.jpg/1280px-Fairy_Tales_(Boston_Public_Library).jpg)
La literatura infantil o juvenil incluye cuentos, libros, revistas y poemas creados para niños. La literatura infantil moderna se clasifica de dos formas diferentes: género o edad a la que va dirigido el lector, desde libros ilustrados para niños muy pequeños hasta ficción para adultos jóvenes .
La literatura infantil se puede rastrear hasta las historias tradicionales como los cuentos de hadas , que solo se han identificado como literatura infantil en el siglo XVIII, y las canciones, parte de una tradición oral más amplia , que los adultos compartían con los niños antes de que existiera la publicación. El desarrollo de la literatura infantil temprana, antes de que se inventara la imprenta, es difícil de rastrear. Incluso después de que la imprenta se generalizara, muchos cuentos "infantiles" clásicos fueron creados originalmente para adultos y luego adaptados para un público más joven. Desde el siglo XV, mucha literatura ha estado dirigida específicamente a los niños, a menudo con un mensaje moral o religioso. La literatura infantil ha sido moldeada por fuentes religiosas, como las tradiciones puritanas, o por puntos de vista más filosóficos y científicos con las influencias de Charles Darwin y John Locke. [2] Los finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX se conocen como la "Edad de Oro de la Literatura Infantil" porque en esa época se publicaron muchos libros infantiles clásicos.
No existe una definición única o ampliamente utilizada de literatura infantil. [3] : 15–17 Se puede definir ampliamente como el conjunto de obras escritas e ilustraciones que las acompañan producidas para entretener o instruir a los jóvenes. El género abarca una amplia gama de obras, incluidos clásicos reconocidos de la literatura mundial , libros ilustrados e historias fáciles de leer escritas exclusivamente para niños, y cuentos de hadas , canciones de cuna , fábulas , canciones populares y otros materiales transmitidos principalmente de forma oral o definidos más específicamente como ficción , no ficción , poesía o teatro destinados y utilizados por niños y jóvenes. [4] [5] : xvii Un escritor sobre literatura infantil la define como "todos los libros escritos para niños, excluyendo obras como cómics , libros de chistes, libros de dibujos animados y obras de no ficción que no están destinadas a leerse de principio a fin, como diccionarios, enciclopedias y otros materiales de referencia". [6] Sin embargo, otros argumentan que los cómics infantiles también deberían incluirse: "Los estudios de literatura infantil tradicionalmente han tratado los cómics de manera intermitente y superficial a pesar de la importancia de los cómics como un fenómeno global asociado con los niños". [7]
La International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature señala que "los límites del género... no son fijos sino difusos". [3] : 4 A veces, no se puede llegar a un acuerdo sobre si una obra determinada se clasifica mejor como literatura para adultos o para niños. Algunas obras desafían una fácil categorización. La serie Harry Potter de J.K. Rowling fue escrita y comercializada para niños, pero también es popular entre los adultos. La extrema popularidad de la serie llevó a The New York Times a crear una lista separada de los libros más vendidos para niños. [8]
A pesar de la asociación generalizada de la literatura infantil con los libros ilustrados, las narraciones habladas existían antes de la imprenta , y la raíz de muchos cuentos infantiles se remonta a los narradores antiguos. [9] : 30 Seth Lerer , en la introducción de Literatura infantil: una historia del lector desde Esopo hasta Harry Potter , dice: "Este libro presenta una historia de lo que los niños han escuchado y leído... La historia sobre la que escribo es una historia de recepción ". [10] : 2
La literatura infantil primitiva consistía en historias habladas, canciones y poemas, utilizados para educar, instruir y entretener a los niños. [11] Fue solo en el siglo XVIII, con el desarrollo del concepto de infancia , que comenzó a surgir un género separado de literatura infantil, con sus propias divisiones, expectativas y canon . [12] : x–xi Los primeros de estos libros eran libros educativos, libros sobre conducta y abecedarios simples, a menudo decorados con animales, plantas y letras antropomórficas. [13]
En 1962, el historiador francés Philippe Ariès argumenta en su libro Siglos de infancia que el concepto moderno de infancia sólo surgió en tiempos recientes. Explica que en el pasado los niños no eran considerados muy diferentes de los adultos y no recibían un trato significativamente diferente. [14] : 5 Como evidencia de esta posición, señala que, aparte de los textos instructivos y didácticos para niños escritos por clérigos como Beda el Venerable y Alfredo de Eynsham , había una falta de literatura genuina dirigida específicamente a los niños antes del siglo XVIII. [15] [16] : 11
Otros estudiosos han matizado este punto de vista señalando que existía una literatura diseñada para transmitir los valores, actitudes e información necesarios para los niños dentro de sus culturas, [17] como el Teatro de Daniel del siglo XII. [10] : 46 [18] : 4 La literatura infantil premoderna, por tanto, tendía a ser de naturaleza didáctica y moralista , con el propósito de transmitir lecciones relacionadas con la conducta , educativas y religiosas . [18] : 6–8
Durante el siglo XVII, el concepto de infancia comenzó a surgir en Europa. Los adultos veían a los niños como seres separados, inocentes y necesitados de protección y entrenamiento por parte de los adultos que los rodeaban. [14] : 6–7 [19] : 9 El filósofo inglés John Locke desarrolló su teoría de la tabula rasa en su Ensayo sobre el entendimiento humano de 1690. En la filosofía de Locke, la tabula rasa era la teoría de que la mente (humana) es al nacer una "pizarra en blanco" sin reglas para procesar datos, y que los datos se agregan y las reglas para el procesamiento se forman únicamente por las experiencias sensoriales de uno . Un corolario de esta doctrina era que la mente del niño nacía en blanco y que era deber de los padres imbuir al niño con nociones correctas. El propio Locke enfatizó la importancia de proporcionarles a los niños "libros fáciles y agradables" para desarrollar sus mentes en lugar de usar la fuerza para obligarlos: "Se puede engañar a los niños para que aprendan las letras; enseñarles a leer, sin percibir que es nada más que un deporte, y jugar a lo que a otros se les azota por hacer". También sugirió que se crearan libros ilustrados para niños.
En el siglo XIX, algunos títulos infantiles se hicieron famosos como textos de lectura en el aula. Entre ellos se encontraban las fábulas de Esopo y Jean de la Fontaine y los Cuentos de Mamá Oca de Charles Perrault de 1697. [20] La popularidad de estos textos llevó a la creación de una serie de cuentos de hadas y fantasía del siglo XIX para niños que presentaban objetos mágicos y animales parlantes. [20]
Otra influencia en este cambio de actitudes provino del puritanismo , que enfatizaba la importancia de la salvación individual. Los puritanos se preocupaban por el bienestar espiritual de sus hijos, y hubo un gran crecimiento en la publicación de "libros buenos y piadosos" dirigidos directamente a los niños. [11] Algunas de las obras más populares fueron de James Janeway , pero el libro más duradero de este movimiento, que todavía se lee hoy, especialmente en versiones modernizadas, es El progreso del peregrino (1678) de John Bunyan . [21]
Los chapbooks , panfletos de bolsillo que a menudo se doblaban en lugar de coserse, [9] : 32 se publicaron en Gran Bretaña; ilustrados con impresión en madera , estos folletos económicos reimprimían baladas populares , relatos históricos y cuentos populares. Aunque no se publicaron específicamente para niños en ese momento, los jóvenes también disfrutaban de los folletos. [19] : 8 Johanna Bradley dice, en From Chapbooks to Plum Cake , que los chapbooks evitaron que los lectores perdieran historias imaginativas bajo la estricta influencia puritana de la época. [16] : 17
Los hornbooks también aparecieron en Inglaterra durante esta época, enseñando a los niños información básica como el alfabeto y el Padrenuestro . [22] Estos fueron traídos de Inglaterra a las colonias americanas a mediados del siglo XVII.
