Children's literature orjuvenile 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, frompicture books for the very young toyoung adult fiction.
Children's literature can be traced to traditional stories likefairy tales, which have only been identified as children's literature since the eighteenth century, and songs, part of a wideroral tradition, which adults shared with children before publishing existed. The development of early children's literature, before printing was invented, 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 fifteenth 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.[2] The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are known as the "Golden Age of Children's Literature" because many classic children's books were published then.
There is no single or widely used definition of children's literature.[3]: 15–17 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 ofworld literature,picture books and easy-to-read stories written exclusively for children, andfairy tales,lullabies,fables,folk songs, and other primarily orally transmitted materials or more specifically defined asfiction,non-fiction,poetry, ordrama intended for and used by children and young people.[4][5]: xvii One writer on children's literature defines it as "all books written for children, excluding works such ascomic 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".[6] However, others would argue thatchildren's 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".[7]
TheInternational Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature notes that "the boundaries of genre... are not fixed but blurred".[3]: 4 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'sHarry Potter series was written and marketed for children, but it is also popular among adults. The series' extreme popularity ledThe New York Times to create a separate bestseller list for children's books.[8]
Despite the widespread association of children's literature with picture books, spoken narratives existed beforeprinting, and the root of many children's tales go back to ancient storytellers.[9]: 30 Seth Lerer, in the opening ofChildren's Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter, says, "This book presents a history of what children have heard and read.... The history I write of is a history ofreception."[10]: 2
Early children's literature consisted of spoken stories, songs, and poems, used to educate, instruct, and entertain children.[11]It was only in the eighteenth century, with the development of the concept ofchildhood, that a separate genre of children's literature began to emerge, with its own divisions, expectations, andcanon.[12]: x–xi The earliest of these books were educational books, books on conduct, and simple ABCs—often decorated with animals, plants, and anthropomorphic letters.[13]
In 1962, French historianPhilippe Ariès argues in his bookCenturies of Childhood that the modern concept of childhood only emerged in recent times. He explains that children were in the past not considered as greatly different from adults and were not given significantly different treatment.[14]: 5 As evidence for this position, he notes that, apart from instructional and didactic texts for children written byclerics likethe Venerable Bede andÆlfric of Eynsham, there was a lack of any genuine literature aimed specifically at children before the 18th century.[15][16]: 11
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,[17] such as thePlay of Daniel from the twelfth century.[10]: 46 [18]: 4 Pre-modern children's literature, therefore, tended to be of adidactic andmoralistic nature, with the purpose of conveyingconduct-related, educational andreligious lessons.[18]: 6–8
An early Mexicanhornbook pictured in Tuer'sHistory of the Horn-Book, 1896.
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.[14]: 6–7 [19]: 9 The English philosopherJohn Locke developed his theory of thetabula rasa in his 1690An 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'ssensory 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 nineteenth 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 1697Tales of Mother Goose.[20] The popularity of these texts led to the creation of a number of nineteenth-century fantasy and fairy tales for children which featured magic objects and talking animals.[20]
Another influence on this shift in attitudes came fromPuritanism, 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.[11] Some of the most popular works were byJames Janeway, but the most enduring book from this movement, still read today, especially in modernised versions, isThe Pilgrim's Progress (1678) byJohn Bunyan.[21]
Chapbooks, pocket-sized pamphlets that were often folded instead of being stitched,[9]: 32 were published in Britain; illustrated bywoodblock printing, these inexpensive booklets reprinted popularballads, historical re-tellings, and folk tales. Though not specifically published for children at this time, young people enjoyed the booklets as well.[19]: 8 Johanna Bradley says, inFrom Chapbooks to Plum Cake, that chapbooks kept imaginative stories from being lost to readers under the strictPuritan influence of the time.[16]: 17
The New England Primer
Hornbooks also appeared in England during this time, teaching children basic information such as the alphabet and theLord's Prayer.[22] These were brought from England to theAmerican colonies in the mid-seventeenth century.
The first such book was acatechism for children, written in verse by the PuritanJohn Cotton. Known asSpiritual Milk for Boston Babes, it was published in 1646, appearing both in England andBoston. Another early book,The New England Primer, was in print by 1691 and used in schools for 100 years. Theprimer 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.[23] It also contained religious maxims,acronyms, spelling help and other educational items, all decorated bywoodcuts.[9]: 35
In 1634, thePentamerone from Italy became the first major published collection of European folk tales.Charles Perrault began recordingfairy tales in France, publishing his first collection in 1697. They were not well received among the French literary society, who saw them as only fit for old people and children. In 1658,John Amos Comenius inBohemia published the informative illustratedOrbis Pictus, for children under six learning to read. It is considered to be the first picture book produced specifically for children.[19]: 7
The firstDanish children's book wasThe Child's Mirror byNiels Bredal in 1568, an adaptation of acourtesy book by theDutch priestErasmus.A Pretty and Splendid Maiden's Mirror, an adaptation of aGerman book for young women, became the firstSwedish children's book upon its 1591 publication.[3]: 700, 706 Sweden published fables and a children's magazine by 1766.
The modern children's book emerged in mid-18th-century England.[26] A growingpolite middle-class and the influence ofLockean theories of childhood innocence combined to create the beginnings of childhood as a concept. In an article for theBritish 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 wasMary Cooper, whose two-volumeTommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (1744) is the first knownnursery rhyme collection. But the most celebrated of these pioneers isJohn Newbery, whose first book for the entertainment of children wasA Little Pretty Pocket-Book."[27]
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,[28] containing a mixture of rhymes, picture stories and games for pleasure.[29] Newbery believed that play was a better enticement to children's good behavior than physical discipline,[30] and the child was to record his or her behaviour 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 thetoy books popular in the nineteenth century.[31] Newbery was also adept at marketing this new genre. According to the journalThe 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."[32][33] 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."[27]
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 asSamuel Johnson andOliver Goldsmith;[9]: 36 [34] the latter may have writtenThe History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, Newbery's most popular book.
