History of Children’s Literature

1. History of Children’s Literature

2. Children’s literature is a relatively new kind of literature. • Before 1850, books taught lessons on manners and morals. • Books also contained lessons on the ideas of history and science that existed at the time.

3. Children’s Books • Children found the books dull, so they read stories intended for adults. • Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift • Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

4. Advantages in reading adult books: • Made it possible for children to live more lives than one. • Able to find new friends, laughter, knowledge, and an understanding of people of all ages in all parts of the world.

5. Early Beginnings • In 600 A.D., the Old English period, monks and other learned men wrote “lesson books” for children.

6. Early Beginnings • Aldhelm (640?-700AD), Bishop of Sherborne, was probably the first man to write lesson books for children. • Riddles and puzzles children had to solve were written in Latin. • He set the pattern for all books of instruction from that time up to 1500 AD. • All books used question and answer form and were written in verse.

7. Early Beginnings • The Venerable Bede (763-735AD) was a teacher at a monastery school. • His lessons showed more imagination. • They were a spark of learning in the Dark Ages. • They contained all the knowledge then known of natural science, natural history, and the study of plants and flowers and stars.

8. Early Beginnings • Egbert of York (766 AD) founded the famous school of York. • Collected the works of the previous monks and books by outstanding Greek and Roman authors. • Wrote a variety of lesson books, still using question and answer (dialogue) method.

9. Early Beginnings • Egbert of York (766 AD) [continued] • Wrote many books on grammar. • Tutored sons and daughters of the household at the court of Charlemagne (the first Holy Roman Emperor). • This is also one of the earliest records of co-education.

10. Early Beginnings • Alfred the Great (849-399 AD), King of England drove back the invasion of the Danes. • He translated Latin literature into Anglo-Saxon with the help of many scholars.

11. Anglo-Saxon • Anglo-Saxon Name given to distinguish the barbarian settlers of Britain, "the English Saxons," from their kindred still on the continent. • Now generally used to define the period in England between the collapse of Roman power c. 410 and the Norman Conquest of 1066, and applied to artifacts - Anglo-Saxon pottery, metalwork, houses, etc.

12. Early Beginnings • Alfred the Great [continued] • Until 1350, children in monastery schools had to read and speak Latin in and out of school. • He had the best literature of his time translated from Latin into old English so it would be understandable to the common man.

13. Early Beginnings • Anselm (1033-1109 AD), the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote the first encyclopedia for children.

14. The Middle English Period • In 1066 William the Conqueror and his Norman French knights invaded and won England. • They were the Anglo-Saxons, who gave England its name (Angel Land).

15. The Middle English Period • French words were introduced into English because it was the language of the nobility. • mouton • carpentier • fourniture • tailleur

16. The Middle English Period • Children of nobility continued to receive instruction in manners and morals of the period. • This period lasted until the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1456 in Germany and the coming of the Renaissance.

17. The Middle English Period • Renaissance comes from the French words • “re,” meaning “again” and • “naitre,” meaning “born.” • Hence, a “rebirth.” • The first book published was The Bible.

18. The Middle English Period • William Caxton was the creator of the first English printer in 1476. • His first publication was Aesop’s Fables.

19. The Renaissance • Books were too expensive to be used by children, so the Hornbook was created for them about 1550. • It was the first “permanent” book.

20. The Hornbook • It was a square piece of wood with a handle at one end which measured 2¾ inches by 5 inches. • A printed page of vellum (made from skin of calf, lamb, or goat) was pasted on the board.

21. The Hornbook • The page was protected by a transparent piece of horn (a hard, smooth material forming the outer cover of the horns of cattle and other related animals). • The book was often bound by a metal rim, had a cord through a hole in the handle, and was fastened to a child’s belt. • Another source said it was worn about the neck.

22. The Hornbook • The text contained the Crusaders’ cross, followed by the alphabet in lower and upper case. • Groups of syllables were written below the letters.

23. The Hornbook • The final text was “The Lord’s Prayer.” • The next piece of text was the words “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

24. The Renaissance • After the hornbook, rhymed alphabets and primers were published for children. • The Royal Primer had a letter of alphabet, followed by a familiar verse. • A In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.

25. The Renaissance • This primer sold 5 million copies during the hundred years it was used as a text book for younger children. • The Royal Primer was followed by the New England Primer, published in Boston in 1690. • [Remember, the pilgrims arrived in 1620.]

26. Puritan Times • In the 1600s in England and America, children’s books were rather gloomy. • They reflected the Puritan outlook, which was one that was more interested in the fear of God than in the love of life.

27. Puritan Times • Books for children were either reprints of English publications or local writings that were even drearier. • First important illustrated book for children was written by John Amos Comenius, a bishop of Moravia in 1651. • Comenius believed in teaching children by visual means. • Book was written in Latin and German, translated into English in 1659.

28. The 1700s • John Newbery was a writer, publisher, and bookseller of St. Paul’s Church, London. • He published a series of books for children. • He recognized they had special interests and tried to meet them.

29. The 1700s • Newbery printed chapbooks, cheap little paper editions, which were sold on the streets by chapmen (peddlers). • They contained ballads and folktales. • The ordinary person could afford to buy these books.

30. The 1700s • Newbery also published translations from the French: • Tales of Mother Goose by Charles Perrault • It was considered beneath the dignity of authors to write books for children, so they were published without any name attached.

31. The 1700s • It is also believed that Perrault wrote “Blue Beard,” “The Three Witches,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Red Riding Hood.” • Madame de Beaumont, a lady in the king’s court, wrote “Beauty and the Beast.”

32. The Early 1800s • In the beginning of the 1800s, children’s literature became more honestly creative. • Real literary authors could write for children and not damage their reputations.

33. The Early 1800s • Charles and Mary Lamb, brother and sister, wrote to give children pleasure. • They worked together (in 1807) to write a children’s version of Shakespeare’s plays.

34. The Early 1800s • Jane and Ann Taylor wrote poems for children. • Kate Greenaway did the illustrations. • Jane wrote the famous little poem, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

35. And Then . . . • A period of change began in the next 50 years. • Authors had a profound influence on children’s literature.

36. And Then . . . • Jacob Ludwig and Wilhelm Carl Grimm traveled around Germany, talking to people and collecting folk stories. • Their collection was translated into English in 1824.

37. And Then . . . • Hans Christian Anderson, in 1841, wrote “modern” fairy tales, so called because Anderson actually created them and copied old ways of telling stories. • Some of his stories are “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”