El primer libro de este tipo fue un catecismo para niños, escrito en verso por el puritano John Cotton . Conocido como Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes , se publicó en 1646 y apareció tanto en Inglaterra como en Boston . Otro libro temprano, The New England Primer , se imprimió en 1691 y se utilizó en las escuelas durante 100 años. El manual comienza con "La oración matutina del niño o del infante" y la oración vespertina. Luego muestra el alfabeto, las vocales, las consonantes, las letras dobles y las sílabas antes de proporcionar una rima religiosa del alfabeto, comenzando con "En la caída de Adán todos pecamos...", y continúa con el alfabeto. [23] También contenía máximas religiosas, acrónimos , ayuda para la ortografía y otros elementos educativos, todos decorados con xilografías . [9] : 35
En 1634, el Pentamerone de Italia se convirtió en la primera gran colección publicada de cuentos populares europeos. Charles Perrault comenzó a registrar cuentos de hadas en Francia, publicando su primera colección en 1697. No fueron bien recibidos entre la sociedad literaria francesa, que los consideraba aptos solo para ancianos y niños. En 1658, John Amos Comenius en Bohemia publicó el informativo Orbis Pictus ilustrado , para niños menores de seis años que estaban aprendiendo a leer. Se considera el primer libro ilustrado producido específicamente para niños. [19] : 7
El primer libro infantil danés fue El espejo del niño de Niels Bredal en 1568, una adaptación de un libro de cortesía del sacerdote holandés Erasmo . Un bonito y espléndido espejo de doncella , una adaptación de un libro alemán para mujeres jóvenes, se convirtió en el primer libro infantil sueco tras su publicación en 1591. [3] : 700, 706 Suecia publicó fábulas y una revista infantil en 1766.
En Italia , Giovanni Francesco Straparola publicó Las graciosas noches de Straparola en la década de 1550. Considerado el primer libro de cuentos europeo que contenía cuentos de hadas, llegó a tener 75 historias separadas y fue escrito para un público adulto. [24] Giulio Cesare Croce también tomó prestado de algunas historias que disfrutaban los niños para sus libros. [25] : 757
Los primeros libros infantiles rusos , las cartillas , aparecieron a finales del siglo XVI. Un ejemplo temprano es ABC-Book , un libro del alfabeto publicado por Ivan Fyodorov en 1571. [3] : 765 El primer libro ilustrado publicado en Rusia, The Illustrated Primer de Karion Istomin , apareció en 1694. [3] : 765 El interés de Pedro el Grande en modernizar su país a través de la occidentalización ayudó a que la literatura infantil occidental dominara el campo durante el siglo XVIII. [3] : 765 Catalina la Grande escribió alegorías para niños y, durante su reinado, Nikolai Novikov inició la primera revista juvenil en Rusia. [3] : 765
El libro infantil moderno surgió a mediados del siglo XVIII en Inglaterra. [26] Una creciente clase media educada y la influencia de las teorías lockeanas sobre la inocencia infantil se combinaron para crear los inicios de la infancia como concepto. En un artículo para la Biblioteca Británica , el profesor MO Grenby escribe: "en la década de 1740, un grupo de editores de Londres comenzó a producir nuevos libros diseñados para instruir y deleitar a los lectores jóvenes. Thomas Boreman fue uno de ellos. Otra fue Mary Cooper , cuyo Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (1744) de dos volúmenes es la primera colección de canciones infantiles conocida . Pero el más célebre de estos pioneros es John Newbery , cuyo primer libro para el entretenimiento de los niños fue A Little Pretty Pocket-Book ". [27]
Considerado ampliamente como el primer libro infantil moderno, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book fue la primera publicación infantil destinada a brindar diversión a los niños, [28] que contenía una mezcla de rimas, historias ilustradas y juegos por placer. [29] Newbery creía que el juego era un mejor incentivo para el buen comportamiento de los niños que la disciplina física, [30] y el niño debía registrar su comportamiento a diario. El libro era de tamaño infantil con una cubierta de colores brillantes que atraía a los niños, algo nuevo en la industria editorial. Conocidos como libros de regalo, estos primeros libros se convirtieron en los precursores de los libros de juguete populares en el siglo XIX. [31] Newbery también era experto en la comercialización de este nuevo género. Según la revista The Lion and the Unicorn , "el genio de Newbery estuvo en desarrollar la categoría de producto relativamente nueva, los libros infantiles, a través de sus frecuentes anuncios... y su inteligente estrategia de introducir títulos y productos adicionales en el cuerpo de sus libros infantiles". [32] [33] El profesor Grenby escribe: "Newbery se ha hecho conocido como el 'padre de la literatura infantil' principalmente porque fue capaz de demostrar que publicar libros infantiles podía ser un éxito comercial". [27]
La mejora en la calidad de los libros para niños y la diversidad de temas que publicó ayudaron a convertir a Newbery en el principal productor de libros infantiles de su época. Publicó sus propios libros, así como los de autores como Samuel Johnson y Oliver Goldsmith ; [9] : 36 [34] este último puede haber escrito The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes , el libro más popular de Newbery.
Otro filósofo que influyó en el desarrollo de la literatura infantil fue Jean-Jacques Rousseau , quien sostuvo que se debía permitir que los niños se desarrollaran de manera natural y alegre. Su idea de apelar a los intereses naturales de los niños se afianzó entre los escritores para niños. [9] : 41 Ejemplos populares incluyen La historia de Sandford y Merton de Thomas Day , cuatro volúmenes que incorporan las teorías de Rousseau. Además, La educación práctica : la historia de Harry y Lucy (1780) de Maria y Richard Lovell Edgeworth instaba a los niños a aprender por sí mismos. [35]
Las ideas de Rousseau también tuvieron una gran influencia en Alemania, especialmente en el filantropismo alemán , un movimiento preocupado por reformar tanto la educación como la literatura para niños. Su fundador, Johann Bernhard Basedow , escribió Elementarwerk como un libro de texto popular para niños que incluía muchas ilustraciones de Daniel Chodowiecki . Otro seguidor, Joachim Heinrich Campe , creó una adaptación de Robinson Crusoe que tuvo más de 100 ediciones. Se convirtió en el escritor para niños "más destacado y moderno" de Alemania [3] : 736. Según Hans-Heino Ewers en The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature , "se puede argumentar que a partir de esta época, la historia de la literatura infantil europea se escribió en gran medida en Alemania". [3] : 737
Los hermanos Grimm preservaron y publicaron los cuentos tradicionales contados en Alemania . [25] : 184 Fueron tan populares en su país natal que la literatura infantil moderna y realista comenzó a ser menospreciada allí. Esta aversión por las historias no tradicionales continuó allí hasta principios del siglo siguiente. [3] : 739–740 Además de su colección de historias, los hermanos Grimm también contribuyeron a la literatura infantil a través de sus actividades académicas. Como profesores, tenían un interés académico en las historias, esforzándose por preservarlas y sus variaciones con precisión, registrando sus fuentes. [9] : 259
Un proyecto similar fue llevado a cabo por los eruditos noruegos Peter Christen Asbjørnsen y Jørgen Moe , quienes recopilaron cuentos de hadas noruegos y los publicaron como Cuentos populares noruegos , a menudo denominados Asbjørnsen y Moe . Al recopilar estas historias, preservaron el patrimonio literario de Noruega y ayudaron a crear el idioma escrito noruego. [9] : 260
El autor y poeta danés Hans Christian Andersen viajó por Europa y recopiló muchos cuentos de hadas conocidos y creó nuevas historias en el género de los cuentos de hadas. [36]
En Suiza , Johann David Wyss publicó La familia Robinson suiza en 1812, con el objetivo de enseñar a los niños los valores familiares, la buena crianza de los hijos, los usos del mundo natural y la autosuficiencia. El libro se hizo popular en toda Europa después de que Isabelle de Montolieu lo tradujera al francés .
El cuento de ETA Hoffmann " El cascanueces y el rey de los ratones " se publicó en 1816 en una colección alemana de cuentos para niños, Kinder-Märchen . [37] Es el primer cuento moderno que introduce elementos extraños, raros y grotescos en la literatura infantil y, por lo tanto, anticipa el cuento de Lewis Carroll, Las aventuras de Alicia en el país de las maravillas . [38] No solo hay paralelismos en cuanto al contenido (las extrañas aventuras de una niña en una tierra de fantasía), sino también en el origen de los cuentos, ya que ambos están dedicados y entregados a una hija de los amigos del autor.