Another philosopher who influenced the development of children's literature wasJean-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.[9]: 41 Popular examples includedThomas Day'sThe History of Sandford and Merton, four volumes that embody Rousseau's theories. Furthermore,Maria andRichard Lovell Edgeworth'sPractical Education: The History of Harry and Lucy (1780) urged children to teach themselves.[35]
Rousseau's ideas also had great influence in Germany, especially onGerman Philanthropism, a movement concerned with reforming both education and literature for children. Its founder,Johann Bernhard Basedow, authoredElementarwerk as a popular textbook for children that included many illustrations byDaniel Chodowiecki. Another follower,Joachim Heinrich Campe, created an adaptation ofRobinson Crusoe that went into over 100 printings. He became Germany's "outstanding and most modern"[3]: 736 writer for children. According to Hans-Heino Ewers inThe 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."[3]: 737
TheBrothers Grimm preserved and publishedthe traditional tales told inGermany.[25]: 184 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.[3]: 739–740 In addition to their collection of stories, the Grimm brothers also contributed to children's literature through their academic pursuits. As professors, they had a scholarly interest in the stories, striving to preserve them and their variations accurately, recording their sources.[9]: 259
A similar project was carried out by theNorwegian scholarsPeter Christen Asbjørnsen andJørgen Moe, who collected Norwegian fairy tales and published them asNorwegian Folktales, often referred to asAsbjørnsen and Moe. By compiling these stories, they preserved Norway's literary heritage and helped create the Norwegian written language.[9]: 260
Danish author and poetHans Christian Andersen traveled through Europe and gathered many well-known fairy tales and created new stories in the fairy tale genre.[36]
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.[37] 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.[38] 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.
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 andprinting became widely available and affordable, the population grew and literacy rates improved.[3]: 654–655
Tom Brown's School Days byThomas Hughes appeared in 1857, and is considered to be the founding book in theschool story tradition.[39]: 7–8 However, it wasLewis 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"[9]: 44 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. The fairy-tale absurdity of Wonderland has solid historical ground as a satire 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.[39]: 18 One other noteworthy publication wasMark Twain's bookTom Sawyer (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.[40] Another important book of that decade wasThe Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby, by Rev.Charles Kingsley (1862), which became extremely popular and remains a classic of British children's literature.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a plethora of children's novels began featuring realistic, non-magical plotlines. Certain titles received international success such as Robert Louis Stevenson'sTreasure Island (1883), L. M. Montgomery'sAnne of Green Gables (1908), and Louisa May Alcott'sLittle Women (1869).[20]
Literature for children had developed as a separate category of literature especially in theVictorian era, with some works becoming internationally known, such asLewis Carroll'sAlice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequelThrough the Looking-Glass. Another classic of the period isAnna Sewell's animal novelBlack Beauty (1877). At the end of the Victorian era and leading into the Edwardian era, author and illustratorBeatrix Potter publishedThe Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902. Potter went on to produce 23 children's books and become very wealthy. A pioneer of character merchandising, in 1903 she patented aPeter Rabbit doll, making Peter the firstlicensed character.[42][43] 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 coloured illustration with text, page for page."[44]
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 novelistsC. S. Lewis andJ. R. R. Tolkien as its main members. C. S. Lewis published the first installment ofThe Chronicles of Narnia series in 1950, while Tolkien is best known, in addition toThe Hobbit, as the author ofThe Lord of the Rings (1954). Another writer of fantasy stories isAlan Garner author ofElidor (1965), andThe Owl Service (1967). The latter is an adaptation of the myth ofBlodeuwedd from theMabinogion, set in modernWales – it won Garner the annualCarnegie Medal from theLibrary Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British author.[51]
Philip Pullman'sHis Dark Materials is an epic trilogy of fantasy novels consisting ofNorthern Lights (1995, published asThe Golden Compass in North America),The Subtle Knife (1997), andThe Amber Spyglass (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 byThe Amber Spyglass.Northern Lights won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in 1995.[55]
In the years after the First World War, writers such asArthur Ransome developed the adventure genre by setting the adventure in Britain rather than distant countries. In the 1930s he began publishing hisSwallows and Amazons series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the EnglishLake District and theNorfolk Broads. Many of them involve sailing; fishing and camping are other common subjects.[63]Biggles was a popular series ofadventure books for young boys, about James Bigglesworth, a fictional pilot andadventurer, byW. E. Johns. Between 1941 and 1961 there were 60 issues with stories about Biggles,[64] and in the 1960s occasional contributors included the BBC astronomerPatrick Moore. Between 1940 and 1947, W. E. Johns contributed sixty stories featuring the female pilotWorrals.[65] Evoking epic themes,Richard Adams's 1972 survival and adventure novelWatership Down follows a small group of rabbits who escape the destruction of their warren and seek to establish a new home.
An important aspect of British children's literature has beencomic books andmagazines. Amongst the most popular and longest running comics have beenThe Beano andThe Dandy, both first published in the 1930s.[67][68] British comics in the 20th century evolved from illustratedpenny dreadfuls of the Victorian era (featuringSweeney Todd,Dick Turpin andVarney the Vampire).[69] First published in the 1830s, according toThe Guardian, penny dreadfuls were "Britain's first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young."[70]Robin Hood featured in a series of penny dreadfuls in 1838 which sparked the beginning of the mass circulation of Robin stories.[71]
TheEagle was a popular British comic for boys, launched in 1950 byMarcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Revolutionary in its presentation and content, it was enormously successful; the first issue sold about 900,000 copies.[77][78] Featured in colour on the front cover was its most recognisable story, "Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future", created with meticulous attention to detail.[79][80][81] It was first published from 1950 to 1969, and relaunched from 1982 to 1994.[82] Its sister comic wasGirl, whose early issues from 1951 featured the strip "Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew".Roy of the Rovers, an immensely popular comic strip featuring Roy Race, astriker for the fictional football team Melchester Rovers, first appeared in theTiger in 1954.[83] First published byMartin Handford in 1987, more than 73 millionWhere's Wally? picture puzzle books had been sold around the world by 2007.[84]
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 thatA 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.[85]
Children's magazines in the United States began with theYoungMisses' Magazine (1806) of Brooklyn, New York.[86]
One of the most famous books of American children's literature isL. Frank Baum's fantasy novelThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900. "By combining the English fondness for word play with the American appetite for outdoor adventure", Connie Epstein inInternational Companion Encyclopedia Of Children's Literature says Baum "developed an original style and form that stands alone".[3]: 479 Baum wrote fourteen more Oz novels, and other writers continued theOz series into the twenty-first century.
