Children's literature

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For the academic journal, see Children's Literature (journal).
Four children reading Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age 12. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses that sometimes exclude young-adult fiction, comic books, or other genres. Books specifically for children existed at least several hundred years ago. Scholarship on children's literature includes professional organizations, dedicated publications and university courses.

Contents

Boundaries between children's, young-adult, and adult literature

The distinctions between children's literature, young-adult literature, and adult literature are often flexible and loosely defined. Nancy Anderson1 has delineated six major categories of children's literature, with some significant subgenres:

Basic characteristics

There is some debate on what constitutes children's literature. Most broadly, the term applies to books that are actually selected and read by children. Conversely, the term is often restricted to books various authorities determine are "appropriate" for children, such as teachers, professional reviewers, literary scholars, parents, publishers, librarians, bookstore personnel, and the various book-award committees. Anderson defines children's literature as all books written for children, "excluding works such as comic books, joke books, cartoon books, and nonfiction works that are not intended to be read from front to back, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference material".2

In addition to genres--such as traditional literature, fiction, fantasy, biography, informational, and poetry--books can also be categorized by their various formats, such as picture books, easy-to-read books, illustrated books, chapter books, hardcover books, paperback books, grocery store books, and series books.3 There is considerable controversy on whether grocery store (particularly merchandise) books are considered literature. Included in this debate are comic books and graphic novels.

While most children's literature is specifically written for children, many classic books that were originally intended for adults are now commonly thought of as works for children, including Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Conversely, some works of fiction originally written or marketed for children are also read and enjoyed by adults, such as Phillip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass, and Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, both of which received the Whitbread Award, which is typically awarded to adult novels. Also included are the works of J. K. Rowling and Shel Silverstein. Additionally, the Nobel Prize for literature has also been given to authors who made great contributions to children's literature, such as Selma Lagerlöf and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Often no consensus is reached whether a given work is best categorized as adult or children's literature, and many books are marketed for both adults and children/young adults.

There are a number of problems inherent in defining a class of books as "children's literature": For example, much of what is commonly regarded as "classic" children's literature speaks on multiple levels, and as such is able to be enjoyed by both adults and children. For example, many people will reread Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or The Wind in the Willows as adults and appreciate aspects of each that they failed to notice when they read the books as children. Many critics regard such multiplicity as having drawbacks, however; an adult may see the darker themes of a book and deem it unsuitable for children, despite the fact that such themes will likely be lost on younger readers.

One example of this is Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, throughout which the word "nigger" is used liberally. Many people feel that the word's racist and discriminatory connotations make it unacceptable to use anywhere, and particularly in a book aimed at children. Others, however, claim that to call the book racist because of this usage is to miss its point; Huckleberry Finn shows an admirable black character who becomes the voice of reason for a cast-off urchin and a middle-class white boy. Peter Hollindale, the educator and literary critic, applauded the book as "one of the greatest anti-racist texts of all time"4 and T. S. Eliot called it a "masterpiece".5

Parents wishing to protect their children from the unhappier aspects of life often find the traditional fairy tales, nursery rhymes and other voyages of discovery problematic, because often the first thing a story does is remove the adult influence, leaving the central character to learn to cope on his or her own: prominent examples of this include Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Bambi and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Many regard this as necessary to the story; after all, in most cases the whole point of the story is the characters' transition into adulthood.

Many authors specialize in books for children. Other authors are more known for their writing for adults, but have also written books for children, such as Alexey Tolstoy's The Adventures of Burratino, and Carl Sandburg's "Rootabaga Stories". In some cases, books intended for adults, such as Swift's Gulliver's Travels have been edited (or bowdlerized) somewhat, to make them more appropriate for children.

Another type of children's literature is work written by children, such as The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford (aged 9) or the juvenilia of Jane Austen or Lewis Carroll, written to amuse brothers and sisters.

An attempt to identify the characteristics shared by works called "children's literature" leads to some good general guidelines that are generally accepted by experts in the field. No one rule is perfect, however, and for every identifying feature there are many exceptions, as well as many adult books that share the characteristic. (For further discussion, see Hunt 1991: 42-64, Lesnik-Oberstein 1996, Huck 2001: 4-5.)

Publishers have attempted to further break down children's literature into subdivisions appropriate for different ages. In the United States, current practice within the field of children's books publishing is to break children's literature into pre-readers, early readers, chapter books, and young adults. This is roughly equivalent to the age groups 0-5, 5-7, 7-11 (sometimes broken down further into 7-9 and pre-teens), and books for teenagers. However, the criteria for these divisions are just as vague and problematic as the criteria for defining children's books as a whole. One obvious distinction is that books for younger children tend to contain illustrations, but picture books which feature art as an integral part of the overall work also cross all genres and age levels (as can be seen with the Caldecott Honor Book Tibet: Through the Red Box, by Peter Sis, which has an adult implied reader). As a general rule the implied reader of a children's or young adult book is 1-3 years younger than the protagonist. (Counter example: Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, not necessarily written for children, but co-opted by a child and young-adult audience.)

Anderson suggests that literary elements should be found throughout all of children's literature. These important elements include characters, point of view, setting, plot, theme, style, and tone.6

Anderson also suggests that every teacher should have at least 300 books in their classroom library.7

Anderson states that there are "several common themes in traditional literature" they follow along the lines of "Triumph of good over evil, trickery, hero's quest, reversal of fortune, and small outwitting the big," "Because one of the purposesof folklore was to transmit cultural values and beliefs, the theme is uaually quite apparent."8

Authors and artists

Jane Frank: illustration from Thomas Yoseloff's The Further Adventures of Till Eulenspiegel (1957). Fanciful illustrations are a prominent feature of children's books, especially those for younger children.

Children's books are often illustrated, sometimes lavishly, in a way that is rarely used for adult literature. As a rule of thumb, the younger the intended reader (or commonly pre-literate children), the more attention is paid to the artwork. Many authors work with a preferred artist who illustrates their words; others create books together, achieving "a marriage of words and pictures."

Many authors and illustrators belong to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

According to Anderson, "Even after children learn to read, illustrations continue to aid to their comprehension. Among the many components of a child's visual world, book illustrations are a beautiful medium through which to learn about their world".9 Children's picture books can be a cognitively accessible source of high quality Art for young children. You can help children appreciate the artwork in children's literature by calling attention to the techniques that artists use, such as space, line, shape, color, texture, scale and dimension, and composition.

Watercolor is the most popular medium for picture book illustrations.10

Popular contributions to children's literature

(In chronological order):

  • Carlo Collodi (1826–1890): the Italian author of Pinocchio, initially published in serial form in Il Giornale dei Bambini (the first Italian newspaper for children).
  • Enid Blyton (1897–1968): British author of such children's books as The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and The Magic Faraway Tree. She is claimed to be the best-selling author in the history of children's literature. Her books have been translated into ninety different languages and have sold over 400 million copies.
  • Jean de Brunhoff (1899–1937) and *Cecile de Brunhoff (1903–2003): Jean de Brunhoff was a French writer and illustrator best known for Babar the Elephant, who first appeared in 1931. The stories were originally told to their son by his wife Cecile. Jean died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-seven, but his widow lived to be ninety-nine.
  • Leo Lionni (1910–1999): Children's author and illustrator whose books include Fish is Fish, Nicolas, Where Have You Been?, The Alphabet Tree, A Color of his Own, and Matthew's Dream. Lionni received the 1984 American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal and was a four-time Caldecott Honor Winner for Inch by Inch, Frederick, Swimmy, and Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse.
  • Jane Yolen (born 1939): A respected and well-known American author, Jane Yolen is one of the most prolific children's writers today. Her books are frequently translated and have won many awards.
  • Jacqueline Wilson (born 1945): author of the much-loved Tracy Beaker series, Jacqueline Wilson is one of the best-known children's authors in the UK. In 2004 she replaced Catherine Cookson as the most borrowed author in Britain's libraries, a position she retained the following year. Her books have won a range of prestigious awards and nearly 20 million copies have been sold.
  • Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) (born 1946): American poet and children's author of more than 5,000 poems and 40 award-winning books. His poems appear in hundreds of magazines for children and adults ranging from Highlights for Children and Cricket to Harper's and The New Yorker.
  • Laura Numeroff (born 1953): She is widely known for her If you give a... series including If you give a mouse a cookie, If you give a moose a muffin, and If you give a pig a pancake.
  • J. K. Rowling (born 1965): British author, J.K. Rowling is probably the best-known children's author today and also the most successful. Being the author of the extremely successful Harry Potter series, her books have been sold in more than 300 million copies worldwide and are translated into more than 63 languages. She is also the first billionaire-author (in terms of US-dollars).

History

Because of the difficulty in defining children's literature, it is also difficult to trace its history to a precise starting point. In 1658 Jan Ámos Komenský published the illustrated informational book Orbis Pictus; it's considered to be the first picture book published specifically for children. John Newbery's 1744 publication of A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, sold with a ball for boys or a pincushion for girls, is considered a landmark for the beginning of pleasure reading marketed specifically to children. As far as folktales are concerned the Brothers Grimm; Jakob and Wilhem of the early nineteenth century were responsible for the writing down and preserving of the oral tradition. Previous to Newbery, literature marketed for children was intended to instruct the young, though there was a rich oral tradition of storytelling for children and adults; and many tales later considered to be inappropriate for children, such as the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, may have been considered family fare. Additionally, some literature not written with children in mind was given to children by adults. Among the earliest examples found in English of this co-opted adult fiction are Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur and the Robin Hood tales.

Series and genres

There are many different genres that make up the literature canon. One of these genres is called traditional literature. There are ten characteristics of traditional literature. The characteristics are unknown authorship, conventional introductions and conclusions, vague settings, stereotyped characters, anthropomorphism, cause and effect, happy ending for the hero, magic accepted as normal, brief stories with simple and direct plots, and repetition of action and verbal patterns.12

The bulk of traditional Literature consists of folktales, which conveys the legends, customs, superstitions, and beliefs of people in past times. This large genre can be further broken down into subgenres. The subgenres of folktales are myths, fables, ballads and songs, legends, tall tales, and fairy tales.13

The success of a book for children often prompts the author to continue the story in a sequel, or even to launch into an entire series of books. Some works are originally conceived as series: J. K. Rowling has always stated in interviews that her original plan was to write no fewer than seven books about Harry Potter, and some authors, such as the prolific Enid Blyton and R. L. Stine, have specialized in open-ended series. In several cases, series have outlived their authors, whether publishers openly hired new authors to continue after the death of the original creator of the series (such was the case when Reilly and Lee hired Ruth Plumly Thompson to continue The Oz series after L. Frank Baum's death), or whether the pen name of the original author was retained as a brand-nom-de-plume for the series (as with Franklin W. Dixon and the Hardy Boys series, Harry G. Allard's Miss Nelson series, Carolyn Keene and the Nancy Drew series, and V. C. Andrews and the Flowers in the Attic series). Sequels and series are of course also popular in adult writing, where they are most common in genre novels such as crime fiction, thrillers, and so on. Genres in children's literature include pony stories (including the works of the Pullein-Thompson sisters and Pat Smythe) and school stories (e.g. Rudyard Kipling's Stalky and Co. and Angela Brazil's oeuvre). More genres would include modern fantasy, contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, picture books, picture story books and traditional literature. However, each genre has many sub-genres as well. For example traditional literature includes folktales, fables, myths and legends. Genres can also be classified by two organizational methods which are length and complexity as well as content.

Scholarship

In recent years, scholarship in children's literature has gained in respectability. There are an increasing number of literary criticism analyses in the field of children's literature criticism. Additionally, there are a number of scholarly associations in the field, including the Children's Literature Association, the International Research Society for Children's Literature, the Library Association Youth Libraries Group, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators the Irish Society for the Study of Children's Literature, IBBY Canada and Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media] (CIRCL), and National Centre for Research in Children's Literature.

Multidisciplinary scholarship has examined gender and culture within children's literatures.

Courses on children's literature are often required in initial and advanced (early childhood/elementary) teacher training in the United States.

Awards

Some noted awards for children's literature are:

  • Canada: the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature and Illustration (English and French). 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 the Blue 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 B.C., the Willow Awards in Saskatchewan, and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards. IBBY Canada offers a number of annual awards.

See also

Children's Literature portal
Wikibooks

Lists

Notes

  1. ^ Anderson 2006
  2. ^ Anderson 2006, p. 2.
  3. ^ Anderson 2006, pp. 11–16.
  4. ^ Hollindale, Peter (1988). Ideology and the Children's Book. Woodchester, UK: Thimble Press. ISBN 9780903355261. 
  5. ^ Eliot, T. S. Huckleberry Finn: A Critical Essay. Republished in "Only connect: readings on children's literature, ed. Egoff, Stubbs and Ashley (OUP: 1969)
  6. ^ Anderson 2006, pp. 30–39.
  7. ^ Anderson 2006, p. 42.
  8. ^ Anderson 2006, pp. 87–88.
  9. ^ Anderson 2006, p. 47.
  10. ^ Anderson 2006: p. 54.
  11. ^ Cooling, Wendy (2004). D is for Dahl, Viking Press. pp.26. 
  12. ^ Anderson 2006, pp. 84–85.
  13. ^ Anderson 2006, p. 89.

References

  • Anderson, Nancy (2006). Elementary Children's Literature. Boston: Pearson Education. ISBN 0205452299. 
  • Chapleau, Sebastien (2004). New Voices in Children's Literature Criticism. Lichfield: Pied Piper Publishing. ISBN 9780954638443. 
  • Huck, Charlotte (2001). Children's Literature in the Elementary School, 7th ed.. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0072322284. 
  • Hunt, Peter (1991). Criticism, Theory, and Children's Literature. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0631162313. 
  • Hunt, Peter (1996). International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415088569. 
  • Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin (1996). "Defining Children's Literature and Childhood". in Hunt, Peter (ed.). International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. London: Routledge. pp.pp. 17-31. ISBN 0415088569. 
  • Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin (1994). Children's Literature: Criticism and the Fictional Child. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198119984. 
  • Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin (2004). Children's Literature: New Approaches. Basingstoke: Palgrave. ISBN 1403917388. 
  • Rose, Jacqueline (1993, orig. pub. 1984). The Case of Peter Pan or the Impossibility of Children's Fiction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812214358. 

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