El cambio hacia un género moderno de literatura infantil se produjo a mediados del siglo XIX; el didactismo de una época anterior comenzó a dar paso a libros más humorísticos, orientados a los niños y más en sintonía con la imaginación del niño. La disponibilidad de literatura infantil también aumentó considerablemente, ya que el papel y la impresión se volvieron ampliamente disponibles y asequibles, la población creció y las tasas de alfabetización mejoraron. [3] : 654–655
Tom Brown's School Days de Thomas Hughes apareció en 1857 y se considera el libro fundador de la tradición de los cuentos escolares . [39] : 7–8 Sin embargo, fuela fantasía de Lewis Carroll , Alicia en el país de las maravillas , publicada en 1865 en Inglaterra, la que marcó el cambio en el estilo de escritura para niños a uno imaginativo y empático. Considerada como la primera "obra maestra inglesa escrita para niños" [9] : 44 y como un libro fundador en el desarrollo de la literatura fantástica, su publicación abrió la "Primera Edad de Oro" de la literatura infantil en Gran Bretaña y Europa que continuó hasta principios del siglo XX. El absurdo de cuento de hadas de Wonderland tiene una base histórica sólida como sátira de los graves problemas de la era victoriana. Lewis Carroll es irónico sobre la vida recatada y totalmente regulada del siglo victoriano "dorado". [39] : 18 Otra publicación notable fueel libro de Mark Twain Tom Sawyer (1876), que fue uno de los primeros "libros para niños", destinado a los niños pero disfrutado tanto por niños como por adultos. Estos fueron clasificados como tales por los temas que contenían, que consistían en lucha y trabajo. [40] Otro libro importante de esa década fue The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby , del reverendo Charles Kingsley (1862), que se volvió extremadamente popular y sigue siendo un clásico de la literatura infantil británica.
En 1883, Carlo Collodi escribió la primera novela de fantasía italiana, Las aventuras de Pinocho , que fue traducida muchas veces. En ese mismo año, Emilio Salgari , el hombre que se convertiría en "el escritor de aventuras por excelencia para los jóvenes en Italia" [41] publicó por primera vez su legendario personaje Sandokán . En Gran Bretaña, La princesa y el duende y su secuela La princesa y Curdie , de George MacDonald , aparecieron en 1872 y 1883, y las historias de aventuras La isla del tesoro y Secuestrado , ambas de Robert Louis Stevenson , fueron extremadamente populares en la década de 1880. El libro de la selva de Rudyard Kipling se publicó por primera vez en 1894, y J. M. Barrie contó la historia de Peter Pan en la novela Peter y Wendy en 1911. La novela en dos partes de Johanna Spyri, Heidi, se publicó en Suiza en 1880 y 1881. [3] : 749
En los Estados Unidos, la publicación de libros para niños entró en un período de crecimiento después de la Guerra Civil estadounidense en 1865. El escritor de libros para niños Oliver Optic publicó más de 100 libros. En 1868, se publicó la "trascendental" [9] : 45 Mujercitas , la autobiografía novelada de Louisa May Alcott . Esta historia de " llegada a la edad adulta " estableció el género de los libros familiares realistas en los Estados Unidos. Mark Twain publicó Tom Sawyer en 1876. En 1880 apareció otro éxito de ventas, El tío Remus: sus canciones y sus dichos , una colección de cuentos populares afroamericanos adaptados y compilados por Joel Chandler Harris . [3] : 478
A finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX, una plétora de novelas infantiles comenzaron a presentar tramas realistas y no mágicas. Algunos títulos obtuvieron éxito internacional, como La isla del tesoro (1883) de Robert Louis Stevenson, Ana de las tejas verdes (1908) de LM Montgomery y Mujercitas (1869) de Louisa May Alcott. [20]
La literatura para niños se había desarrollado como una categoría separada de literatura, especialmente en la era victoriana , con algunas obras que se hicieron conocidas internacionalmente, como Alicia en el país de las maravillas (1865) de Lewis Carroll y su secuela A través del espejo . Otro clásico de la época es la novela de animales Belleza negra (1877) de Anna Sewell . Al final de la era victoriana y antes de la era eduardiana, la autora e ilustradora Beatrix Potter publicó El cuento de Peter Rabbit en 1902. Potter llegó a producir 23 libros infantiles y se hizo muy rica. Pionera de la comercialización de personajes, en 1903 patentó un muñeco de Peter Rabbit , convirtiendo a Peter en el primer personaje con licencia . [42] [43] Michael O. Tunnell y James S. Jacobs, profesores de literatura infantil en la Universidad Brigham Young, escriben: "Potter fue la primera en usar imágenes y palabras para contar la historia, incorporando ilustraciones en color con texto, página por página". [44]
Rudyard Kipling publicó El libro de la selva en 1894. Un tema principal en el libro es el abandono seguido de la adopción, como en la vida de Mowgli , haciendo eco de la propia infancia de Kipling. En los últimos años del siglo XIX, los precursores del libro ilustrado moderno fueron los libros ilustrados de poemas y cuentos cortos producidos por los ilustradores ingleses Randolph Caldecott , Walter Crane y Kate Greenaway . Estos tenían una mayor proporción de imágenes por palabras que los libros anteriores, y muchas de sus imágenes eran en color. Algunos artistas británicos se ganaron la vida ilustrando novelas y libros infantiles, entre ellos Arthur Rackham , Cicely Mary Barker , W. Heath Robinson , Henry J. Ford , John Leech y George Cruikshank . En la década de 1890, algunos de los cuentos de hadas más conocidos de Inglaterra fueron recopilados en los Cuentos de hadas ingleses de Joseph Jacobs , entre ellos Jack y las habichuelas mágicas , Ricitos de oro y los tres osos , Los tres cerditos , Jack el asesino de gigantes y Pulgarcito . [45]
La Escuela Kailyard de escritores escoceses, en particular J. M. Barrie , creador de Peter Pan (1904), presentó una versión idealizada de la sociedad y volvió a poner de moda la fantasía y el folclore. En 1908, Kenneth Grahame escribió el clásico infantil El viento en los sauces y se publicó el primer libro del fundador de los Scouts , Robert Baden-Powell , Escultismo para muchachos . La inspiración para la novela de Frances Hodgson Burnett El jardín secreto (1910) fue el jardín de Great Maytham Hall en Kent. Mientras luchaba en las trincheras del ejército británico en la Primera Guerra Mundial, Hugh Lofting creó el personaje del Doctor Dolittle , que aparece en una serie de doce libros .
La Edad de Oro de la literatura infantil terminó con la Primera Guerra Mundial . El período anterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial fue mucho más lento en cuanto a publicaciones infantiles. Las principales excepciones en Inglaterra fueron las publicaciones de Winnie-the-Pooh de AA Milne en 1926, el primer libro de Mary Poppins de PL Travers en 1934, El hobbit de JRR Tolkien en 1937 y la obra artúrica La espada en la piedra de TH White en 1938. [46] Los libros de bolsillo para niños se lanzaron por primera vez en Inglaterra en 1940 bajo el sello Puffin Books , y sus precios más bajos ayudaron a que los niños pudieran comprar libros durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. [47] Los libros de Enid Blyton han estado entre los más vendidos del mundo desde la década de 1930, vendiendo más de 600 millones de copias. Los libros de Blyton siguen siendo enormemente populares y se han traducido a casi 90 idiomas. Escribió sobre una amplia gama de temas, incluyendo educación, historia natural, fantasía, misterio y narraciones bíblicas y es mejor recordada hoy en día por su Noddy , Los cinco famosos , Los siete secretos y La serie de aventuras . [48] La primera de estas historias para niños, Cinco en la isla del tesoro , se publicó en 1942.
En la década de 1950, el mercado del libro en Europa comenzó a recuperarse de los efectos de las dos guerras mundiales. Un grupo informal de discusión literaria asociado con la facultad de inglés en la Universidad de Oxford, fueron los "Inklings", con los principales novelistas de fantasía C. S. Lewis y J. R. R. Tolkien como sus miembros principales. C. S. Lewis publicó la primera entrega de la serie Las crónicas de Narnia en 1950, mientras que Tolkien es más conocido, además de El hobbit , como el autor de El señor de los anillos (1954). Otro escritor de historias de fantasía es Alan Garner, autor de Elidor (1965) y The Owl Service (1967). Este último es una adaptación del mito de Blodeuwedd de Mabinogion , ambientado en el Gales moderno ; le valió a Garner la Medalla Carnegie anual de la Asociación de Bibliotecarios , que reconoce el mejor libro infantil del año escrito por un autor británico. [49]
Mary Norton escribió The Borrowers (1952), en la que aparecen personas diminutas que toman prestado de los humanos. The Hundred and One Dalmatians (Los cien y un dálmatas) de Dodie Smith se publicó en 1956. Tom's Midnight Garden (El jardín de medianoche de Tom ) de Philippa Pearce (1958) muestra a Tom abriendo la puerta del jardín por la noche y entrando en una era diferente. La novela de William Golding de 1954 , El señor de las moscas, se centra en un grupo de niños británicos varados en una isla deshabitada y su desastroso intento de gobernarse a sí mismos.