Demand continued to grow inNorth 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 inPublishers Weekly and inThe Bookman magazine began to publish regular reviews of children's releases. 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 byMay Massee in 1922, andAlice Dalgliesh in 1934.[3]: 479–480 During this period, Black authors began writing and publishing books for African American children. Writers like Helen Adele Whiting (1885–1959) andJane Dabney Shackelford (1895–1979) produced books designed to instill pride in Black history and culture.[87]
The already vigorous growth in children's books became a boom in the 1950s, and children's publishing became big business.[3]: 481 In 1952, American journalistE. B. White publishedCharlotte's Web, which was described as "one of the very few books for young children that face, squarely, the subject of death".[25]: 467 Maurice Sendak illustrated more than two dozen books during the decade, which established him as an innovator in book illustration.[3]: 481 TheSputnik crisis that began in 1957, provided increased interest and government money for schools and libraries to buy science and math books and the non-fiction book market "seemed to materialize overnight".[3]: 482
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'sWhere the Wild Things Are in 1963 andLouise Fitzhugh'sHarriet the Spy in 1964 are often considered the first stories published in this new age of realism.[44]
In books for a younger age group, Bill Martin and John Archambault'sChicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) presented a new spin on thealphabet book.Laura Numeroff publishedIf 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.
The period during and following World War II became the Classic Age of the picture book in Switzerland, with works byAlois Carigiet,Felix Hoffmann, andHans Fischer.[93] Nineteen sixty-three was the first year of theBologna Children's Book Fair in Italy, which was described as "the most important international event dedicated to the children's publishing".[94] For four days it brings together writers, illustrators, publishers, and book buyers from around the world.[94]
Postal stamp of Russia celebrating children's books.
Russian folktales were collected byAleksandr Afanasyev in his three-volumeNarodnye russkie skazki, and a selection of these were published inРусские детские сказки (Russian Children's Fairy Tales) in 1871. By the 1860s,literary realism and non-fiction dominated children's literature. More schools were started, using books by writers likeKonstantin Ushinsky andLeo Tolstoy, whoseRussian Reader included an assortment of stories, fairy tales, and fables. Books written specifically for girls developed in the 1870s and 1880s. Publisher and journalistEvgenia Tur wrote about the daughters of well-to-do landowners, whileAlexandra Nikitichna Annenskaya's stories told of middle-class girls working to support themselves.Vera Zhelikhovsky,Elizaveta Kondrashova, andNadezhda Lukhmanova also wrote for girls during this period.[3]: 767
Children's non-fiction gained great importance in Russia at the beginning of the century. A ten-volume children's encyclopedia was published between 1913 and 1914.Vasily Avenarius wrote fictionalized biographies of important people likeNikolai Gogol andAlexander Pushkin around the same time, and scientists wrote for books and magazines for children. Children's magazines flourished, and by the end of the century there were 61.Lidia Charskaya andKlavdiya Lukashevich [ru] continued the popularity of girls' fiction.Realism took a gloomy turn by frequently showing the maltreatment of children from lower classes. The most popular boys' material wasSherlock Holmes, and similar stories from detective magazines.[3]: 768
The state took control of children's literature during theOctober Revolution.Maksim Gorky edited the first children'sNorthern Lights underSoviet rule. People often label the 1920s as the Golden Age of Children's Literature in Russia.[3]: 769 Samuil Marshak led that literary decade as the "founder of (Soviet) children's literature".[95]: 193 As head of the children's section of the State Publishing House and editor of several children's magazines, Marshak exercised enormous influence by[95]: 192–193 recruitingBoris Pasternak andOsip Mandelstam to write for children.
