HISTORY OF CHILDREN’S

LITERATURE
Children's literature can be traced to stories and songs, part of a wider oral
tradition that 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 1400s, a large quantity of literature, often with a moral or religious message,
has been aimed specifically at children. The late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries became known as the "Golden Age of Children's Literature" as this period
included the publication of many books acknowledged today as classics.

There is no single or widely used definition of children's literature. It can be

broadly defined as anything that children read or more specifically defined as
fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama intended for and used by children and young
people. Nancy Anderson, of the College of Education at the University of South
Florida, defines children's literature 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".

The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature notes

that "the boundaries of genre... are not fixed but blurred".[1]: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'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 best-seller 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, says, "This book
presents a history of what children have heard and read... The history I write of is
a history of reception."
 Early children's literature consisted of spoken stories, songs, and poems,
that would have been used to educate, instruct, and entertain children.[9] 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.

French historian Philippe Ariès argued in his 1962 book Centuries of

Childhood that the modern concept of "childhood" only emerged in recent times,
and that for the greater part of history, children were not viewed as greatly
different from adults, and were not given significantly different treatment.[11]:5
As evidence for this position, he noted 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,[14] such as the Play of Daniel from the 1100s.
[8]:46[15]:4 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.

Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Every culture has its own mythology, unique fables, and other traditional stories
that are told for instruction and entertainment.[1]:654 Early folk-type tales
included the Panchatantra from India, which was composed about 200 AD and may
be "the world's oldest collection of stories for children".[1]:807[7]:301 Oral stories
that would have been enjoyed by children include the tale of The Asurik Tree,
which dates back at least 3,000 years in Persia.
Iliad, Book VIII, lines 245–53, Greek manuscript, late 5th, early 6th centuries AD.

In Imperial China, children attended public events with their parents, where
they would listen to the complicated tales of professional storytellers. Children also
watched the plays performed at festivals and fairs. Though not specifically
intended for children, the elaborate costumes, acrobatics, and martial arts held
even a young child's interest. The stories often explained the background behind
the festival, covering folklore, history, and politics. Storytelling may have reached
its peak during the Song Dynasty from 960-1279 AD. This traditional literature was
used for instruction in Chinese schools until the 20th century.

Greek and Roman children would have enjoyed listening to stories such as the
Odyssey, written by Homer, and Aesop’s Fables by the eponymous Aesop.

Examples of medieval literature include Gesta Romanorum, the Roman fables of

Avianus, the French Livre pour l'enseignement de ses filles, and the Welsh
Mabinogion. In Ireland, many of the thousands of folk stories were recorded in the
11th and 12th centuries. Written inOld Irish on vellum, they began spreading
through Europe, influencing other folk tales with stories of magic, witches, and
fairies

Early-modern Europe

During the 1600s, 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.

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 widely read
today, was The Pilgrim's Progress (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. Johanna Bradley says, in From Chapbooks to Plum Cake, that
chapbooks kept imaginative stories from being lost to readers under the strict
Puritan influence of the time.

An early Mexican hornbook pictured in Tuer’s History of the Horn-

Book, 1896.
The New England Primer

Hornbooks also appeared in England during this time, teaching children basic
information such as the alphabet and the Lord's Prayer.[18]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, "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 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, 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.[1]:700, 706
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 written for an adult audience. Giulio
Cesare Croce also borrowed from 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 1700s. 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.[21] A

growing polite middle-class and the influence of Lockean theories of childhood
innocence combined to create the beginnings of childhood as a concept. A Little
Pretty Pocket-Book, written and published by John Newbery, is widely considered
as the first modern children's book, published in 1744. It was a landmark as 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."

The improvement in the quality of books for children, as well as 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 (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."

Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm (left) and Jakob Grimm (right) from an 1855 painting by
Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann

In the early 19th century, Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen
traveled through Europe and gathered many well-known fairy tales.[31] He was
followed by the Brothers Grimm, who preserved the traditional tales told in
Germany.[20]: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. 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.
 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 byIsabelle de Montolieu.

Golden age

The shift to a modern genre of children's literature occurred in the mid-19th

century, as the 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.[32]:7–8 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. Another important book of that
decade was The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby, by Reverend Charles
Kingsley (1862), which became extremely popular in England, and has remained 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 Britain, The Princess and the
Goblin and its sequelThe 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 US, children's
publishing entered a period of growth after the American Civil Warin 1865. Boys'
book writer Oliver Optic published over 100 books. In 1868, the "epoch-making
book" 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, and 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.

Recent national traditions

Britain

A line-up of the American second edition printings of The Hobbit.

The Golden Age of Children's Literature ended with World War I in Great
Britain and Europe, and 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 and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1937.
T. H. White's sequence of Arthurian novels, The Once and Future King, began with
The Sword in the Stone, published in 1938. In 1941, children's paperback books
were first released in England under the Puffin Books imprint, and their lower
prices helped make book buying possible for children during World War II.