.jpg/1280px-MCM_2013_-_Willy_Wonka_&_Mad_Hatter_(8978291669).jpg)
Roald Dahl escribió novelas de fantasía para niños que a menudo se inspiraban en experiencias de su infancia, con finales a menudo inesperados y un humor negro y poco sentimental. [50] Dahl se inspiró para escribir Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate (1964), protagonizada por el excéntrico chocolatero Willy Wonka , habiendo crecido cerca de dos fabricantes de chocolate en Inglaterra que a menudo intentaban robar secretos comerciales enviando espías a la fábrica del otro. [51] Sus otras obras incluyen James y el melocotón gigante (1961), El fantástico señor Fox (1970), El gran gigante gigante (1982), Las brujas (1983) y Matilda (1988). A partir de 1958, Michael Bond publicó más de veinte historias humorísticas sobre el oso Paddington . [52]
Los internados en la literatura se centran en la vida escolar de los preadolescentes y adolescentes mayores, y suelen estar ambientados en internados ingleses. Entre las historias escolares populares de este período se incluyen el cómic St Trinian's (1949-1953) de Ronald Searle y sus ilustraciones para la serie Molesworth de Geoffrey Willans , The Worst Witch de Jill Murphy y la serie Jennings de Anthony Buckeridge .
La primera colección de Ruth Manning-Sanders , A Book of Giants , vuelve a contar una serie de historias de gigantes de todo el mundo. The Dark Is Rising de Susan Cooper es una saga de fantasía de cinco volúmenes ambientada en Inglaterra y Gales. El libro ilustrado para niños de Raymond Briggs, The Snowman (1978), ha sido adaptado como animación y se muestra cada Navidad en la televisión británica. The Reverend. The Railway Series de W. Awdry y su hijo Christopher presenta a Thomas the Tank Engine . La serie The Rescuers de Margery Sharp se basa en una heroica organización de ratones. El tercer laureado infantil Michael Morpurgo publicó War Horse en 1982. Las novelas de Dick King-Smith incluyen The Sheep-Pig (1984). Diana Wynne Jones escribió la novela de fantasía para adultos jóvenes Howl's Moving Castle en 1986. Madame Doubtfire (1987) de Anne Fine se basa en una familia con padres divorciados. La serie Alex Rider de Anthony Horowitz comienza con Stormbreaker (2000).
La materia oscura de Philip Pullman es una trilogía épica de novelas de fantasía que consta de Luces del norte (1995, publicada como La brújula dorada en Norteamérica), La daga (1997) y El catalejo ambarino (2000). La trilogía narra la llegada a la edad adulta de dos niños, Lyra Belacqua y Will Parry, mientras deambulan por una serie de universos paralelos. Las tres novelas han ganado varios premios, en particular el premio Whitbread Book of the Year 2001, ganado por El catalejo ambarino . Luces del norte ganó la Medalla Carnegie de ficción infantil en 1995. [53]
Neil Gaiman escribió la novela de fantasía oscura Coraline (2002). Su novela de fantasía de 2008, The Graveyard Book , narra la historia de un niño que es criado por los ocupantes sobrenaturales de un cementerio. En 2001, Terry Pratchett recibió la Medalla Carnegie (su primer premio importante) por El asombroso Maurice y sus educados roedores . [54] La serie Cómo entrenar a tu dragón de Cressida Cowell se publicó entre 2003 y 2015. [55]
La serie de siete novelas de fantasía de Harry Potter de J. K. Rowling narra las aventuras del mago adolescente Harry Potter . La serie comenzó con Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal en 1997 y terminó con el séptimo y último libro Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte en 2007; convirtiéndose en la serie de libros más vendida de la historia . La serie ha sido traducida a 67 idiomas, [56] [57] colocando así a Rowling entre los autores más traducidos de la historia. [58]
Aunque Daniel Defoe escribió Robinson Crusoe en 1719 (lo que generó tantas imitaciones que definió un género, la Robinsonada ), las historias de aventuras escritas específicamente para niños comenzaron en el siglo XIX. Los primeros ejemplos de autores británicos incluyen Los niños del bosque nuevo (1847) de Frederick Marryat y El campesino y el príncipe (1856) de Harriet Martineau . [59]
La era victoriana vio el desarrollo del género, con WHG Kingston , RM Ballantyne y GA Henty especializándose en la producción de ficción de aventuras para niños. [60] Esto inspiró a escritores que normalmente se dirigían al público adulto a escribir para niños, un ejemplo notable es la clásica historia de piratas de Robert Louis Stevenson, La isla del tesoro (1883). [60]
En los años posteriores a la Primera Guerra Mundial, escritores como Arthur Ransome desarrollaron el género de aventuras ambientando la aventura en Gran Bretaña en lugar de países lejanos. En la década de 1930 comenzó a publicar su serie Swallows and Amazons de libros infantiles sobre las aventuras de los niños en las vacaciones escolares, principalmente en el Distrito de los Lagos de Inglaterra y los Norfolk Broads . Muchos de ellos involucran navegación; la pesca y el campamento son otros temas comunes. [61] Biggles fue una popular serie de libros de aventuras para niños pequeños, sobre James Bigglesworth, un piloto y aventurero ficticio , de WE Johns . Entre 1941 y 1961 hubo 60 números con historias sobre Biggles, [62] y en la década de 1960, entre los colaboradores ocasionales se encontraba el astrónomo de la BBC Patrick Moore . Entre 1940 y 1947, WE Johns contribuyó con sesenta historias protagonizadas por la piloto Worrals . [63] Evocando temas épicos, la novela de supervivencia y aventuras de Richard Adams de 1972 , Watership Down, sigue a un pequeño grupo de conejos que escapan de la destrucción de su madriguera y buscan establecer un nuevo hogar.
Geoffrey Trease y Rosemary Sutcliff aportaron una nueva sofisticación a la novela de aventuras históricas. [64] [60] Philip Pullman en las novelas de Sally Lockhart y Julia Golding en la serie Cat Royal han continuado la tradición de la aventura histórica. [60]
Un aspecto importante de la literatura infantil británica han sido los cómics y revistas . Entre los cómics más populares y de mayor duración se encuentran The Beano y The Dandy , ambos publicados por primera vez en la década de 1930. [65] [66] Los cómics británicos del siglo XX evolucionaron a partir de los penny dreadfuls ilustrados de la era victoriana (con Sweeney Todd , Dick Turpin y Varney el vampiro ). [67] Publicados por primera vez en la década de 1830, según The Guardian , los penny dreadfuls fueron "la primera muestra de cultura popular producida en masa para los jóvenes en Gran Bretaña". [68] Robin Hood apareció en una serie de penny dreadfuls en 1838, lo que provocó el comienzo de la circulación masiva de historias de Robin. [69]
Dennis the Menace debutó en The Beano en 1951, mientras que los populares personajes de stop-motion, Wallace y Gromit , aparecieron como estrellas invitadas en el cómic cada cuatro semanas a partir de 2013. [70] Las primeras revistas o periódicos de cuentos importantes para niños mayores fueron Boy's Own Paper , publicado de 1879 a 1967 [71] y The Girl's Own Paper, publicado de 1880 a 1956. [72] En la década de 1890, las publicaciones de medio penique sucedieron a los penny dreadfuls en popularidad entre los niños británicos. Estas incluían The Half-penny Marvel y Union Jack . A partir de 1896, la portada del cómic de medio penique Illustrated Chips presentaba la tira cómica de larga duración de los vagabundos Weary Willie y Tired Tim, con sus lectores incluyendo a un joven Charlie Chaplin . [73]
Otros periódicos de cuentos para niños mayores fueron The Hotspur (1933 a 1959) y The Rover , que comenzó en 1922 y fue absorbido por Adventure en 1961 y The Wizard en 1963, y finalmente cerró en 1973. [74] Muchos autores destacados contribuyeron al Boy's Own Paper : el jugador de críquet W.G. Grace escribió para varios números, junto con los autores Sir Arthur Conan Doyle y RM Ballantyne , así como Robert Baden-Powell , fundador del Movimiento Scout . Entre los colaboradores de The Girl's Own Paper se encuentran Noel Streatfeild , Rosa Nouchette Carey , Sarah Doudney (1841-1926), Angela Brazil , Richmal Crompton , Fanny Fern y la baronesa Orczy .