In 1932, professional writers in the Soviet Union formed theUSSR Union of Writers, which served as the writer's organization of theCommunist Party. With a children's branch, the official oversight of the professional organization brought children's writers under the control of thestate and the police.Communist principles likecollectivism andsolidarity became important themes in children's literature. Authors wrote biographies about revolutionaries likeLenin andPavlik Morozov.Alexander Belyayev, who wrote in the 1920s and 1930s, became Russia's firstscience fiction writer.[3]: 770 According to Ben Hellman in theInternational Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, "war was to occupy a prominent place in juvenile reading, partly compensating for the lack of adventure stories", during the Soviet Period.[3]: 771 More political changes in Russia afterWorld War II brought further change in children's literature. Today, the field is in a state of flux because some older authors are being rediscovered and others are being abandoned.[3]: 772
The1911 Revolution andWorld War II brought political and social change that revolutionized children's literature in China. Western science, technology, and literature became fashionable. China's first modern publishing firm,Commercial Press, established several children's magazines, which includedYouth Magazine, andEducational Pictures for Children.[3]: 832–833 The first Chinese children's writer wasSun Yuxiu, an editor of Commercial Press, whose storyThe Kingdom Without a Cat was written in the language of the time instead of the classical style used previously. Yuxiu encouraged novelistShen Dehong to write for children as well. Dehong went on to rewrite 28 stories based on classical Chinese literature specifically for children. In 1932,Zhang Tianyi publishedBig Lin and Little Lin, the first full-length Chinese novel for children.[3]: 833–834
TheChinese Communist Revolution changed children's literature again. Many children's writers were denounced, but Tianyi andYe Shengtao continued to write for children and created works that were aligned withMaoist ideology. The 1976 death ofMao Zedong provoked more changes that swept China. The work of many writers from the early part of the century became available again. In 1990 cameGeneral Anthology of Modern Children's Literature of China, a fifteen-volume anthology of children's literature since the 1920s.[3]: 834–835
In Brazil,Monteiro Lobato[96] wrote a series of 23 books for children known asSítio do Picapau Amarelo (The Yellow Woodpecker Ranch), between 1920 and 1940. The series is considered representative of Brazilian children's literature and the Brazilian equivalent to children's classics such asC. S. Lewis,The Chronicles of Narnia andL. Frank Baum'sThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz series.[according to whom?] The concept was introduced in Monteiro Lobato's 1920 short story "A Menina do Narizinho Arrebitado", and was later republished as the first chapter of "Reinações de Narizinho", which is the first novel of the series.[citation needed] The main setting is the "Sítio do Picapau Amarelo", where a boy (Pedrinho), a girl (Narizinho) and their living and thinking anthropomorphic toys enjoy exploring adventures in fantasy, discovery and learning. On several occasions, they leave the ranch to explore other worlds such asNeverland, the mythologicalAncient Greece, an underwater world known as "Reino das Águas Claras" (Clear Waters Kingdom), and even the outer space. The "Sítio" is often symbolized by the character ofEmília, Lobato's most famous creation.[citation needed]
Christian missionaries first established theCalcutta School-Book Society in the 19th century, creating a separate genre for children's literature in the country. Magazines and books for children in native languages soon appeared.[3]: 808 In the latter half of the century,Raja Shivprasad wrote several well-known books inHindustani.[3]: 810 A number of respectedBengali writers began producingBengali literature for children, includingIshwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who translated some stories and wrote others himself.Nobel Prize-winnerRabindranath Tagore wrote plays, stories, and poems for children, including one work illustrated by painterNandalal Bose. They worked from the end of the nineteenth century into the beginning of the twentieth. Tagore's work was later translated into English, with Bose's pictures.[3]: 811 Behari Lal Puri was the earliest writer for children inPunjabi. His stories weredidactic in nature.[3]: 815
The first full-length children's book wasKhar Khar Mahadev byNarain Dixit, which was serialized in one of the popular children's magazines in 1957. Other writers includePremchand, and poetSohan Lal Dwivedi.[3]: 811 In 1919,Sukumar Ray wrote and illustratednonsense rhymes in theBengali language, and children's writer and artistAbanindranath Tagore finishedBarngtarbratn. Bengali children's literature flourished in the later part of the twentieth century. EducatorGijubhai Badheka published over 200 books in theChildren's literature in Gujarati language, and many are still popular.[3]: 812 Other popular Gujarati children's authors wereRamanlal Soni andJivram Joshi. In 1957, political cartoonistK. Shankar Pillai founded theChildren's Book Trust publishing company. The firm became known for high quality children's books, and many of them were released in several languages. One of the most distinguished writers is PanditKrushna Chandra Kar inOriya literature, who wrote many good books for children, includingPari Raija,Kuhuka Raija,Panchatantra, andAdi Jugara Galpa Mala. He wrote biographies of many historical personalities, such asKapila Deva. In 1978, the firm organized a writers' competition to encourage quality children's writing. The following year, the Children's Book Trust began a writing workshop and organized the First International Children's Book Fair inNew Delhi.[3]: 809 Children's magazines, available in many languages, were widespread throughout India during this century.[3]: 811–820 Ruskin Bond is also a famous Anglo-Indian writer for children.
Cover of the Argentine children's magazineBilliken N° 1 (1919)
The origins of the Argentine children's literature tradition can be traced back to the publication ofLeyendas Argentinas (Argentine Legends) in 1906 byAda María Elflein, the Argentine daughter ofGerman immigrants. Public schooling inArgentina was established in 1884 as free, compulsory and secular. With theBible absent from schools, children's literature became an essential tool through which moral values could be taught. School reading books supported the instruction of civic morality, helping to fill the gap left by the displacing of theCatholic Church from its traditional position of impartingmoral values. The commercial implications of this persisted into the 2000s, when Argentine publishing houses marketedRoald Dahl to teachers by highlighting the values which are transmitted by each of his books.
In 1918,Uruguayan authorHoracio Quiroga publishedCuentos de la Selva (Tales of the Jungle) inBuenos Aires. A collection of short stories for children, about survival in the jungle of the ArgentineProvince of Misiones, bringing different types of animals into conflict or allegiance with each other and, occasionally, with humans. It was acclaimed due to the previous reputation Quiroga had obtained writing short stories for adults, particularly inCuentos de amor de locura y de muerte (Tales of Love, Madness and Death). However, due to the lack of "moral content", the book was not read in schools.
On the other hand,Constancio C. Vigil had much more success in Argentine schools, where his more moralizing stories were frequently read. He also createdEditorial Atlántida, an important publishing house and the country's leading magazine publisher and distributor, specially of magazines aimed to children such asBilliken. Stories written by Vigil, such asLa Hormiguita Viajera (The Little Travelling Ant) andEl Mono Relojero (The Clockwork Monkey) were also read in schools in other countries ofLatin America, such asBolivia,Ecuador,Dominican Republic andUruguay.[97]1]
In the 1960s,Maria Elena Walsh started publishing children's books, she was the daughter of a railway worker ofIrish descent, and she had become famous for her poetry and music. After years living inParis, she came back to Argentina whenJuan Perón's government was overthrown in theRevolución Libertadora (1955). She published the most beloved children's books in Argentina, which are read to this day, such asEl Reino del Revés (The Upside Down Kingdom), Manuelita ¿dónde vas? (Manuelita, Where Are You Going?) andLa Reina Batata (The Sweet Potato Queen). She also composed the famous children's songManuelita.
