A Brief History of Kids' Lit
Tales and
stories have entertained and educated kids for hundreds of years, but books
written and published especially for kids is relatively new in the western
world. Up until the Georgian period, kids were just given such reading material
as ballads, religious catechism and books about how to behave. While the advent
of the printing press widen the selection of books for adults, kids were left
looking over their adults' shoulders.
Then, in 1691, English philosopher John Locke came up with the great idea that children learning to read should start with some easy books with pictures... like Aesop's Fables. While these are still fun to read today, Locke didn't have any other recommendations for good reads for kids of that era.
Then, in 1691, English philosopher John Locke came up with the great idea that children learning to read should start with some easy books with pictures... like Aesop's Fables. While these are still fun to read today, Locke didn't have any other recommendations for good reads for kids of that era.
Reading Raccoon (Canadian animals series), V. Lawton |
Other important names in the early development of children's literature are Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish author and poet in the early 19th century, who wrote such fairy tales as “The Little Mermaid,” “The Snow Queen,” and “Thumbelina.” Also during this period, the Brothers Grimm were at work preserving traditional German tales (sometimes rather gruesomely), such as “Hansel and Gretel,” “Snow White,” and “The Frog Prince.”
However, it was Lewis Carroll's “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,” published 1865 that heralded a change in writing style for kids, from a preachy, teaching one, to an imaginative one. “Alice” is considered to be the first "English masterpiece written for children."
And so it was in the late 19th century, the golden age of children's literature that many of the kids' books we now consider classics were published. This list includes “Pinocchio,” Robert Louis Stevenson's “Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped, “Rudyard Kipling's “The Jungle Book,” J.M. Barrie's “Peter Pan,” and in North America, “Little Women,” and Mark Twain's stories, to name but a few.
Next blog post ... kids' lit in the 20th century...
Comments