The Eagle fue un popular cómic británico para niños, lanzado en 1950 por Marcus Morris , un vicario anglicano de Lancashire. Revolucionario en su presentación y contenido, tuvo un enorme éxito; el primer número vendió alrededor de 900.000 copias. [75] [76] Destacada en color en la portada estaba su historia más reconocible, " Dan Dare , piloto del futuro", creada con meticulosa atención al detalle. [77] [78] [79] Se publicó por primera vez de 1950 a 1969, y se relanzó de 1982 a 1994. [80] Su cómic hermano fue Girl , cuyos primeros números a partir de 1951 presentaron la tira "Kitty Hawke y su tripulación aérea femenina". Roy of the Rovers , una tira cómica inmensamente popular protagonizada por Roy Race, un delantero del equipo de fútbol ficticio Melchester Rovers, apareció por primera vez en el Tiger en 1954. [81] Publicada por primera vez por Martin Handford en 1987, más de 73 millones de libros de pasatiempos con imágenes de ¿Dónde está Wally? se habían vendido en todo el mundo en 2007. [82]
Children's literature has been a part of American culture since Europeans first settled in America. The earliest books were used as tools to instill self-control in children and preach a life of morality in Puritan society. Eighteenth-century American youth began to shift away from the social upbringing of its European counterpart, bringing about a change in children's literature. It was in this time that A Little Book for Little Children was written by T. W. in 1712. It includes what is thought to be the earliest nursery rhyme and one of the earliest examples of a textbook approaching education from the child's point of view, rather than the adult's.[83]
Children's magazines in the United States began with the Young Misses' Magazine (1806) of Brooklyn, New York.[84]
One of the most famous books of American children's literature is L. Frank Baum's fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900. "By combining the English fondness for word play with the American appetite for outdoor adventure", Connie Epstein in International Companion Encyclopedia Of Children's Literature says Baum "developed an original style and form that stands alone".[3]: 479 Baum wrote fourteen more Oz novels, and other writers continued the Oz series into the twenty-first century.
Demand continued to grow in North America between World War I and World War II, helped by the growth of libraries in both Canada and the United States. Children's reading rooms in libraries, staffed by specially trained librarians, helped create demand for classic juvenile books. Reviews of children's releases began appearing regularly in Publishers Weekly and in The Bookman magazine began to publish regular reviews of children's releases. The first Children's Book Week was launched in 1919. In that same year, Louise Seaman Bechtel became the first person to head a juvenile book publishing department in the country. She was followed by May Massee in 1922, and Alice Dalgliesh in 1934.[3]: 479–480 During this period, Black authors began writing and publishing books for African American children. Writers like Helen Adele Whiting (1885–1959) and Jane Dabney Shackelford (1895–1979) produced books designed to instill pride in Black history and culture.[85]
The American Library Association began awarding the Newbery Medal, the first children's book award, in 1922.[86] The Caldecott Medal for illustration followed in 1938.[87] The first book by Laura Ingalls Wilder about her life on the American frontier, Little House in the Big Woods appeared in 1932.[25]: 471 In 1937 Dr. Seuss published his first book, entitled, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. The young adult book market developed during this period, thanks to sports books by popular writer John R. Tunis', the novel Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly, and the Sue Barton nurse book series by Helen Dore Boylston.[88]: 11
The already vigorous growth in children's books became a boom in the 1950s, and children's publishing became big business.[3]: 481 In 1952, American journalist E. B. White published Charlotte's Web, which was described as "one of the very few books for young children that face, squarely, the subject of death".[25]: 467 Maurice Sendak illustrated more than two dozen books during the decade, which established him as an innovator in book illustration.[3]: 481 The Sputnik crisis that began in 1957, provided increased interest and government money for schools and libraries to buy science and math books and the non-fiction book market "seemed to materialize overnight".[3]: 482
The 1960s saw an age of new realism in children's books emerge. Given the atmosphere of social revolution in 1960s America, authors and illustrators began to break previously established taboos in children's literature. Controversial subjects dealing with alcoholism, death, divorce, and child abuse were now being published in stories for children. Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are in 1963 and Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy in 1964 are often considered the first stories published in this new age of realism.[44]
Esther Forbes in Johnny Tremain (1943) and Mildred D. Taylor in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976) continued the tradition of the historical adventure in an American setting.[60] The modern children's adventure novel sometimes deals with controversial issues like terrorism, as in Robert Cormier's After the First Death in 1979, and warfare in the Third World, as in Peter Dickinson's AK in 1990.[60]
In books for a younger age group, Bill Martin and John Archambault's Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) presented a new spin on the alphabet book. Laura Numeroff published If You Give a Mouse a Cookie in 1985 and went on to create a series of similarly named books that is still popular for children and adults to read together.
Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968) was set in a fictionalized version of medieval Britain.
Johann David Wyss wrote the adventure novel The Swiss Family Robinson (1812). The period from 1890 until World War I is considered the Golden Age of Children's Literature in Scandinavia. Erik Werenskiold, Theodor Kittelsen, and Dikken Zwilgmeyer were especially popular, writing folk and fairy tales as well as realistic fiction. The 1859 translation into English by George Webbe Dasent helped increase the stories' influence.[89] One of the most influential and internationally most successful Scandinavian children's books from this period is Selma Lagerlöfs The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. Astrid Lindgren (Pippi Longstocking) and Jostein Gaarder (Sophie's World) are two of the best-known Scandinavian writers internationally. In Finland, some of the most significant children's book writers include Tove Jansson (Moomins), Oiva Paloheimo (Tirlittan) and Elina Karjalainen (Uppo-Nalle).
The interwar period saw a slow-down in output similar to Britain's, although "one of the first mysteries written specifically for children", Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner, was published in Germany in 1930.[90] German writers Michael Ende (The Neverending Story) and Cornelia Funke (Inkheart) achieved international success with their fantasy books.
The period during and following World War II became the Classic Age of the picture book in Switzerland, with works by Alois Carigiet, Felix Hoffmann, and Hans Fischer.[91] Nineteen sixty-three was the first year of the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy, which was described as "the most important international event dedicated to the children's publishing".[92] For four days it brings together writers, illustrators, publishers, and book buyers from around the world.[92]
Russian folktales were collected by Aleksandr Afanasyev in his three-volume Narodnye russkie skazki, and a selection of these were published in Русские детские сказки (Russian Children's Fairy Tales) in 1871. By the 1860s, literary realism and non-fiction dominated children's literature. More schools were started, using books by writers like Konstantin Ushinsky and Leo Tolstoy, whose Russian Reader included an assortment of stories, fairy tales, and fables. Books written specifically for girls developed in the 1870s and 1880s. Publisher and journalist Evgenia Tur wrote about the daughters of well-to-do landowners, while Alexandra Nikitichna Annenskaya's stories told of middle-class girls working to support themselves. Vera Zhelikhovsky, Elizaveta Kondrashova, and Nadezhda Lukhmanova also wrote for girls during this period.[3]: 767
Children's non-fiction gained great importance in Russia at the beginning of the century. A ten-volume children's encyclopedia was published between 1913 and 1914. Vasily Avenarius wrote fictionalized biographies of important people like Nikolai Gogol and Alexander Pushkin around the same time, and scientists wrote for books and magazines for children. Children's magazines flourished, and by the end of the century there were 61. Lidia Charskaya and Klavdiya Lukashevich continued the popularity of girls' fiction. Realism took a gloomy turn by frequently showing the maltreatment of children from lower classes. The most popular boys' material was Sherlock Holmes, and similar stories from detective magazines.[3]: 768
The state took control of children's literature during the October Revolution. Maksim Gorky edited the first children's Northern Lights under Soviet rule. People often label the 1920s as the Golden Age of Children's Literature in Russia.[3]: 769 Samuil Marshak led that literary decade as the "founder of (Soviet) children's literature".[93]: 193 As head of the children's section of the State Publishing House and editor of several children's magazines, Marshak exercised enormous influence by[93]: 192–193 recruiting Boris Pasternak and Osip Mandelstam to write for children.