In the 1950s, the book market in Europe began recovering from the effects
of two world wars. In Britain, C. S. Lewis published the first installment of The
Chronicles of Narnia series in 1950, Dodie Smith's The Hundred and One
Dalmatians was published in 1956, and Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory in 1964. Children's fantasy literature remained strong in Great Britain
throughout the 1900s. In Wales, the Welsh Joint Education Committee and the
Welsh Books Council encouraged the publication of children's books in the Welsh
language as well as books in English about Wales.

In 1997, J. K. Rowling published the first book in the Harry Potter series in
England. Despite its huge success, the children's book market in Britain suffered at
the end of the century due to a difficult economy and competition from television
and video games. However, picture books continue to do well.

Continental Europe

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 influential and internationally most
successful Scandinavian children's books from this period is Selma Lagerlöfs The
Wonderful Adventures of Nils.

The interwar period saw a slow-down in output similar to Britain, although

"one of the first mysteries written specifically for children", Emil and the
Detectives by Erich Kästner, was published in Germany in 1930.

The period during and following World War II became the Classical Age of
the picture book in Switzerland, with works by Alois Carigiet, Felix Hoffmann, and
Hans Fischer.1963 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.

United States

One of American children's literature most famous books was 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 says Baum "developed an original style and form that stands
alone".Baum wrote thirteen more Oz novels, and other writers continued the Oz
series into the 1960s.

Between the world wars, demand continued to grow in North America 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 magazine began to regularly publish reviews
of children's releases, and the first Children's Book Week was launched in 1919. In
that same year, Louise Seaman Bechtelbecame 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 Story of Mankind by Hendrik van Loon, 1st Newbery Award winner

The American Library Association began awarding the Newbery Medal, the
first children's book award in the world, in 1922. TheCaldecott 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 non-fiction book market "seemed to materialize overnight".

Russia and USSR

 In Russia, Russian fairy tales were introduced to children literature by
Aleksandr Afanasyev in his children's edition of his eight-volume Russian Folk Tales
in 1871. By the 1860s,literary realism and non-fiction dominated children's
literature. More schools were started, using books by writers like Konstantin
Ushinsky and Leo Tolstoy, whose Russian Readerincluded an assortment of stories,
fairy tales, and fables. Books written specifically for girls developed in the 1870s
and 1880s. Publisher and journalist Evgenia Tur wrote about the daughters of well-
to-do landowners, while Aleksandra Annenskaya's stories told of middle-class girls
working to support themselves. Vera Zhelikhovsky, Elizaveta Kondrashova, and
Nadezhda Lukhmanova also wrote for girls during this period.

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 like
Nikolai Gogol and Alexander 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 and Klavdiya Lukashevich 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 was
Sherlock Holmes, and similar stories from detective magazines.

The state took control of children's literature during the October

Revolution. Maksim Gorky edited the first children's, Northern Lights, under Soviet
rule. People often label the 1920s as the Golden Age of Children's Literature in
Russia. Samuil Marshak led that literary decade as the "founder of (Soviet)
children's literature". As head of the children's section of the State Publishing
House and editor of several children's magazines, Marshak exercised enormous
influence by recruiting Boris Pasternak and Osip Mandelstam to write for children.

In 1932, professional writers in the Soviet Union formed the USSR Union of
Writers, which served as the writer's organization of the Communist Party. With a
children's branch, the official oversight of the professional organization brought
children's writers under the control of the state and the police. Communist
principles like collectivism and solidaritybecame important themes in children's
literature. Authors wrote biographies about revolutionaries like Lenin and Pavlik
Morozov. Alexander Belyayev, who wrote in the 1920s and 1930s, became Russia's
first science fiction writer. According to Ben Hellman in the International
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.More political changes in Russia after World War
IIbrought 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.

India

A Tagore illustration of a Hindu myth

Christian missionaries first established the Calcutta School-Book Society in

the 19th century, creating a separate genre for children's literature in that
country. Magazines and books for children in native languages soon appeared. In the
latter half of the century, Raja Shivprasad wrote several well-known books in
Hindustani. A number of respected Bengali writers began producing Bengali
literaturefor children including Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who translated some
stories and wrote others himself. Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore wrote
plays, stories, and poems for children, including one work illustrated by painter
Nandalal Bose. They worked from the end of the 1800s into the beginning of the
20th-century. Tagore's work was later translated into English, with Bose's pictures.
Behari Lal Puriwas the earliest writer for children in Punjabi. His stories were
didactic in nature.
The Crescent Moon byRabindranath Tagore illus. by Nandalal Bose, Macmillan 1913.