One of the pioneering children's writer inPersian wasMehdi Azar-Yazdi.[98] His award-winning work,Good Stories for Good Children, is a collection of stories derived from the stories inClassical Persian literature re-written for children.[99]
Originally, for centuries, stories were told by Africans in their native languages, many being told during social gatherings. Stories varied between mythic narratives dealing with creation and basic proverbs showcasing human wisdom. These narratives were passed down from generation to generation orally.[100] Since its independence in 1960, Nigeria has witnessed a rise in the production of children's literature by its people,[101] the past three decades contributing the most to the genre. Most children's books depict the African culture and lifestyle, and trace their roots to traditional folktales, riddles, and proverbs. Authors who have produced such works includeChinua Achebe,Cyprian Ekwensi,Amos Tutuola,Flora Nwapa, andBuchi Emecheta.
Achebe'sChike and the River (1966) introduced Nigerian storytelling to a global audience, while Ekwensi'sThe Drummer Boy (1960) highlighted traditional storytelling's moral lessons. The Noma Award-winningThe Missing Clock (1981) byMai Nasara brought further international recognition to Nigerian children's literature.[102] The 1980s and 1990s saw further growth, with writers such asAdaeze Atuegwu, who published multiple books as a teenager, inspiring a new wave of young Nigerian authors. Publishing companies also aided in the development of children's literature. Today, Nigerian children's literature continues to gain international recognition, blending traditional African narratives with contemporary themes.
A literary genre is a category of literary compositions. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content, or length. According to Anderson,[104] there are six categories of children's literature (with some significant subgenres):
Traditional literature, including folktales, which convey the legends, customs, superstitions, and beliefs of people in previous civilizations. This genre can be further broken into sub genres:myths,fables,legends, andfairy tales
The criteria for these divisions are vague, and books near a borderline may be classified either way. Books for younger children tend to be written in simple language, use large print, and have many illustrations. Books for older children use increasingly complex language, normal print, and fewer (if any) illustrations. The categories with an age range are these:
Picture books, appropriate for pre-readers or children ages 0–8
Early reader books,appropriate for children ages 5–7. These are often designed to help children build their reading skills and help them make the transition to becoming independent readers
A late 18th-century reprint ofOrbis Pictus byComenius, the first children's picture book.
Pictures have always accompanied children's stories.[10]: 320 Apapyrus fromByzantine Egypt, shows illustrations accompanied by the story ofHercules' labors.[105] Modernchildren's books are illustrated in a way that is rarely seen in adult literature, except ingraphic 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 inThe International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, "an illustrated book differs from a book withillustrations in that a good illustrated book is one where the pictures enhance or add depth to the text."[3]: 221 Using this definition, the first illustrated children's book is considered to beOrbis Pictus which was published in 1658 by theMoravian authorComenius. Acting as a kind of encyclopedia,Orbis Pictus had a picture on every page, followed by the name of the object inLatin and German. It was translated into English in 1659 and was used in homes and schools around Europe and Great Britain for many years.[3]: 220
Early children's books, such asOrbis Pictus, were illustrated bywoodcut, and many times the same image was repeated in a number of books regardless of how appropriate the illustration was for the story.[10]: 322 Newer processes, including copper and steelengraving were first used in the 1830s. One of the first uses ofChromolithography (a way of making multi-colored prints) in a children's book was demonstrated inStruwwelpeter, published in Germany in 1845. English illustratorWalter Crane refined its use in children's books in the late 19th century.
Another method of creating illustrations for children's books wasetching, used byGeorge Cruikshank in the 1850s. By the 1860s, top artists were illustrating for children, including Crane,Randolph Caldecott,Kate Greenaway, andJohn Tenniel. Most pictures were still black-and-white, and many color pictures were hand colored, often by children.[3]: 224–226 The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators credits Caldecott with "The concept of extending the meaning of text beyond literal visualization".[25]: 350
Twentieth-century artists such asKay Nielson,Edmund Dulac, andArthur Rackham produced illustrations that are still reprinted today.[3]: 224–227 Developments in printing capabilities were reflected in children's books. After World War II,offset lithography became more refined, and painter-style illustrations, such asBrian Wildsmith's were common by the 1950s.[3]: 233
Illustrators of Children's Books, 1744–1945 (Horn Book, 1947), an extensively detailed four volume work byLouise Payson Latimer, Bertha E. Mahony and Beulah Folmsbee, catalogs illustrators of children's books over two centuries.
Professional organizations, dedicated publications, individual researchers and university courses conduct scholarship on children's literature. Scholarship in children's literature is primarily conducted in three different disciplinary fields: literary studies/cultural studies (literature and language departments and humanities), library and information science, and education. (Wolf, et al., 2011).
Typically, children's literature scholars from literature departments in universities (English, German, Spanish, etc. departments), cultural studies, or in the humanities conduct literary analysis of books. Thisliterary criticism may focus on an author, a thematic or topical concern, genre, period, or literary device and may address issues from a variety of critical stances (poststructural, postcolonial, New Criticism, psychoanalytic, new historicism, etc.). Results of this type of research are typically published as books or as articles in scholarly journals.
The field of Library and Information Science has a long history of conducting research related to children's literature.
Most educational researchers studying children's literature explore issues related to the use of children's literature in classroom settings. They may also study topics such as home use, children's out-of-school reading, or parents' use of children's books. Teachers typically use children's literature to augment classroom instruction.
Translation of children's literature can emerge in various forms and necessitates to have a comprehension of the children's inner worlds and developmental factors. Hollindale in 1997 takes the attention on the experimental, dynamic, imaginative, interactive, and unstable nature of childness. Considering that the translation is carried out for children consequently requires to the necessities of the youngest readers and thus, the target text can be expected to involve considering effective content, creativity, the simplest of expression, and linguistic playfulness.[106]
Beyond age considerations, in the translation of children's literature, the translators are supposed to comprehend the changing status and essence of youth cultures. This arises from the phenomena that works translated for children can be fictions fundamentally produced both for adults and children, consisting of genres such as romances, fables, and fairytales. Besides, adults might be present in literary works for children as the disguise of a didactic narrator or ironic asides. This can have the power to change the implicit adult-child relationship in the source text. The visuals play an important role in children's literature for younger audience and these visuals might consist of comics, graphic novels, and picture books. Therefore, the translators are required to have an understanding of typography, visual coding and stylization.[106]
Accordingly, comprehending the multi-medial nature of children's literature and grasping how to compose text and images for promoting active child readers are fundamental for translators to produce effective target texts. Scholars such as Oittinen suggests that translators of children's literature would benefit from having a specialized training in arts along with translation studies. Puurtinen and Kreller highlights other aspects such as of sound, narrative structure, syntactic alterations, and textual elements like repetition and rhyme and they suggest these components possess crucial roles in translating children's literature. It can be said that these suggestions are being further on through critical developments such as edited volumes, reviews, and collections in the field opening the path for future research directions.[106]
Number of children's books titles published by the trade sector in 2020
The US reported revenue of US$4.7 billion from children's books in 2020, followed by Germany (US$2 billion), the UK (US$508 million), Spain (US$427 million) and France (US$406 million).[107]
Controversies often emerge around the content and characters of prominent children's books.[108][109] Well-known classics that remain popular throughout decades commonly become criticized by critics and readers as the values of contemporary culture change.[110][111][112] Critical analysis of children's literature is common through children's literary journals as well as published collections of essays contributed to by psychoanalysts, scholars and variousliterary critics such asPeter Hunt.
A widely discussed and debated topic by critics and publishers in the children's book industry is whether outdated and offensive content, specifically racial stereotypes, should be changed in new editions. Others argue instead that original content should remain but that publishers should add information to guide parents in conversations with their children about the problematic elements of the particular story.[113][114] Some see racist stereotypes as cultural artifacts that should be preserved.[115] InThe Children's Culture Reader, scholarHenry Jenkins referencesHerbert R. Kohl's essay "Should We Burn Babar?" which raises the debate whether children should be educated on how to think critically towards oppressive ideologies rather than ignore historical mistakes. Jenkins suggests that parents and educators should trust children to make responsible judgments.[116]
The academic journalChildren's Literature Review provides critical analysis of many well known children's books. In its 114th volume, the journal discusses the cultural stereotypes in Belgian cartoonistHerge'sTintin series in reference to its depiction of people from the Congo.[122]
After the scramble for Africa which occurred between the years of 1881 and 1914 there was a large production of children's literature which attempted to create an illusion of what life was like for those who lived on the African continent. This was a simple technique in deceiving those who only relied on stories and secondary resources. Resulting in a new age of books which put a "gloss" on imperialism and its teachings at the time. Thus encouraging the idea that the colonies who were part of the African continent were perceived as animals, savages and inhuman-like. Therefore, needing cultured higher class Europeans to share their knowledge and resources with the locals. Also promoting the idea that the people within these places were as exotic as the locations themselves. Examples of these books include:
Lou lou chez les negres (1929) – Lou Lou among the blacks[citation needed]
Baba Diène et Morceau-de-Sucre (1939)
Babar series promoting the French civilizing mission (1931)
Tintin au Congo (1931) – Tintin goes to teach lessons in Congo about their country, Belgium
The picture bookThe Snowy Day, written and illustrated byEzra Jack Keats was published in 1962 and is known as the first picture book to portray an African-American child as a protagonist. Middle Eastern and Central American protagonists still remain underrepresented in North American picture books.[131] According to the Cooperative Children's Books Center (CCBC) at University of Wisconsin Madison, which has been keeping statistics on children's books since the 1980s, in 2016, out of 3,400 children's books received by the CCBC that year, only 278 were about Africans or African Americans. Additionally, only 92 of the books were written by Africans or African Americans.[132] In his interview in the bookWays of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture Book, Jerry Pinkney mentioned how difficult it was to find children's books with black children as characters.[133] In the literary journalThe Black Scholar, Bettye I. Latimer has criticized popular children's books for their renditions of people as almost exclusively white, and notes thatDr. Seuss books contain few ethnic minority people.[134] The popular school readersFun withDick and Jane which ran from the 1930s until the 1970s, are known for their whitewashed renditions of the North Americannuclear family as well as their highly gendered stereotypes. The first black family did not appear in the series until the 1960s, thirty years into its run.[135][136][137]
Writer Mary Renck Jalongo InYoung Children and Picture Books discusses damaging stereotypes ofNative Americans in children's literature, stating repeated depictions of indigenous people as living in the 1800s with feathers and face paint cause children to mistake them as fictional and not as people that still exist today.[138] The depictions ofNative American people inLaura Ingalls Wilder'sLittle House on the Prairie andJ. M. Barrie'sPeter Pan are widely discussed among critics. Wilder's novel, based on her childhood in America's midwest in the late 1800s, portrays Native Americans as racialized stereotypes and has been banned in some classrooms.[139] In her essay,Somewhere Outside the Forest: Ecological Ambivalence in Neverland from The Little White Bird to Hook, writer M. Lynn Byrd describes how the natives of Neverland inPeter Pan are depicted as "uncivilized", valiant fighters unafraid of death and are referred to as "redskins", which is now considered a racial slur.[140][141]