In 1932, professional writers in the Soviet Union formed the USSR Union of Writers, which served as the writer's organization of the Communist Party. With a children's branch, the official oversight of the professional organization brought children's writers under the control of the state and the police. Communist principles like collectivism and solidarity became important themes in children's literature. Authors wrote biographies about revolutionaries like Lenin and Pavlik Morozov. Alexander Belyayev, who wrote in the 1920s and 1930s, became Russia's first science fiction writer.[3]: 770 According to Ben Hellman in the International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, "war was to occupy a prominent place in juvenile reading, partly compensating for the lack of adventure stories", during the Soviet Period.[3]: 771 More political changes in Russia after World War II brought further change in children's literature. Today, the field is in a state of flux because some older authors are being rediscovered and others are being abandoned.[3]: 772
The 1911 Revolution and World War II brought political and social change that revolutionized children's literature in China. Western science, technology, and literature became fashionable. China's first modern publishing firm, Commercial Press, established several children's magazines, which included Youth Magazine, and Educational Pictures for Children.[3]: 832–833 The first Chinese children's writer was Sun Yuxiu, an editor of Commercial Press, whose story The Kingdom Without a Cat was written in the language of the time instead of the classical style used previously. Yuxiu encouraged novelist Shen Dehong to write for children as well. Dehong went on to rewrite 28 stories based on classical Chinese literature specifically for children. In 1932, Zhang Tianyi published Big Lin and Little Lin, the first full-length Chinese novel for children.[3]: 833–834
The Chinese Communist Revolution changed children's literature again. Many children's writers were denounced, but Tianyi and Ye Shengtao continued to write for children and created works that were aligned with Maoist ideology. The 1976 death of Mao Zedong provoked more changes that swept China. The work of many writers from the early part of the century became available again. In 1990 came General Anthology of Modern Children's Literature of China, a fifteen-volume anthology of children's literature since the 1920s.[3]: 834–835
In Brazil, Monteiro Lobato[94] wrote a series of 23 books for children known as Sítio do Picapau Amarelo (The Yellow Woodpecker Ranch), between 1920 and 1940. The series is considered representative of Brazilian children's literature and the Brazilian equivalent to children's classics such as C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series.[according to whom?] The concept was introduced in Monteiro Lobato's 1920 short story "A Menina do Narizinho Arrebitado", and was later republished as the first chapter of "Reinações de Narizinho", which is the first novel of the series.[citation needed] The main setting is the "Sítio do Picapau Amarelo", where a boy (Pedrinho), a girl (Narizinho) and their living and thinking anthropomorphic toys enjoy exploring adventures in fantasy, discovery and learning. On several occasions, they leave the ranch to explore other worlds such as Neverland, the mythological Ancient Greece, an underwater world known as "Reino das Águas Claras" (Clear Waters Kingdom), and even the outer space. The "Sítio" is often symbolized by the character of Emília, Lobato's most famous creation.[citation needed]
Christian missionaries first established the Calcutta School-Book Society in the 19th century, creating a separate genre for children's literature in the country. Magazines and books for children in native languages soon appeared.[3]: 808 In the latter half of the century, Raja Shivprasad wrote several well-known books in Hindustani.[3]: 810 A number of respected Bengali writers began producing Bengali literature for children, including Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who translated some stories and wrote others himself. Nobel Prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore wrote plays, stories, and poems for children, including one work illustrated by painter Nandalal Bose. They worked from the end of the nineteenth century into the beginning of the twentieth. Tagore's work was later translated into English, with Bose's pictures.[3]: 811 Behari Lal Puri was the earliest writer for children in Punjabi. His stories were didactic in nature.[3]: 815
The first full-length children's book was Khar Khar Mahadev by Narain Dixit, which was serialized in one of the popular children's magazines in 1957. Other writers include Premchand, and poet Sohan Lal Dwivedi.[3]: 811 In 1919, Sukumar Ray wrote and illustrated nonsense rhymes in the Bengali language, and children's writer and artist Abanindranath Tagore finished Barngtarbratn. Bengali children's literature flourished in the later part of the twentieth century. Educator Gijubhai Badheka published over 200 books in the Children's literature in Gujarati language, and many are still popular.[3]: 812 Other popular Gujarati children's authors were Ramanlal Soni and Jivram Joshi. In 1957, political cartoonist K. Shankar Pillai founded the Children's Book Trust publishing company. The firm became known for high quality children's books, and many of them were released in several languages. One of the most distinguished writers is Pandit Krushna Chandra Kar in Oriya literature, who wrote many good books for children, including Pari Raija, Kuhuka Raija, Panchatantra, and Adi Jugara Galpa Mala. He wrote biographies of many historical personalities, such as Kapila Deva. In 1978, the firm organized a writers' competition to encourage quality children's writing. The following year, the Children's Book Trust began a writing workshop and organized the First International Children's Book Fair in New Delhi.[3]: 809 Children's magazines, available in many languages, were widespread throughout India during this century.[3]: 811–820 Ruskin Bond is also a famous Anglo-Indian writer for children.
One of the pioneering children's writer in Persian was Mehdi Azar-Yazdi.[95] His award-winning work, Good Stories for Good Children, is a collection of stories derived from the stories in Classical Persian literature re-written for children.[96]
Originally, for centuries, stories were told by Africans in their native languages, many being told during social gatherings. Stories varied between mythic narratives dealing with creation and basic proverbs showcasing human wisdom. These narratives were passed down from generation to generation orally.[97] Since its independence in 1960, Nigeria has witnessed a rise in the production of children's literature by its people,[98] the past three decades contributing the most to the genre. Most children's books depict the African culture and lifestyle, and trace their roots to traditional folktales, riddles, and proverbs. Authors who have produced such works include Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Amos Tutuola, Flora Nwapa, and Buchi Emecheta. Publishing companies also aided in the development of children's literature.
Children's literature can be divided into categories, either according to genre or the intended age of the reader.
A literary genre is a category of literary compositions. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content, or length. According to Anderson,[99] there are six categories of children's literature (with some significant subgenres):
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 simple language, use large print, and have many illustrations. Books for older children use increasingly complex language, normal print, and fewer (if any) illustrations. The categories with an age range are these:
Pictures have always accompanied children's stories.[10]: 320 A papyrus from Byzantine Egypt, shows illustrations accompanied by the story of Hercules' labors.[100] Modern children's books are illustrated in a way that is rarely seen in adult literature, except in graphic novels. Generally, artwork plays a greater role in books intended for younger readers (especially pre-literate children). Children's picture books often serve as 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 (like their elders) 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 a good illustrated book is one where the pictures enhance or add depth to the text."[3]: 221 Using this definition, the first illustrated children's book is considered to be Orbis Pictus which was published in 1658 by the Moravian author Comenius. Acting as a kind of encyclopedia, Orbis Pictus had a picture on every page, followed by the name of the object in Latin and German. It was translated into English in 1659 and was used in homes and schools around Europe and Great Britain for many years.[3]: 220
Early children's books, such as 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 for the story.[10]: 322 Newer processes, including copper and steel engraving were first used in the 1830s. One of the first uses of Chromolithography (a way of making multi-colored prints) in a children's book was demonstrated in Struwwelpeter, published in Germany in 1845. English illustrator Walter Crane refined its use in children's books in the late 19th century.
Another method of creating illustrations for children's books was etching, used by George Cruikshank in the 1850s. By the 1860s, top artists 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 children.[3]: 224–226 The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators credits Caldecott with "The concept of extending the meaning of text beyond literal visualization".[25]: 350
Twentieth-century artists such as Kay Nielson, Edmund Dulac, and Arthur Rackham produced illustrations that are still reprinted today.[3]: 224–227 Developments in printing capabilities were reflected in children's books. After World War II, offset lithography became more refined, and painter-style illustrations, such as Brian Wildsmith's were common by the 1950s.[3]: 233
Illustrators of Children's Books, 1744–1945 (Horn Book, 1947), an extensively detailed four volume work by Louise Payson Latimer, Bertha E. Mahony and Beulah Folmsbee, catalogs illustrators of children's books over two centuries.
