CHILDREN
AND
ADOLESCENT
LITERATURE
HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
OF CHILDREN’S
LITERATURE
HOW DID THE
CHILDREN’S
LITERATURE EVOLVE?
CLASSICAL PERIOD
LITERARY WORKS BEGAN WITH ORAL STORYTELLING TO COMFORT,
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS, ENTERTAIN, TEACH, AND INTRODUCE CULTURE,
RELIGION, AND VALUES.
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (500 BC - 400 AD) FEATURED LITERATURE
PASSED DOWN FROM ADULTS TO CHILDREN.
CHILDREN HEARD THE SAME STORIES AS ADULTS, SUCH AS HERCULES'
ADVENTURES, AESOP'S FABLES, AND HOMER'S ILIAD AND ODYSSEY.
CLASSICAL LITERATURE IS MAINLY GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHS AND
EPICS, FOCUSING ON MORAL LESSONS AND TRUTHS ABOUT LIFE.
CLASSICAL STORIES ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF CULTURAL
HERITAGE, OFFERING INSIGHTS INTO ANCIENT BELIEFS, TRADITIONS,
AND VALUES.
THE AESOP'S
FABLE
Written by a former Greek slave, in the
late to mid-6th century BCE, Aesop's
Fables are the world's best known
collection of morality tales. The fables
were originally told from person-to-
person as much for entertainment
purposes but largely as a means for
relaying or teaching a moral or lesson.
ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD
Monks and learned men wrote "lesson books" for children, designed to
teach.
Aldhelm (640-709):
The first person to write lesson books for children.
He was an abbot and bishop.
His book De Septenario, de Metris, Enigmatibus, ac Pedum Regulis
included the meaning of the number seven in the Bible, riddles, and
puzzles in Latin for children to solve.
Beowulf, the most famous work from this period. Considered the highest
achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular
epic.
MEDIEVAL PERIOD
By the fifteenth century, books on manners and
morals began to appear in England, by 1430. One
of these was William Caxton’s Boke of Curtayse
published about 1477. Another was The Babies
Boke which had the subtitle Manners and Meals in
the Olden Times. This book contained rules of
behavior for boys who trained to become knights
during the Age of Chivalry.
BOKE OF CURTAYSE
HEADLINE HERE
One of the books
appeared in England on
manners and morals.
THE BOKE ( MANNERS AND MEALS IN THE
OLDEN TIMES
Contained rules and behaviors of boys who
were trained to become knights during the
age of chivalry
ABC BOOKS
HEADLINE HERE
In the sixteenth century, ABC books or primers appeared.
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They were so called because they were usedadipiscing
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prime as book of private devotions in the Angelican
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Church. Henry the VIII had ordered the
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Catholic and Protestant primers that contained the
alphabet and Christian principles. Thus, the term primer
came to be applied, to all the first books of children in
school.
HORNBOOK
HEADLINE HERE
The hornbooks which were not really books appeared toward
the end of the sixteenth century. These were the first books
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designed for children to handle. They were about 3 by 41/2
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inches long and 2 inches wide. Capital letters
do followed by vowels
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and their combinations with consonants were printed across the ut
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top. The Lord's Prayer was printed at the bottom. The paper
used for this was covered with a transparent horn- hence the
name "hornbook"- and was held in place by metals like silver,
brass and copper. These books could be hung around the necks
of children.
CHAPBOOKS
HEADLINE HERE
In the sixteenth century, printing became cheaper. Single
sheets of paper printed on one sideLorem
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called broadsides
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issued. These broadsides containedconsectetur
ballads of Robinelit,Hood.
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In 1967, Charles Perault, a Frenchman, published his
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collection of tales entitled Comtes de Mere
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of My Mother Goose. Translations of these tales were
published separately as chapbooks in England. These
books were called chapbooks because they were sold by
itinerant peddlers called chapmen.
PURITAN PERIOD
IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA, BOOKS FOR CHILDREN WERE INFLUENCED
BY PURITAN IDEAS. THE BOOKS STRESSED FEAR OF GOD, RELIGIOUS
INSTRUCTION AND PREPARATION FOR DEATH WHICH THE CHILDREN
DID NOT ENJOY.
BETWEEN 1683 AND 1691, THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER, A BOOK MADE
ESPECIALLY FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES
APPEARED. IT WAS A SMALL BOOK ABOUT 3 BY 4 1/2 INCHES AND HAD
ABOUT 100 PAGES. IT CONTAINED THE ALPHABET, WORDS AND
SYLLABLES FOR SPELLING LESSONS, THE LORD'S PRAYER, CATECHISM,
HYMNS AND VERSES, RHYMES OF EACH LETTER OF THE ALPHABET.
PURITAN PERIOD
IN 1658, THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED SCHOOL BOOK APPEARED WHICH
BECAME THE FIRST PITURE BOOK.
IT WAS INVENTED BY JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS, BISHOP OF MORAVIA
AND AN EDUCATOR WHO BELIEVED IN TEACHING CHILDREN BY
LETTING THEM SEE THINGS WITH THEIR OWN EYES.
JOHN NEWBERRY ERA
John Newbery "The father of children's literature"
He conceived the idea of publishing books for
the enjoyment entertainment of children. and
Little Pretty Pocket Book -the first book that
can be truly called a child's book
Mother Goose Melody - a collection of rhymes
published. nursery
MOTHER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES
The Newbery firm seems to have derived the name "Mother
Goose from the title of Charles Perrault's fairy tales, Contes de
ma mère l'oye (1697; "Tales of Mother Goose"), a French folk
expression roughly equivalent to "old wives' tales."
Mother goose rhymes for child development:
Cognitive-learn alphabet, numbers and counting,
Aesthetic-nurturing love for sounds and rhythms, and
sensitivity to patterns in arts,
Social and Physical- most rhymes are cooperative play
THE DIDACTIC PERIOD
Jean Jacques Rousseau HEADLINE HERE
was a French philosopher Lorem whoipsum started a
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new
philosophy in the education of children. Wrote elit,
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that embodied the philosophy that children be given
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freedom to develop their natural
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from actual experience.
Didactic literature presents philosophical, religious, moral,
and scientific knowledge and ideas in various imaginative
literary genres.
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