's literature occurred in the mid-19th century; didacticism of a previous age began to make way for more humorous, child-oriented books — more attuned to the child's imagination. The availability of children's literature greatly increased as well; as paper and printing became widely available and affordable, the population grew, and literacy rates improved.
“Tom Brown's School Days” by Thomas Hughes appeared in 1857 and is considered to be the founding book in the school story tradition. However, it was Lewis Carroll's fantasy, “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,” published in 1865 in England, that signaled the change in writing style for children to an imaginative and empathetic one. Regarded as the first "English masterpiece written for children" and as a founding book in the development of fantasy literature, its publication opened the "First Golden Age" of children's literature in Britain and Europe that continued until the early 1900s. If we follow little Alice in her wanderings in the "Wonderland," we will soon see that the fairy-tale absurdity has solid historical ground. With the clear eyes of a child, Lewis Carroll made us look at the various phenomena of contemporary life. The absurd in the fairy tale shows the satire of the author and the embodiment of the serious problems of the Victorian era. Lewis Carroll is ironic about the prim and all-out regulated life of the "golden" Victorian century. One other noteworthy publication was Mark Twain's book “Tom Sawyer” in 1876, which was one of the first "boy books" — intended for children but enjoyed by both children and adults alike. These were classified as such for the themes they contained, consisting of fighting and work. Another important book of that decade was “The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby” in 1862 by Rev. Charles Kingsley, which became extremely popular and remains a classic of British children's literature.
In 1883, Carlo Collodi wrote the first Italian fantasy novel, “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” which was translated many times. In that same year, Emilio Salgari — the man who would become "the adventure writer par excellence for the young in Italy" — first published his legendary character “Sandokan.” In Britain, “The Princess and the Goblin” and its sequel “The Princess and Curdie” by George MacDonald appeared in 1872 and 1883, and the adventure stories “Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped,” both by Robert Louis Stevenson, were extremely popular in the 1880s. Rudyard Kipling's “The Jungle Book” was first published in 1894, and J. M. Barrie told the story of “Peter Pan” in the novel “Peter and Wendy” in 1911. Johanna Spyri's two-part novel “Heidi” was published in Switzerland in 1880 and 1881.
In the U.S., children's publishing entered a period of growth after the American Civil War in 1865. Boys' book writer Oliver Optic published over 100 books. In 1868, the epoch-making “Little Women” — the fictionalized autobiography of Louisa May Alcott — was published. This coming-of-age story established the genre of realistic family books in the United States. Mark Twain released “Tom Sawyer” in 1876. In 1880 another bestseller, “Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings” — a collection of African American folk tales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris — appeared.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a plethora of children's novels began featuring realistic, non-magical plotlines. Certain titles received international success such as Robert Louis Stevenson's “Treasure Island” in 1883, L. M. Montgomery's “Anne of Green Gables” in 1908 and Louisa May Alcott's “Little Women” in 1868.
National traditions
United Kingdom
Literature for children had developed as a separate category of literature especially in the Victorian era, with some works becoming internationally known, such as Lewis Carroll's “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” in 1865 and its sequel “Through the Looking-Glass.” At the end of the Victorian era and leading into the Edwardian era, Beatrix Potter was an author and illustrator best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters. In her 30s, Potter published “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” in 1902. She eventually went on to produce 23 children's books and become very wealthy. Michael O. Tunnell and James S. Jacobs — professors of children's literature at Brigham Young University — write, "Potter was the first to use pictures as well as words to tell the story, incorporating colored illustration with text, page for page." Another classic of the period is Anna Sewell's animal novel “Black Beauty” in 1877.
Rudyard Kipling published “The Jungle Book” in 1894. A major theme in the book is abandonment followed by fostering, as in the life of Mowgli, echoing Kipling's own childhood. In the latter years of the 19th century, precursors of the modern picture book were illustrated books of poems and short stories produced by English illustrators Randolph Caldecott, Walter Crane and Kate Greenaway. These had a larger proportion of pictures to words than earlier books, and many of their pictures were in color. Some British artists made their living illustrating novels and children's books, among them Arthur Rackham, Cicely Mary Barker, W. Heath Robinson, Henry J. Ford, John Leech and George Cruikshank. In the 1890s, some of the best known fairy tales from England were compiled in Joseph Jacobs' “English Fairy Tales,” including “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” “The Three Little Pigs,” “Jack the Giant Killer” and “Tom Thumb.”