Professional organizations, dedicated publications, individual researchers and university courses conduct scholarship on children's literature. Scholarship in children's literature is primarily conducted in three different disciplinary fields: literary studies/cultural studies (literature and language departments and humanities), library and information science, and education. (Wolf, et al., 2011).
Typically, children's literature scholars from literature departments in universities (English, German, Spanish, etc. departments), cultural studies, or in the humanities conduct literary analysis of books. This literary criticism may focus on an author, a thematic or topical concern, genre, period, or literary device and may address issues from a variety of critical stances (poststructural, postcolonial, New Criticism, psychoanalytic, new historicism, etc.). Results of this type of research are typically published as books or as articles in scholarly journals.
The field of Library and Information Science has a long history of conducting research related to children's literature.
Most educational researchers studying children's literature explore issues related to the use of children's literature in classroom settings. They may also study topics such as home use, children's out-of-school reading, or parents' use of children's books. Teachers typically use children's literature to augment classroom instruction.
Translation of children's literature can emerge in various forms and necessitates to have a comprehension of the children's inner worlds and developmental factors. Hollindale in 1997 takes the attention on the experimental, dynamic, imaginative, interactive, and unstable nature of childness. Considering that the translation is carried out for children consequently requires to the necessities of the youngest readers and thus, the target text can be expected to involve considering effective content, creativity, the simplest of expression, and linguistic playfulness.[101]
Beyond age considerations, in the translation of children's literature, the translators are supposed to comprehend the changing status and essence of youth cultures. This arises from the phenomena that works translated for children can be fictions fundamentally produced both for adults and children, consisting of genres such as romances, fables, and fairytales. Besides, adults might be present in literary works for children as the disguise of a didactic narrator or ironic asides. This can have the power to change the implicit adult-child relationship in the source text. The visuals play an important role in children's literature for younger audience and these visuals might consist of comics, graphic novels, and picture books. Therefore, the translators are required to have an understanding of typography, visual coding and stylization.[101]
Accordingly, comprehending the multi-medial nature of children's literature and grasping how to compose text and images for promoting active child readers are fundamental for translators to produce effective target texts. Scholars such as Oittinen suggests that translators of children's literature would benefit from having a specialized training in arts along with translation studies. Puurtinen and Kreller highlights other aspects such as of sound, narrative structure, syntactic alterations, and textual elements like repetition and rhyme and they suggest these components possess crucial roles in translating children's literature. It can be said that these suggestions are being further on through critical developments such as edited volumes, reviews, and collections in the field opening the path for future research directions.[101]
The US reported revenue of US$4.7 billion from children's books in 2020, followed by Germany (US$2 billion), the UK (US$508 million), Spain (US$427 million) and France (US$406 million).[102]
Controversies often emerge around the content and characters of prominent children's books.[103][104] Well-known classics that remain popular throughout decades commonly become criticized by critics and readers as the values of contemporary culture change.[105][106][107] Critical analysis of children's literature is common through children's literary journals as well as published collections of essays contributed to by psychoanalysts, scholars and various literary critics such as Peter Hunt.
A widely discussed and debated topic by critics and publishers in the children's book industry is whether outdated and offensive content, specifically racial stereotypes, should be changed in new editions. Others argue instead that original content should remain but that publishers should add information to guide parents in conversations with their children about the problematic elements of the particular story.[108][109] Some see racist stereotypes as cultural artifacts that should be preserved.[110] In The Children's Culture Reader, scholar Henry Jenkins references Herbert R. Kohl's essay "Should We Burn Babar?" which raises the debate whether children should be educated on how to think critically towards oppressive ideologies rather than ignore historical mistakes. Jenkins suggests that parents and educators should trust children to make responsible judgments.[111]
Some books have been altered in newer editions and significant changes can be seen, such as illustrator Richard Scarry's book Best Word Book Ever.[112] and Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.[109] In other cases classics have been rewritten into updated versions by new authors and illustrators. Several versions of Little Black Sambo have been remade as more appropriate and without prejudice.[113]
Popular classics such as The Secret Garden, Pippi Longstocking, Peter Pan, The Chronicles of Narnia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have been criticized for their racial stereotyping.[103][114][115][116]
The academic journal Children's Literature Review provides critical analysis of many well known children's books. In its 114th volume, the journal discusses the cultural stereotypes in Belgian cartoonist Herge's Tintin series in reference to its depiction of people from the Congo.[117]
After the scramble for Africa which occurred between the years of 1881 and 1914 there was a large production of children's literature which attempted to create an illusion of what life was like for those who lived on the African continent. This was a simple technique in deceiving those who only relied on stories and secondary resources. Resulting in a new age of books which put a "gloss" on imperialism and its teachings at the time. Thus encouraging the idea that the colonies who were part of the African continent were perceived as animals, savages and inhuman-like. Therefore, needing cultured higher class Europeans to share their knowledge and resources with the locals. Also promoting the idea that the people within these places were as exotic as the locations themselves. Examples of these books include:
The Five Chinese Brothers, written by Claire Huchet Bishop and illustrated by Kurt Wiese has been criticized for its stereotypical caricatures of Chinese people.[118] Helen Bannerman's The Story of Little Black Sambo and Florence Kate Upton's The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg have also been noted for their racist and controversial depictions.[119] The term sambo, a racial slur from the American South caused a widespread banning of Bannerman's book.[113] Author Julius Lester and illustrator Jerry Pinkney revised the story as Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo, making its content more appropriate and empowering for ethnic minority children.[120] Feminist theologian Eske Wollrad claimed Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking novels "have colonial racist stereotypes",[114] urging parents to skip specific offensive passages when reading to their children. Criticisms of the 1911 novel The Secret Garden by author Frances Hodgson Burnett claim endorsement of racist attitudes toward black people through the dialogue of main character Mary Lennox.[121][122][123] Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle has been accused of "white racial superiority",[124] by implying through its underlying message that an ethnic minority person is less than human.[125]
The picture book The Snowy Day, written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats was published in 1962 and is known as the first picture book to portray an African-American child as a protagonist. Middle Eastern and Central American protagonists still remain underrepresented in North American picture books.[126] According to the Cooperative Children's Books Center (CCBC) at University of Wisconsin Madison, which has been keeping statistics on children's books since the 1980s, in 2016, out of 3,400 children's books received by the CCBC that year, only 278 were about Africans or African Americans. Additionally, only 92 of the books were written by Africans or African Americans.[127] In his interview in the book Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture Book, Jerry Pinkney mentioned how difficult it was to find children's books with black children as characters.[128] In the literary journal The Black Scholar, Bettye I. Latimer has criticized popular children's books for their renditions of people as almost exclusively white, and notes that Dr. Seuss books contain few ethnic minority people.[129] The popular school readers Fun with Dick and Jane which ran from the 1930s until the 1970s, are known for their whitewashed renditions of the North American nuclear family as well as their highly gendered stereotypes. The first black family did not appear in the series until the 1960s, thirty years into its run.[130][131][132]
Writer Mary Renck Jalongo In Young Children and Picture Books discusses damaging stereotypes of Native Americans in children's literature, stating repeated depictions of indigenous people as living in the 1800s with feathers and face paint cause children to mistake them as fictional and not as people that still exist today.[133] The depictions of Native American people in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie and J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan are widely discussed among critics. Wilder's novel, based on her childhood in America's midwest in the late 1800s, portrays Native Americans as racialized stereotypes and has been banned in some classrooms.[134] In her essay, Somewhere Outside the Forest: Ecological Ambivalence in Neverland from The Little White Bird to Hook, writer M. Lynn Byrd describes how the natives of Neverland in Peter Pan are depicted as "uncivilized", valiant fighters unafraid of death and are referred to as "redskins", which is now considered a racial slur.[135][136]
The presence of empire as well as pro-colonialist and imperialist themes in children's literature have been identified in some of the most well known children's classics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[137][138][139]
In the French illustrator Jean de Brunhoff's 1931 picture book Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant (The Story of Babar, The Little Elephant), prominent themes of imperialism and colonialism have been noted and identified as propaganda. An allegory for French colonialism, Babar easily assimilates himself into the bourgeois lifestyle. It is a world where the elephants who have adapted themselves dominate the animals who have not yet been assimilated into the new and powerful civilization.[140][141][142][143] H. A. Rey and Margret Rey's Curious George first published in 1941 has been criticized for its blatant slave and colonialist narratives. Critics claim the man with the yellow hat represents a colonialist poacher of European descent who kidnaps George, a monkey from Africa, and sends him on a ship to America. Details such as the man in colonialist uniform and Curious George's lack of tail are points in this argument. In an article, The Wall Street Journal interprets it as a "barely disguised slave narrative."[144][145][146] Rudyard Kipling, the author of Just So Stories and The Jungle Book has also been accused of colonial prejudice attitudes.[147] Literary critic Jean Webb, among others, has pointed out the presence of British imperialist ideas in The Secret Garden.[148][149] Colonialist ideology has been identified as a prominent element in Peter Pan by critics.[150][151]
Some of the earliest children's stories that contain feminist themes are Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Frank L. Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. With many women of this period being represented in children's books as doing housework, these two books deviated from this pattern. Drawing attention to the perception of housework as oppressive is one of the earliest forms of the feminist movement. Little Women, a story about four sisters, is said to show power of women in the home and is seen as both conservative and radical in nature. The character of Jo is observed as having a rather contemporary personality and has even been seen as a representation of the feminist movement. It has been suggested that the feminist themes in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz result from influence of Baum's mother-in law, Matilda Gage, an important figure in the suffragist movement. Baum's significant political commentary on capitalism, and racial oppression are also said to be part of Gage's influence. Examples made of these themes is the main protagonist, Dorothy who is punished by being made to do housework. Another example made of positive representations of women is in Finnish author Tove Jansson's Moomin series which features strong and individualized female characters.[152] In recent years, there has been a surge in the production and availability of feminist children's literature as well as a rise in gender neutrality in children's literature.
In addition to perpetuating stereotypes about appropriate behavior and occupations for women and girls, children's books frequently lack female characters entirely, or include them only as minor or unimportant characters.[153] In the book Boys and Girls Forever: Reflections on Children's Classics, scholar Alison Lurie says most adventure novels of the 20th century, with few exceptions, contain boy protagonists while female characters in books such as those by Dr. Seuss, would typically be assigned the gender-specific roles of receptionists and nurses.[154] The Winnie-the-Pooh characters written by A. A. Milne, are primarily male, with the exception of the character Kanga, who is a mother to Roo.[155] Even animals and inanimate objects are usually identified as being male in children's books.[153] The near-absence of significant female characters is paradoxical because of the role of women in creating children's literature.[153] According to an article published in the Guardian in 2011, by Allison Flood, "Looking at almost 6,000 children's books published between 1900 and 2000, the study, led by Janice McCabe, a professor of sociology at Florida State University, found that males are central characters in 57% of children's books published each year, with just 31% having female central characters. Male animals are central characters in 23% of books per year, the study found, while female animals star in only 7.5%".[156]
On the one hand Growing up with Dick and Jane highlights the heterosexual, nuclear family and also points out the gender-specific duties of the mother, father, brother and sister,[157] while Young Children and Picture Books, on the other hand, encourages readers to avoid books with women who are portrayed as inactive and unsuccessful as well as intellectually inferior and subservient to their fellow male characters to avoid children's books that have repressive and sexist stereotypes for women.[126]
In her book Children's Literature: From the fin de siècle to the new millennium, professor Kimberley Reynolds claims gender division stayed in children's books prominently until the 1990s. She also says that capitalism encourages gender-specific marketing of books and toys.[158] For example, adventure stories have been identified as being for boys and domestic fiction intended for girls.[159] Publishers often believe that boys will not read stories about girls, but that girls will read stories about both boys and girls; therefore, a story that features male characters is expected to sell better.[153] The interest in appealing to boys is also seen in the Caldecott awards, which tend to be presented to books that are believed to appeal to boys.[153] Reynolds also says that both boys and girls have been presented by limited representations of appropriate behaviour, identities and careers through the illustrations and text of children's literature. She argues girls have traditionally been marketed books that prepare them for domestic jobs and motherhood. Conversely, boys are prepared for leadership roles and war.[160] During the 20th century, more than 5,000 children's picture books were published in the U.S; during that time, male characters outnumbered female characters by more than 3 to 2, and male animals outnumbered female animals by 3 to 1.[161] No children's picture book that featured a protagonist with an identifiable gender contained only female characters.[161]
I'm Glad I'm a Boy! I'm Glad I'm a Girl! (1970) by Whitney Darrow Jr. was criticized for narrow career depictions for both boys and girls. The book informs the reader that boys are doctors, policemen, pilots, and presidents while girls are nurses, meter maids, stewardesses and first ladies.[162]
Nancy F. Cott, once said that "gender matters; that is, it matters that human beings do not appear as neuter individuals, that they exist as male or female, although this binary is always filtered through human perception. I should add that when I say gender, I am talking about meaning. I am talking about something in which interpretation is already involved."[163]
In her book La sua barba non è poi così blu... Immaginario collettivo e violenza misogina nella fiaba di Perrault (2014, translated into Spanish Su barba no era tan azul and winner of the first international CIRSE award 2015[164]), Angela Articoni analyzes the fairy tale Bluebeard dwelling on the sentence pronounced by the protagonist to convince herself to accept marriage, an expression that recites to repeat the women victims of violence who hope to be able to redeem their prince charming.[165]
Bruno Bettelheim in The Uses of Enchantment, uses psychoanalysis to examine the impact that fairy tales have on the developing child. Bettelheim states the unconscious mind of a child is affected by the ideas behind a story, which shape their perception and guides their development.[166] Likewise, author and illustrator Anthony Browne contends the early viewing of an image in a picture book leaves an important and lasting impression on a child.[167] According to research, a child's most crucial individual characteristics are developed in their first five years. Their environment and interaction with images in picture books have a profound impact on this development and are intended to inform a child about the world.[168]
Children's literature critic Peter Hunt argues that no book is innocent of harbouring an ideology of the culture it comes from.[169] Critics discuss how an author's ethnicity, gender and social class inform their work.[170] Scholar Kimberley Reynolds suggests books can never be neutral as their nature is intended as instructional and by using its language, children are embedded with the values of that society.[171] Claiming childhood as a culturally constructed concept,[172] Reynolds states that it is through children's literature that a child learns how to behave and to act as a child should, according to the expectations of their culture. She also attributes capitalism, in certain societies, as a prominent means of instructing especially middle class children in how to behave.[160] The "image of childhood"[173] is said to be created and perpetuated by adults to affect children "at their most susceptible age".[174] Kate Greenaway's illustrations are used as an example of imagery intended to instruct a child in the proper way to look and behave.[173] In Roberta Seelinger Trites's book Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature, she also argues adolescence is a social construct established by ideologies present in literature.[175] In the study The First R: How Children Learn About Race and Racism, researcher Debra Ausdale studies children in multi-ethnic daycare centres. Ausdale claims children as young as three have already entered into and begun experimenting with the race ideologies of the adult world. She asserts racist attitudes are assimilated[176] using interactions children have with books as an example of how children internalize what they encounter in real life.[177]
Children's books are critical to child development, especially at preschool ages. Children have had limited engagement in social contexts at this age. Reading books will help them to prepare for future social interactions and real-life situations because reading helps language, cognitive, social, and emotional development.[citation needed]
Children's books increase language development by introducing new vocabulary and helping children to learn about using language in context.[178] Children are also exposed to various words and sentence structures when reading. Moreover, children's books enhance children's cognitive development in memory, attention, and imagination. Reading allows them to relate to their experience and understanding to make meaning of the sensory message, which is how the brain understands the world around them.[179] Children's books also benefit children's social and emotional development. Reading books help "personal development and self-understanding by presenting situations and characters with which our own can be compared".[180] Children's books often present topics that children can relate to, such as love, empathy, family affection, and friendship. Reading those books helps children to understand emotion and helps them transfer their learning to social contexts.
Many noted awards for children's literature exist in various countries, parts of the world, or for specific languages:
International awards also exist as forms of global recognition. These include the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, Ilustrarte Bienale for illustration, and the BolognaRagazzi Award for art work and design.[182] Additionally, bloggers with expertise on children's and young adult books give a major series of online book awards called The Cybils Awards, or Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards.
Lists
During Dahl's childhood, the two largest British candy firms, Cadbury and Rowntree, sent so many moles to work in competitors' factories that their spying became legendary
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