The first full-length children's book was Khar Khar Mahadev by Narain Dixit, which
was serialized in one of the popular children's magazines in 1957. Other writers
include Premchand, and poet Sohan Lal Dwivedi.In 1919, Sukumar Ray wrote and
illustrated nonsense rhymes in the Bengali language, and children's writer and artist
Abanindranath Tagore finished Barngtarbratn. Bengali children's literature
flourished in the later part of the twentieth century. Educator Gijubhai Badheka
published over 200 children's books in the Gujarati language, and many of them are
still popular. In 1957, political cartoonist K. Shankar Pillai founded the Children's
Book Trustpublishing 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 Pandit Krushna Chandra Kar in Oriya literature, who wrote
many good books for children, including Pari Raija, Kuhuka Raija, Panchatantra, and
Adi Jugara Galpa Mala. He wrote biographies of many historical personalities, such
as Kapila 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 in New
Delhi. Children's magazines, available in many languages, were widespread
throughout India during this century.

China
 The Chinese Revolution of 1911 and World 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 included Youth
Magazine, and Educational Pictures for Children. The first Chinese children's writer
was Sun Yuxiu, an editor of Commercial Press, whose story The Kingdom Without a
Cat was written in the language of the time instead of the classical style used
previously. Yuxiu encouraged novelist Shen Dehong to write for children also.
Dehong went on to rewrite 28 stories based on classical Chinese literature
specifically for children. In 1932, Zhang Tianyi published Big Lin and Little Lin, the
first full-length Chinese novel for children.

The Chinese Revolution of 1949 changed children's literature again. Many

children's writers were denounced, but Tianyi and Ye Shengtaocontinued to write
for children and created works that aligned with Maoist ideology. The 1976 death
of Mao Zedong provoked more changes sweep China. Many writers from the early
part of the century were brought back, and their work became available again. In
1990,General Anthology of Modern Children's Literature of China, a fifteen-volume
anthology of children's literature since the 1920s, was released.

Classification

Children's literature can be divided into a number of categories, but it is most

easily categorized according to genre or the intended age of the reader.

By genre

A literary genre is a category of literary compositions. Genres may be

determined by technique, tone, content, or length. According to Anderson, there
are six categories of children's literature (with some significant subgenres):

• Picture books, including concept books that teach the alphabet or counting
for example, pattern books, and wordless books.
• Traditional literature, including folktales, which convey the legends,
customs, superstitions, and beliefs of people in previous civilizations. This genre can
be further broken into subgenres: myths, fables, legends, and fairy tales

• Fiction, including fantasy, realistic fiction, and historical fiction

• Non-fiction

• Biography and autobiography

• Poetry and verse.

By age category

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 listed below:

• Picture books, appropriate for pre-readers or children ages 0–5.

• Early reader books, appropriate for children ages 5–7. These books are
often designed to help a child build his or her reading skills.

• Chapter book, appropriate for children ages 7–12.

• Short chapter books, appropriate for children ages 7–9.

• Longer chapter books, appropriate for children ages 9–12.

• Young-adult fiction, appropriate for children ages 12–18.

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
continue to appreciate the occasional drawings found in chapter books.

A late 18th-century reprint of Orbis Pictus by Comenius, the first children's

picture book.

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 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 multi-colored 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 1800s.
Walter Crane's chromolithograph illustration for The Frog Prince, 1874.

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.

Scholarship

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.

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. This literary 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.

Awards

Many noted awards for children's literature exist in various countries:

• 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 com[petition 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.

• In Australia, the Children's Book Council of Australia runs a number of

annual CBCA book awards

• In Canada, the Governor 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.

• 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 the National Book Award(given by the
Manila Critics' Circle) for Outstanding Production in Children's Books and young
adult literature.

Writer Astrid Lindgren, 1924

In the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, the Carnegie Medal for writing and the
Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration, the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, and the
Guardian Award are a few notable awards.

• In the United States, the American Library Association Association for

Library Service to Children give the major awards. They include the Newbery Medal
for writing, Michael L. Printz Award for writing for teens, Caldecott Medal for
illustration, Golden Kite Award in various categories from the SCBWI, Sibert Medal
for informational, Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for beginning readers, Laura Ingalls
Wilder Medal for impact over time, Batchelder Award for works in translation,
Coretta Scott King Award for work by an African-American writer, and the Belpre
Medal for work by a Latino writer. Other notable awards are the National Book
Award for Young People's Literature and <3 the Orbis Pictus Award for excellence
in the writing of nonfiction for children.

International awards also exist as forms of global recognition. These include the
Hans Christian Andersen Award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, Ilustrarte
Bienale for illustration, and the BolognaRagazzi Award for art work and design.[40]
Additionally, bloggers with expertise on children's and young adult books give a
major series of online book awards called The Cybils Awards, or, Children's and
Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards.