Chidren’s Literature Essay

Children’s literature (also called juvenile literature) consists of the stories (including in books) and poems which are enjoyed by or targeted primarily at children. Modern children’s literature is classified in different ways, including by genre or the intended age of the reader. Children’s literature has its roots in the stories and songs that adults told their children before publishing existed, as part of the wider oral tradition. Because of this it can be difficult to track the development of early stories. Even since widespread printing, many classic tales were originally created for adults and have been adapted for a younger audience. Although originally children’s literature was often a re-writing of other forms, since the 1400s there has been much literature aimed specifically at children, often with a moral or religious message. To some extent the nature of children’s fiction, and the divide between older children’s and adult ficti on became blurred as time went by and tales appealing to both adult and child had substantial commercial success. There is no single, widely accepted definition of children’s literature. It can be broadly defined as anything that children read, but a more useful definition may be fiction, poetry, and drama intended for and used by children and young people, a list to which many add non-fiction. Nancy Anderson of the College of Education at the University of South Florida defines children’s literature as all books written for children, â€Å"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†. Classifying children’s literature is equally confusing. As the International Companion Encyclopedia Of Children’s Literature says, â€Å"The boundaries of genre†¦ are not fixed but blurred.† Sometimes no agreement can be reached even on whether a given work is best categorized as adult or children’s literature, and many books are marketed for both adults and children. J. K. Rowling’s series about Harry Potter was written and marketed for children, but it was so popular among children and adults that The New York Times created a separate bestseller list for children’s books to list them. When people think of children’s literature they probably mean books, or at least print. But narratives existed before printing, and the roots of some best-known children’s tales go back to storytellers of old.Seth Lerer, in the opening of Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter, says â€Å"This book presents a history of what children have heard and read†¦ The history I write of is a history of reception†. Classification Children’s literature can be divided a number ways. Two useful divisions are genre and intended age of the reader. By genre A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content, or length. Anderson lists six categories of children’s literature, with some significant subgenres:[8] * Picture books, including concept books (teaching an 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 past times. This genre can be further broken down into 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 very simple language, use large print, and have many illustrations. Books for older children use increasingly complex language, normal print, and fewer, if any, illustrations. * Picture books, appropriate for pre-readers or ages 0–5. * Early reader books, appropriate for children age 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 age 12–18. Illustration Children’s stories have always been accompanied by pictures. A papyrus from Byzantine Egypt shows illustrations accompanying the story of Hercules’ labors. Today children’s books are illustrated in a way that rarely occurs in adult literature in the 20th or 21st century, except in graphic novels. Generally, artwork plays a greater role in books intended for the youngest readers (especially pre-literate children). Children’s picture books can be 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. According to Joyce Whalley in The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, an illustrated book differs from a book with illustrations, in that â€Å"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 Orbis Pictus by the Moravian author Comenius. Orbis Pictus had a picture on every page, followed by the name of the object in Latin and English. It was translated into English the year after it appeared, and was used in homes and schools around Europe and Great Britain for years. Early children’s books like 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 to the story.[7]:322 Newer processes, including copper and steel engraving began being used in the 1830s. One of the first uses of Chromolithography, a way of making multi-colored prints, in a children’s book was 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 illustration method appearing in children’s books was etching, used by George Cruikshank in the 1850s. By the 1860s top artists in the west 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 child labor.[1]:224-226 The Essential Guide to Children’s Books and Their Creators credits Caldecott with â€Å"the concept of extending the meaning of text beyond literal visualization†. In India Nandalal Bose, whose paintings are considered artistic treasures, illustrated books for children from the late 1800s into the 1900s. The early Twentieth-century brought more highly regarded illustrators to the pages of children’s books. Artists like Kay Nielson, Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham produced illustrations that are still reprinted today.[1]:224-227 The development in printing capabilities found itself reflected in children’s books. After World War II offset lithography became more refined, and by the 1950s painter-style illustrations like Brian Wildsmith’s were common.[1]:233 History According to Aspects and Issues in the History of Children’s Literature from the International Research Society for Children’s Literature, the development of literature for children anywhere in the world follows the same basic path. All children’s literature, whatever its current stage of development, begins with spoken stories, songs and poems. In the beginning the same tales that adults tell and enjoy are adapted for children. Then stories are created specifically for children, to educate, instruct and entertain them. In the final stage literature for children is established as separate from that of adults, having its own genres, divisions, expectations and canon. The development of children’s literature is influenced by the social, educational, political and economic resources of the country or ethnic group. Before 50 BC Every people group has its own mythology, unique fables and other traditional stories told for the instruction and entertainment of adults and children. The earliest written folk-type tales include the Panchatantra from India, composed about 200 AD, it may be â€Å"the world’s oldest collection of stories for children†,though other sources believe it was intended for adults. The Jakatas, stories from India about the birth of Buddha, go back to the second or third centuries BC A few of these stories, particularly those where Buddha took the shape of an animal, would have been enjoyed by children. The source stories for The Arabian Nights, perhaps also originally from India, have also been traced back this far. As an example of oral stories that certainly would have been enjoyed by children, the tale of The Asurik Tree goes back at least 3,000 years in Persia, now Iran. The greatest ancient Greek poet, Homer, lived sometime between 1200 BC and 600 BC. Author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer’s work contributed to the development of all Western literature, including that for children. Between 750 and 650 BC Hesiod told stories that became a major source of Greek mythology. Irish folktales can be traced as far back as 400 BC. These stories of witches, fairies and magic spells were preserved by storytellers traveling across the island. For centuries Ireland’s geographic isolation helped preserve them. 50 BC to AD 500 Papyri from the 400s AD tell versions of Aesop’s fables. In Imperial China, children attended public events with their parents, where they would listen to the complicated tales of professional story-tellers. Often rhyming, the stories were accompanied by drums, cymbals and other traditional instruments. Children would also have watched the plays performed at festivals and fairs. Though not specifically intended for children, the elaborate costumes, acrobatics and martial arts would have held even a young child’s interest. Smaller gatherings were accompanied by puppet shows and shadow plays. The stories often explained the background behind the festival, covering folklore, history and politics. Story-telling 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 Twentieth-century. Greek and Roman literature from this age is thought to contain â€Å"nothing that could be considered a children’s book in the sense of a book written to give pleasure to a child†.[15] However, children would have enjoyed listening to stories such as the Odyssey and Aesop’s Fables, since Aesop and Homer, along with the Greek playwrights were â€Å"at the heart of early reading and writing†[7]:37 in Greece at this time. 500-1400 The Panchatantra was translated from Sanskrit into Kannada in 1035 AD. The first children’s book in Urdu may be Pahelian by the Indian poet Amir Khusrow, who wrote poems and riddles for children in the 1200s-1300s.[1]:814 Buddhism spread in China during the early part of this period, bringing with it tales later known as Journey to the West. Chinese children would have enjoyed many of these stories of â€Å"fantasy, the supernatural, demons and monsters.†[1]:832 There are two schools of thought about children and European Medieval literature. The first developed from the writings of Philippe Arià ¨s in the 1960s and holds that, because children at this time were not viewed as greatly different from adults, they were not given significantly different treatment. Those holding this point of view see no evidence of children’s fiction as such existing in Europe during the Middle Ages,[17] although they recognize that instructional texts in Latin were written specific ally for children, by clerics like the Venerable Bede, and Ælfric of Eynsham. Those who disagree with Arià ¨s make several arguments, explained by Gillian Adams in her essay Medieval Children’s Literature: Its Possibility and Actuality. One is that just because a culture does not view childhood as modern Western societies do does not mean children’s literature cannot develop there. Another is that modern Western scholars have defined literature for children too narrowly, and fail to acknowledge what does exist. for example, they point to Marie de France’s translation of Aesop’s fables, and the Play of Daniel from the 1100s. Daniel Kline, in Medieval Literature for Children says modern and Medieval literature for children have common goals: â€Å"conveying the values, attitudes, and information necessary for children and youth to survive or even advance within their cultures.† Kline divides children’s literature in Europe during this time into five genres: Didactic and Moral, Conduct-related, Educational, Religious, and Popular. The debate on interpretaion aside, scholars cite this period as the time as when â€Å"many of the genres that continue to feature in writing for children emerge.†[21]:10 Examples of literature children would have enjoyed during this time include Gesta Romanorum, the Roman fables of Avianus, the French Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry and the Welsh Mabinogion. In Ireland many of the thousands of folk stories were being recorded in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries. Written in Old Irish on vellum, they began reaching through Europe, influencing other folk tales with stories of magic, witches and fairies. 1400s During the Byzantine Empire the Bible and Chritian hymns and stories were popular. The takeover of Greece by the Ottomans meant the enslaved Greeks had to rely on songs, lullabies, and other easily shared methosds of cultural preservation. According to Vassilis Anagnostopoulos in The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, these verses constitute the first children’s poetry. An early Mexican hornbook pictured in Tuer’s History of the Horn-Book, 1896. Hornbooks appeared in England during this time, teaching children basic information such as the alphabet and the Lord’s Prayer. In 1484 William Caxton published Aesop’s Fables, followed by Le Morte d’Arthur in 1485. These books were intended for adults, but enjoyed by children as well. Geoffrey Chaucer’s writings were retold for children by the late 1400s, and often European printers released versions of Aesop’s Fables in their native languages. 1500s Russia’s earliest children’s books, primers, appeared around this time. An early example is ABC-Book, an alphabet book published by Ivan Fyodorov in 1571. The first Danish children’s book, The Child’s Mirror by Niels Bredal in 1568, was an adaptation of a book of courtesy for children by the Dutch priest Erasmus. Finland had Abckiria, a primer released in 1543, but very few children’s books were published there until the 1850s. A Pretty and Splendid Maiden’s Mirror, and adaptation of a German book for young women, became the first Swedish children’s book upon its 1591 publication. 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 seventy-five separate stories and was written for an adult audience. Giulio Cesare Croce also borrowed from stories children would have enjoyed for his books. Chapbooks, pocket-sized pamphlets that were often folded instead of being stitched, were published in Britain and spread to the United States. Illustrated by woodblock printing, these inexpensive booklets reprinted popular ballads, historical retellings and folk tales. Though not specifically published for children at this time, they would have been enjoyed by them. Johanna Bradley in From Chapbooks to Plum Cake says that chapbooks kept imaginative stories from being lost to readers under the strict Puritan influence of the time.