The Kailyard School of Scottish writers — notably J. M. Barrie, creator of “Peter Pan” in 1904 — presented an idealized version of society and brought fantasy and folklore back into fashion. In 1908, Kenneth Grahame wrote the children's classic “The Wind in the Willows” and the Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell's first book, “Scouting for Boys,” was published. Inspiration for Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel “The Secret Garden” in 1910 was the Great Maytham Hall Garden in Kent. While fighting in the trenches for the British Army in World War I, Hugh Lofting created the character of “Doctor Dolittle,” who appears in a series of 12 books.
The Golden Age of Children's Literature ended with World War I. The period before World War II was much slower in children's publishing. The main exceptions in England were the publications of “Winnie-the-Pooh” by A. A. Milne in 1926, the first” Mary Poppins” book by P. L. Travers in 1934, “The Hobbit” by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1937 and the Arthurian “The Sword in the Stone” by T. H. White in 1938. Children's mass paperback books were first released in England in 1940 under the Puffin Books imprint, and their lower prices helped make book-buying possible for children during World War II. Enid Blyton's books have been among the world's bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Blyton's books are still enormously popular and have been translated into almost 90 languages. She wrote on a wide range of topics including education, natural history, fantasy, mystery and biblical narratives, and is best remembered today for her “Noddy,” “The Famous Five,” “The Secret Seven” and “The Adventure Series.” The first of these children's stories, “Five on a Treasure Island,” was published in 1942.
In the 1950s, the book market in Europe began to recover from the effects of the two world wars. An informal literary discussion group associated with the English faculty at the University of Oxford,were the "Inklings", with the major fantasy novelists C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as its main members. C. S. Lewis published the first installment of “The Chronicles of Narnia” series in 1950, while Tolkien is best known — in addition to The Hobbit — as the author of “The Lord of the Rings” in 1954. Another writer of fantasy stories is Alan Garner author of “Elidor” in 1965 and “The Owl Service” in 1967. The latter is an adaptation of the myth of Blodeuwedd from the “Mabinogion,” set in modern Wales; it won Garner the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognizing the year's best children's book by a British author.
Mary Norton wrote “The Borrowers” in 1952, featuring tiny people who borrow from humans. Dodie Smith's “The 101 Dalmatians” was published in 1956. Philippa Pearce's “Tom's Midnight Garden” in 1958 has Tom opening the garden door at night and entering into a different age. William Golding's 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies” focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves.
Roald Dahl wrote children's fantasy novels which were often inspired from experiences from his childhood, with often unexpected endings and unsentimental, dark humor. He was inspired to write “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in 1964, featuring the eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka, having grown up near two chocolate makers in England who often tried to steal trade secrets by sending spies into the other's factory. His other works include “James and the Giant Peach” in 1961, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” in 1971, “The BFG in 1982, “The Witches” in 1983 and “Matilda” in 1988. Starting in 1958, Michael Bond published humorous stories about Paddington Bear.
Boarding schools in literature are centered on older pre-adolescent and adolescent school life, and are most commonly set in English boarding schools. Popular school stories from this period include Ronald Searle's comic “St Trinian's” from 1949–1953 and his illustrations for Geoffrey Willans's “Molesworth” series, Jill Murphy's “The Worst Witch” and the “Jennings” series by Anthony Buckeridge.
Ruth Manning-Sanders's first collection, “A Book of Giants,” retells a number of giant stories from around the world. Susan Cooper's “The Dark Is Rising” is a five-volume fantasy saga set in England and Wales. Raymond Briggs' children's picture book “The Snowman” in 1978 has been adapted as an animation, shown every Christmas on British television. The Reverend. W. Awdry and son Christopher's “The Railway Series” features Thomas the Tank Engine. Margery Sharp's series “The Rescuers” is based on a heroic mouse organization. The third Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo published “War Horse” in 1982. Dick King-Smith's novels include “The Sheep-Pig” 1984 and “The Water Horse.” Diana Wynne Jones wrote the young adult fantasy novel “Howl's Moving Castle” in 1986. Anne Fine's “Madame Doubtfire” in 1987 is based around a family with divorced parents. Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series begins with “Stormbreaker” in 2000.