The presence ofempire as well as pro-colonialist andimperialist themes in children's literature have been identified in some of the most well known children's classics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[142][143][144]
In the French illustratorJean de Brunhoff's 1931 picture bookHistoire de Babar, le petit elephant (The Story ofBabar, The Little Elephant), prominent themes ofimperialism andcolonialism have been noted and identified as propaganda. An allegory for French colonialism, Babar easily assimilates himself into the bourgeois lifestyle. It is a world where the elephants who have adapted themselves dominate the animals who have not yet been assimilated into the new and powerful civilization.[145][146][147][148]H. A. Rey andMargret Rey'sCurious George first published in 1941 has been criticized for its blatant slave and colonialist narratives. Critics claim the man with the yellow hat represents a colonialist poacher of European descent who kidnaps George, a monkey from Africa, and sends him on a ship to America. Details such as the man in colonialist uniform and Curious George's lack of tail are points in this argument. In an article,The Wall Street Journal interprets it as a "barely disguised slave narrative."[149][150][151]Rudyard Kipling, the author ofJust So Stories andThe Jungle Book has also been accused of colonial prejudice attitudes.[152] Literary critic Jean Webb, among others, has pointed out the presence of British imperialist ideas inThe Secret Garden.[153][154] Colonialist ideology has been identified as a prominent element in Peter Pan by critics.[155][156]
Some of the earliest children's stories that contain feminist themes areLouisa May Alcott'sLittle Women andFrank L. Baum'sThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz. With many women of this period being represented in children's books as doing housework, these two books deviated from this pattern. Drawing attention to the perception of housework as oppressive is one of the earliest forms of the feminist movement.Little Women, a story about four sisters, is said to show power of women in the home and is seen as both conservative and radical in nature. The character of Jo is observed as having a rather contemporary personality and has even been seen as a representation of the feminist movement. It has been suggested that the feminist themes inThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz result from influence of Baum's mother-in law,Matilda Gage, an important figure in thesuffragist movement. Baum's significant political commentary on capitalism, and racial oppression are also said to be part of Gage's influence. Examples made of these themes is the main protagonist,Dorothy who is punished by being made to do housework. Another example made of positive representations of women is in Finnish authorTove Jansson'sMoomin series which features strong and individualized female characters.[157] In recent years, there has been a surge in the production and availability offeminist children's literature as well as a rise ingender neutrality in children's literature.
In addition to perpetuating stereotypes about appropriate behavior and occupations for women and girls, children's books frequently lack female characters entirely, or include them only as minor or unimportant characters.[158] In the bookBoys and Girls Forever: Reflections on Children's Classics, scholarAlison Lurie says most adventure novels of the 20th century, with few exceptions, contain boy protagonists while female characters in books such as those byDr. Seuss, would typically be assigned the gender-specific roles of receptionists and nurses.[159] TheWinnie-the-Pooh characters written byA. A. Milne, are primarily male, with the exception of the characterKanga, who is a mother toRoo.[160] Even animals and inanimate objects are usually identified as being male in children's books.[158] The near-absence of significant female characters is paradoxical because of the role of women in creating children's literature.[158] According to an article published in theGuardian in 2011, by Allison Flood, "Looking at almost 6,000 children's books published between 1900 and 2000, the study, led by Janice McCabe, a professor of sociology at Florida State University, found that males are central characters in 57% of children's books published each year, with just 31% having female central characters. Male animals are central characters in 23% of books per year, the study found, while female animals star in only 7.5%".[161]
On the one handGrowing up with Dick and Jane highlights the heterosexual,nuclear family and also points out the gender-specific duties of the mother, father, brother and sister,[162] whileYoung Children and Picture Books, on the other hand, encourages readers to avoid books with women who are portrayed as inactive and unsuccessful as well as intellectually inferior and subservient to their fellow male characters to avoid children's books that have repressive andsexist stereotypes for women.[131]
In her bookChildren's Literature: From the fin de siècle to the new millennium, professor Kimberley Reynolds claims gender division stayed in children's books prominently until the 1990s. She also says thatcapitalism encourages gender-specific marketing of books and toys.[163] For example, adventure stories have been identified as being for boys and domestic fiction intended for girls.[164] Publishers often believe that boys will not read stories about girls, but that girls will read stories about both boys and girls; therefore, a story that features male characters is expected to sell better.[158] The interest in appealing to boys is also seen in the Caldecott awards, which tend to be presented to books that are believed to appeal to boys.[158] Reynolds also says that both boys and girls have been presented by limited representations of appropriate behaviour, identities and careers through the illustrations and text of children's literature. She argues girls have traditionally been marketed books that prepare them for domestic jobs and motherhood. Conversely, boys are prepared for leadership roles and war.[165] During the 20th century, more than 5,000 children's picture books were published in the U.S; during that time, male characters outnumbered female characters by more than 3 to 2, and male animals outnumbered female animals by 3 to 1.[166] No children's picture book that featured a protagonist with an identifiable gender contained only female characters.[166]
I'm Glad I'm a Boy! I'm Glad I'm a Girl! (1970) byWhitney Darrow Jr. was criticized for narrow career depictions for both boys and girls. The book informs the reader that boys are doctors, policemen, pilots, and presidents while girls are nurses, meter maids, stewardesses and first ladies.[167]
Nancy F. Cott, once said that "gender matters; that is, it matters that human beings do not appear as neuter individuals, that they exist as male or female, although this binary is always filtered through human perception. I should add that when I say gender, I am talking about meaning. I am talking about something in which interpretation is already involved."[168]
In her bookLa sua barba non è poi così blu... Immaginario collettivo e violenza misogina nella fiaba di Perrault (2014, translated into SpanishSu barba no era tan azul and winner of the first international CIRSE award 2015[169]), Angela Articoni analyzes the fairy tale Bluebeard dwelling on the sentence pronounced by the protagonist to convince herself to accept marriage, an expression that recites to repeat the women victims of violence who hope to be able to redeem their prince charming.[170]
Bruno Bettelheim inThe Uses of Enchantment, usespsychoanalysis to examine the impact thatfairy tales have on the developing child. Bettelheim states the unconscious mind of a child is affected by the ideas behind a story, which shape their perception and guides their development.[171] Likewise, author and illustratorAnthony Browne contends the early viewing of an image in apicture book leaves an important and lasting impression on a child.[172] According to research, a child's most crucial individual characteristics are developed in their first five years. Their environment and interaction with images in picture books have a profound impact on this development and are intended to inform a child about the world.[173]
Children's literature criticPeter Hunt argues that no book is innocent of harbouring anideology of the culture it comes from.[174] Critics discuss how an author's ethnicity, gender and social class inform their work.[175] Scholar Kimberley Reynolds suggests books can never be neutral as their nature is intended as instructional and by using its language, children are embedded with the values of that society.[176] Claiming childhood as a culturally constructed concept,[177] Reynolds states that it is through children's literature that a child learns how to behave and to act as a child should, according to the expectations of their culture. She also attributescapitalism, in certain societies, as a prominent means of instructing especially middle class children in how to behave.[165] The "image of childhood"[178] is said to be created and perpetuated by adults to affect children "at their most susceptible age".[179]Kate Greenaway's illustrations are used as an example of imagery intended to instruct a child in the proper way to look and behave.[178] InRoberta Seelinger Trites's bookDisturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature, she also argues adolescence is a social construct established by ideologies present in literature.[180] In the studyThe First R: How Children Learn About Race and Racism, researcher Debra Ausdale studies children in multi-ethnic daycare centres. Ausdale claims children as young as three have already entered into and begun experimenting with the race ideologies of the adult world. She asserts racist attitudes are assimilated[181] using interactions children have with books as an example of how children internalize what they encounter in real life.[182]
Diversity has been a key topic in children's books and publishing in recent years, with social media movements such asWe Need Diverse Books bringing this issue into the public consciousness. Books by and about marginalised groups -BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent, religious minorities etc. - have been underrepresented in children's publishing. In the US, CCBC releases the numbers of children's and YA books by and about BIPOC published in the previous year.[183] 2019 saw the following stats:
Black/African: 441 (11.9% of total books)
First/Native Nations: 37 (1% of total books)
Asian/Asian American: 325 (8.7% of total books)
Latinx: 197 (5.3% of total books)
Pacific Islander: 2 (0.05% of total books)
Brown skin: 343 (9.2% of total books)
White: 1,555 (41.8% of total books)
LGBTQIAP+: 115 (3.1% of total books)
Disability: 126 (3.4% of total books)
Animal/Other: 1,085 (29.2% of total books)
In the UK, CLPE follow a similar survey. In 2020, they found a positive increase in children's books featuring a minority ethnic character from 10% in 2019 to 15% in 2020 and up significantly from the 4% reported in the inaugural report in 2017.[184]Authors of colour are not well represented in children's authorship.[185] In the UK, research found that:
In 2017, fewer than 6 per cent of children's authors and illustrators were people of colour (5.6%)
In 2017, less than 2 per cent of these were British people of colour (1.98%)
Between 2007 and 2017, white children's books creators had around twice as many books published compared to those of colour – an average of 4 books in comparison to approximately 2 books per person.
Children's books are critical to child development, especially at preschool ages. Children have had limited engagement in social contexts at this age. Reading books will help them to prepare for future social interactions and real-life situations because reading helps language, cognitive, social, and emotional development.[citation needed]
Children's books increase language development by introducing new vocabulary and helping children to learn about using language in context.[186] Children are also exposed to various words and sentence structures when reading. Moreover, children's books enhance children's cognitive development in memory, attention, and imagination. Reading allows them to relate to their experience and understanding to make meaning of the sensory message, which is how the brain understands the world around them.[187] Children's books also benefit children's social and emotional development. Reading books help "personal development and self-understanding by presenting situations and characters with which our own can be compared".[188] Children's books often present topics that children can relate to, such as love, empathy, family affection, and friendship. Reading those books helps children to understand emotion and helps them transfer their learning to social contexts.
Many noted awards for children's literature exist in various countries, parts of the world, or for specific languages:
Africa – In Africa,The Golden Baobab Prize runs an annual competition for African writers of children's stories. It is one of the few African literary awards that recognizes writing for children and young adults. The competition is the only pan-African writing competition that recognizes promising African writers of children's literature. Every year, the competition invites entries of unpublished African-inspired stories written for an audience of 8- to 11-year-olds (Category A) or 12- to 15-year-olds (Category B). The writers who are aged 18 or below, are eligible for the Rising Writer Prize.
Canada – In Canada, theGovernor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature and Illustration, in English and French, is established. A number of the provinces' school boards and library associations also run popular "children's choice" awards where candidate books are read and championed by individual schools and classrooms. These include theBlue Spruce (grades K-2) Silver Birch Express (grades 3–4), Silver Birch (grades 5–6) Red Maple (grades 7–8) and White Pine (high school) in Ontario. Programs in other provinces include The Red Cedar and Stellar Awards in BC, the Willow Awards in Saskatchewan, and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards.IBBY Canada offers a number of annual awards.
Japan – In Japan, there are many awards for children's books.[189]
Philippines – In the Philippines, The Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature for short story literature in the English and Filipino languages (Maikling Kathang Pambata) has been established since 1989. The Children's Poetry in the English and Filipino languages has been established since 2009. The Pilar Perez Medallion for Young Adult Literature was awarded in 2001 and 2002. The Philippine Board on Books for Young People gives major awards, which include the PBBY-Salanga Writers' Prize for excellence in writing and the PBBY-Alcala Illustrator's Prize for excellence in illustration. Other awards are The Ceres Alabado Award for Outstanding Contribution in Children's Literature; the Gintong Aklat Award (Golden Book Award); The Gawad Komisyon para sa Kuwentong Pambata (Commission Award for Children's Literature in Filipino) and theNational Book Award (given by the Manila Critics' Circle) for Outstanding Production in Children's Books and young adult literature.
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