Journal topic 2 : History of children's books

James S. Jacobs and Michael O. Tunnell (2004) give an interesting description of the history of children's books. Starting in the mid 1400's, hornbooks were small, wooden paddles covered in parchment and translucent sheets of cow horn. A hole was drilled into the handle so that it could be hung with cord from a child's waist. Some sort of primary information, like the alphabet or Biblical verses, was printed on the parchment so that children could easily learn it and carry it with them. I currently work in a law library, and I find it fascinating that "hornbook" also refers to a short treatise that focuses on one particular issue in the law to aid students in understanding it or a shorter version of a longer text. The mental image of law students wearing belts of paddles full of case material makes me laugh.

Chapbooks were inexpensively priced booklets that became popular after the 16th century (although they were frowned upon as proper reading material). Usually crudely printed on a single sheet of paper, folded into pages and accompanied by simple woodblock images, these coverless books were available to the literate, laboring class from street peddlers and hawkers. Because so much of the literature at that time contained religious or scholarly philosophies of the Puritans, chapbooks offered readers a chance to enjoy lighter topics like adventure stories, songs, political opinions, poems or folktales. These chapbooks helped influence key publishers and authors and initiate the development of children's literature.

One of these people was John Newbery. Jacobs and Tunnell (2004) suggest that Newbery was affected by John Locke, a British researcher and philosopher who argued that children should be taught through home schooling, private tutors and fun activities rather than the strict methods of rote memorization and authoritarianism as was common at the time (Buck, 2009). Newbery's publishing house printed titles specifically for children. In 1744, his first book, A Pretty Little Pocket-Book, used rhymes and stories to teach the alphabet (Jacobs & Tunnell, 2004). (I love that the caption under the frontispiece is "Instruction with delight.") His dedication to young readers prompted the creation of the oldest prize for children's books: The John Newbery Medal.

Orbis Pictus, or "The World in Pictures," is cited as the first children's picture book. Johann Amos Comenius, a teacher and bishop from Moravia (which is now part of the Czech Republic), wrote it in 1657. It contained easy text and woodcuts to show wondrous examples of plants, animals, humans and other aspects of the natural and spiritual world.

Charles Perrault collected and published French fairy tales in Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l'Oye, or the Tales of Mother Goose in 1697 (Ashliman, D. L., 2006). It included well-known stories like "Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper" and "Little Red Riding Hood". This book has since been published in many languages and other authors have utilized the character of Mother Goose.

Randolph Caldecott was a British illustrator who created amazing colored images for children's books. He is credited with being the first to show action in his illustrations for the 1878 book The Diverting History of John Gilpin (Jacobs and Tunnell, 2004). An American award for children's book illustrations is named for him: The Randolph Caldecott Medal.

Kate Greenaway was a contemporary of Caldecott's and also illustrated many beloved children's books. She is most known for her quaintly drawn Victorian children, detailed flower images and greeting cards. The Kate Greenaway Medal is comparable to the Caldecott and is awarded in the United Kingdom each year.

St. Nicholas Magazine was an American children's publication from 1873 to 1941. Edited by author Mary Mapes Dodge, it attracted the most popular and accomplished authors and illustrators. Many famous novels were printed in the magazine in serialized form like Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and Louisa May Alcott's Jo's Boys (Jacobs and Tunnell, 2004).

All of these details laid the groundwork for the popularity and reoccurring trends in 20th century children's literature. Up to this point, illustrations were primarily used as decorative elements in stories. This changed in 1902 when Beatrix Potter created The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which incorporated corresponding drawings to tell the story as much as the words, thus ushering in the idea of the modern picture storybook (Jacobs & Tunnell, 2004). The American equivalent of this was Millions of Cats. (According to Wikipedia, it is "the oldest American picture book still in print.") Written and illustrated by Wanda Gag (a Minnesotan!), the rhythmic and repetitive, hand-drawn text tells the story of a lonely old man and woman who decide to get a pet. The man travels far and wide before he discovers a hill covered in millions of cats. Unable to decide which one to pick, he leads them all home. When the wife cries that they must only choose the prettiest cat to keep, a battle ensues. The cats devour each other, leaving only one scraggly kitten, which grows into a lovely companion for the couple.

Another groundbreaking event was the advent of children's fantasy literature, most notably with L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and animal fantasy classics like A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Edward Stratemeyer started the trend of serialized children's fiction books like Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and the Mary-Kate and Ashley. With more funding and freedom to include a range of topics, the 1960's brought an age of realism in children's literature. Books now covered such themes as abuse, death, sexuality, divorce and racial diversity. As the marketplace again changed in the 1970's and 80's, publishers emphasized impressively illustrated books as the staple for the genre. Nonfiction, historical and wordless picture books also flourished during this period. Colorization improved and other titles included toys or gimmicks like texture, scratch-and-sniff and battery operated sound effects.

Schools and other institutions began purchasing children's books to use in the classroom and with growing demand for these materials by the general public, sales skyrocketed into the millions of dollars a year. Into the late 80's and 90's, poetry books saw a surge in popularity, along with a reprinting of out-of-print classics from earlier generations. Despite the intense scrutiny of many children's books today, authors and illustrators continue to take risks in terms of subject matter and artistic expression. More and more minority characters and creators exist in the genre than ever before. Even with all of the changes in the publishing industry, political climate and school curriculum, children's literature remains a huge money-maker for publishers and an important aspect of literacy, the cultural experience of youth and library collections.

References:
Ashliman, D. L. (2006). Charles Perrault's Mother Goose tales. Viewed September 11, 2009, from http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault.html

Buck, R. M. (2009). John Locke (1632-1704). Viewed September 11, 2009, from http://social.jrank.org/pages/375/Locke-John-1632-1704.html

Jacobs, J. S. & Tunnell, M. O. (2004). Children's literature, briefly (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

University of South Carolina (1999). What is a chapbook? Viewed September 11, 2009, from http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/britlit/cbooks/cbook1.html

Note: Other images and websites are linked directly from the text in this blog entry.