Philip Pullman's “His Dark Materials” is an epic trilogy of fantasy novels consisting of “Northern Lights” in 1995 which was published as “The Golden Compass” in North America, “The Subtle Knife” in 1997 and “The Amber Spyglass” in 2000. It follows the coming-of-age of two children — Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry — as they wander through a series of parallel universes. The three novels have won a number of awards, most notably the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year prize, won by “The Amber Spyglass.” “Northern Lights” won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in 1995.
Neil Gaiman wrote the dark fantasy novella “Coraline” in 2002. His 2008 fantasy, “The Graveyard Book” traces the story of a boy who is raised by the supernatural occupants of a graveyard. In 2001, Terry Pratchett received the Carnegie Medal — his first major award — for “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.” Cressida Cowell's “How to Train Your Dragon” series were published between 2003 and 2015.
J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy sequence of seven novels chronicles the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter. The series began with “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” in 1997 and ended with the seventh and final book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” in 2007, becoming the best-selling book-series in history. The series has been translated into 67 languages, placing Rowling among the most translated authors in history.
British adventure fiction
While Daniel Defoe wrote “Robinson Crusoe” in 1719 — spawning so many imitations it defined a genre, Robinsonade; adventure stories written specifically for children began in the 19th century. Early examples from British authors include Frederick Marryat's “The Children of the New Forest” in 1847 and Harriet Martineau's “The Peasant and the Prince” in 1856.
The Victorian era saw the development of the genre with W. H. G. Kingston, R. M. Ballantyne and G. A. Henty specializing in the production of adventure fiction for boys. This inspired writers who normally catered to adult audiences to write for children, a notable example being Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate story “Treasure Island” in 1883.
In the years after the First World War, writers such as Arthur Ransome developed the adventure genre by setting the adventure in Britain rather than distant countries. In the 1930s he began publishing his “Swallows and Amazons” series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the English Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of them involve sailing; fishing and camping are other common subjects. “Biggles” was a popular series of adventure books for young boys about James Bigglesworth, a fictional pilot and adventurer, by W. E. Johns. Between 1941–1961 there were 60 issues with stories about Biggles, and in the 1960s occasional contributors included the BBC astronomer Patrick Moore. Between 1940 and 1947, W. E. Johns contributed 60 stories featuring the female pilot Worrals. Evoking epic themes, Richard Adams's 1972 survival and adventure novel “Watership Down” follows a small group of rabbits who escape the destruction of their warren and seek to establish a new home.
Geoffrey Trease and Rosemary Sutcliff brought a new sophistication to the historical adventure novel. Philip Pullman in the Sally Lockhart novels and Julia Golding in the Cat Royal series have continued the tradition of the historical adventure.
British magazines and comics
An important aspect of British children's literature has been comic books and magazines. Among the most popular comics have been “The Beano” and “The Dandy,” both published in the 1930s. British comics in the 20th century evolved from illustrated penny dreadfuls of the Victorian era featuring Sweeney Todd, Dick Turpin and Varney the Vampire. First published in the 1830s, according to The Guardian, penny dreadfuls were "Britain's first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young." Robin Hood featured in a series of penny dreadfuls in 1838 which sparked the beginning of the mass circulation of Robin stories.
Important early magazines or story papers for older children were the “Boy's Own Paper,” published from 1879 to 1967 and “The Girl's Own Paper” published from 1880 until 1956. Other story papers for older boys were “The Hotspur” from 1933 to 1959 and “The Rover,” which started in 1922 and was absorbed into Adventure in 1961 and The Wizard in 1963, eventually folding in 1973. Many prominent authors contributed to the “Boy's Own Paper:” cricketer W.G. Grace wrote for several issues, along with authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and R. M. Ballantyne, as well as Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout movement. Contributors to “The Girl's Own Paper” included Noel Streatfeild, Rosa Nouchette Carey, Sarah Doudney (1841–1926), Angela Brazil, Richmal Crompton, Fanny Fern and Baroness Orczy.
The “Eagle” was a popular British comic for boys, launched in 1950 by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Revolutionary in its presentation and content, it was enormously successful; the first issue sold about 900,000 copies. Featured in color on the front cover was its most recognizable story, "Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future," created with meticulous attention to detail. It was first published from 1950 to 1969, and relaunched from 1982 to 1994. Its sister comic was “Girl,” whose early issues from 1951 featured the strip "Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew." First published by Martin Handford in 1987, more than 73 million “Where's Wally?” picture puzzle books had been sold around the world by 2007.
United States
Children's literature has been a part of American culture since Europeans first settled in America. The earliest books were used as tools to instill self-control in children and preach a life of morality in Puritan society. Eighteenth-century American youth began to shift away from the social upbringing of its European counterpart, bringing about a change in children's literature. It was in this time that “A Little Book for Little Children” was written by T. W. in 1712. It includes what is thought to be the earliest nursery rhyme and one of the earliest examples of a textbook approaching education from the child's point of view, rather than the adult's.
Children's magazines in the United States began with the Young Misses' Magazine in 1806 of Brooklyn, New York.
One of the most famous books of American children's literature is L. Frank Baum's fantasy novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” published in 1900. "By combining the English fondness for word play with the American appetite for outdoor adventure" Connie Epstein in “International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature” said Baum "developed an original style and form that stands alone." Baum wrote 14 more Oz novels, and other writers continued the Oz series into the 21st century.
Demand continued to grow in North America between World War I and World War II, helped by the growth of libraries in both Canada and the United States. Children's reading rooms in libraries — staffed by specially trained librarians — helped create demand for classic juvenile books. Reviews of children's releases began appearing regularly in Publishers Weekly and in The Bookman magazines. The first Children's Book Week was launched in 1919. In that same year, Louise Seaman Bechtel became the first person to head a juvenile book publishing department in the country. She was followed by May Massee in 1922 and Alice Dalgliesh in 1934.
The American Library Association began awarding the Newbery Medal — the first children's book award — in 1922. The Caldecott Medal for illustration followed in 1938. The first book by Laura Ingalls Wilder about her life on the American frontier, “Little House in the Big Woods,” appeared in 1932. In 1937 Dr. Seuss published his first book entitled “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” The young adult book market developed during this period thanks to sports books by popular writer John R. Tunis, the novel “Seventeenth Summer” by Maureen Daly and the Sue Barton nurse book series by Helen Dore Boylston.
The already vigorous growth in children's books became a boom in the 1950s, and children's publishing became big business. In 1952, American journalist E. B. White published “Charlotte's Web,” which was described as "one of the very few books for young children that face squarely the subject of death." Maurice Sendak illustrated more than two dozen books during the decade, which established him as an innovator in book illustration. The Sputnik crisis that began in 1957 provided increased interest and government money for schools and libraries to buy science and math books, and the nonfiction book market "seemed to materialize overnight."
The 1960s saw an age of new realism in children's books emerge. Given the atmosphere of social revolution in 1960s America, authors and illustrators began to break previously established taboos in children's literature. Controversial subjects dealing with alcoholism, death, divorce and child abuse were now being published in stories for children. Maurice Sendak's “Where the Wild Things Are” in 1963 and Louise Fitzhugh's “Harriet the Spy” in 1964 are often considered the first stories published in this new age of realism.
Esther Forbes’ “Johnny Tremain” in 1943 and Mildred D. Taylor’s “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” in 1976 continued the tradition of the historical adventure in an American setting. The modern children's adventure novel sometimes deals with controversial issues like terrorism as in Robert Cormier's “After the First Death” in 1979, and warfare in the third world, as in Peter Dickinson's “AK” in 1990.
In books for a younger age group, Bill Martin and John Archambault's “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” in 1989 presented a new spin on the alphabet book. Laura Numeroff published “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” in 1985 and went on to create a series of similarly named books that is still popular for children and adults to read together.
Lloyd Alexander's “The Chronicles of Prydain” from 1964-1968 was set in a fictionalized version of medieval Britain.
Continental Europe
Johann David Wyss wrote the adventure novel “The Swiss Family Robinson” in 1812. The period from 1890 until World War I is considered the Golden Age of Children's Literature in Scandinavia. Erik Werenskiold, Theodor Kittelsen and Dikken Zwilgmeyer were especially popular, writing folk and fairy tales as well as realistic fiction. The 1859 translation into English by George Webbe Dasent helped increase the stories' influence. One of the most internationally influential and successful Scandinavian children's books from this period is Selma Lagerlöfs “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.” Astrid Lindgren who wrote “Pippi Longstocking” and Jostein Gaarder who wrote “Sophie's World” are two of the best-known Scandinavian writers internationally. In Finland, some of the most significant children's book writers include Tove Jansson for “Moomins,” Oiva Paloheimo for “Tirlittan” and Elina Karjalainen for “Uppo-Nalle.”
The interwar period saw a slowdown in output similar to Britain's, although "one of the first mysteries written specifically for children" — “Emil and the Detectives” by Erich Kästner — was published in Germany in 1930. German writers Michael Ende for “The Neverending Story” and Cornelia Funke for “Inkheart” achieved international success with their fantasy books.
The period during and following World War II became the Classic Age of the picture book in Switzerland, with works by Alois Carigiet, Felix Hoffmann and Hans Fischer. Nineteen sixty-three was the first year of the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy, which was described as "the most important international event dedicated to the children's publishing." For four days it brings together writers, illustrators, publishers and book buyers from around the world.
Swiss author Marcus Pfister's “Rainbow Fish” series has received international acclaim since 1992.
Illustration
Pictures have always accompanied children's stories. A papyrus from Byzantine Egypt shows illustrations accompanied by the story of Hercules' labors. Modern children's books are illustrated in a way that is rarely seen in adult literature, except in graphic novels. Generally, artwork plays a greater role in books intended for younger readers, especially pre-literate children. Children's picture books often serve as an accessible source of high-quality art for young children. Even after children learn to read well enough to enjoy a story without illustrations, they — like their elders — continue to appreciate the occasional drawings found in chapter books.
According to Joyce Whalley in The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, "an illustrated book differs from a book with illustrations in that a good illustrated book is one where the pictures enhance or add depth to the text." Using this definition, the first illustrated children's book is considered to be “Orbis Pictus” which was published in 1658 by the Moravian author Comenius. Acting as a kind of encyclopedia, “Orbis Pictus” had a picture on every page, followed by the name of the object in Latin and German. It was translated into English in 1659 and was used in homes and schools around Europe and Great Britain for many years.
Early children's books, such as “Orbis Pictus,” were illustrated by woodcut, and many times the same image was repeated in a number of books, regardless of how appropriate the illustration was for the story. Newer processes — including copper and steel engraving — were first used in the 1830s. One of the first uses of Chromolithography — a way of making multicolored prints — in a children's book was demonstrated in “Struwwelpeter,” published in Germany in 1845. English illustrator Walter Crane refined its use in children's books in the late 19th century.
Another method of creating illustrations for children's books was etching, used by George Cruikshank in the 1850s. By the 1860s, top artists were illustrating for children, including Crane, Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway and John Tenniel. Most pictures were still black-and-white, and many color pictures were hand-colored, often by children. “The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators” credits Caldecott with "the concept of extending the meaning of text beyond literal visualization."
Twentieth-century artists such as Kay Nielson, Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham produced illustrations that are still reprinted today. Developments in printing capabilities were reflected in children's books. After World War II, offset lithography became more refined, and painter-style illustrations — such as Brian Wildsmith's — were common by the 1950s.
“Illustrators of Children’s Books, 1744-1945” published by Horn Book in 1947 is an extensively detailed four-volume work by Louise Payson Latimer, Bertha E. Mahony and Beulah Folmsbee that catalogs illustrators of children's books over two centuries.
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