Since one topic we’ll be talking about here is children’s literature,  I thought it would be appropriate to start with a brief history. When did people first make books specifically for children and who was the first to do it?

It’s almost hard to imagine a world without children’s books, isn’t it? Still, there was a time when writing for kids wasn’t even a thought. Of course, people have told tales since the beginning of time, but turning them into colorful little books that fit into cute little hands? Well, it took a while before that was on anyone’s to-do list.

John Lydgate, a Benedictine monk, may have been the first European to think of writing for children, only it wasn’t a fairytale he had in mind.  In 1430 he wrote Table Manners for Children. Courtesy was extremely important in the Middle Ages, and it became a hot topic for children and adults alike.

16th Century Horn Books

Hornbooks and battledores hit the market next. Again, they weren’t exactly pleasure reading. Hornbooks were a piece of parchment mounted on a board.  Usually, they contained the alphabet and some prayers. Because paper was so gosh darn expensive they covered it with a sheet of thin cow’s horn for protection, thus the name hornbook.

When paper became cheaper battledores took over.  They had basically the same content as the hornbook with the addition of a short list of words. We’re making a little progress here because they sometimes included a fable or two. Since they had more space, illustrations could also be included. Overall, these things were still for educational purposes. Illustrations in your math book might be nice, but let’s face it you wouldn’t pick it up for pleasure reading, right? Well, kids might have felt that way battledores. However, this was the best they had, so maybe they thought it was better than nothing.

 By the  1740s, things were improving. Publishers in London finally started producing books that would educate as well as entertain young readers. The first known nursery rhyme collection came out in 1744.  Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, it was called, and was written by a woman named Mary Cooper. The book contains the first known written versions of  Bah, bah,  black sheep’, ‘Hickory dickory dock’, ‘London Bridge is falling down’ and ‘Sing a song of sixpence’.  Mary Cooper’s book was great, but greater things were coming.

About this same time, John Newbery got into the game and published his Little Pretty Pocket Book.  What made his book stand out was he didn’t just write for children, he marketed to them as well. Newbery’s book was visually appealing thanks to its brightly colored paper binding. He also made it to fit perfectly in child-sized hands. Even crazier, Newbery had toys that went along with the book.

For the boys, there was a ball while the girls received pincushions. Morals and education were still part of children’s books during this time, so the toys came with a pin. The child was to stick the pin on one side if he had behaved well, and the other if he hadn’t. 1765 brought Newbery’s most famous work,  The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes. The book is possibly the first novel ever written solely for children.

Newbery certainly did his part in helping the genre of children’s writing evolve, but we still haven’t quite gotten where we want to be. Although writers and publishers started taking the children’s market seriously, most of the books written were still meant to teach or explain things to children. It took Lewis Carroll and his crazy fantasy book Alice in Wonderland to push books into the realm of pure fiction.  Called by some the first English masterpiece for children, Carroll’s book set in motion Europes first golden age of children’s literature.

 Lots of classics were written in this period: Little Women, Wind in the Willows, Peter Rabbit, The Wizard of Oz, Winnie the Pooh, and The Jungle book  (which, by the way, influenced the whole boy scout program). The first golden age lasted roughly until the beginning of World War I. People got a little busy then, you know, trying to stay alive and stuff, so they didn’t really have the time or inclination to worry so much about books.

Things picked up again after World War II, however, and once again business was booming. They gave this era a name too. Can you guess what they called it?  The second golden age of children’s literature. Pretty creative, right?

This second age spanned from the 1950s through the 70s. Things were different this time, however. Books dealt more with the struggle between good and evil (think Tolkien here) and were more in tune with the emerging global moral consciousness. Obviously fighting two world wars created a lot of change in people’s ideas.  Books in this era include:  The Little Engine that Could, Madeline, Curious George, and Babar. For older kids, there was C. S. Lewis and his Narnia series, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and the White Mountains by John Christopher.