History
· All children's literature begins with spoken stories, songs, and poems
· In the beginning, the same tales that adults enjoy were created specifically to educate, instruct, and entertain children
· In the final stage, literature for children became established as a separate category from literature for adults and acquires its own genres, divisions, expectations, and canon
· The development of children's literature is influenced by the social, educational, political, and economic resources of the country or ethnic group
before 50 bc
· The earliest written folk-type tales included the Panchatantrafrom India
· some scholars believe Panchatantra was actually intended for adults.
· Jatakas, about the birth of Buddha, date from the 2nd or 3rd
century BC.
· The source stories for The Arabian Nights, originally from India
· The tale of The Asurik Tree, which dates back at least 3,000 years in Persia
· The great ancient Greek poet Homer lived sometime between
1200 BC and 600 BC.
· the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey is Homer
· Homer's work contributed to the development of all Western literature including children's literature,
· Hesiod told stories that became a major source of Greek mythology
.
50 BC to AD 500
· In Imperial China, children attended public events with their parents, where they would listen to the complicated tales of professional storytellers
· In Imperial China Children watched the plays performed at festivals and fairs
· In Imperial China ,Storytelling may have reached its peak during the SongDynasty from 960-1279 AD
· This traditional literature was used for instruction in Chinese schools until the 20th century
· Greek and Romancontain "nothing that could be considered a children's book At 50 BC to AD 500
· However, children would have enjoyed listening to stories such as the Odyssey and Aesop’s Fables
500-1400
· ThePanchatantra was translated from Sanskrit into Kannada in 1035 AD
· The first children's book in Urdu may be Pahelian by the Indian poet Amir Khusrow
· He wrote poems and riddles for children in the 1200s-1300s in Urdu Amir Khusrow
· .Buddhism spread in China during period 500 – 1400 , bringing with it tales later known asJourney to the West.
· The tales that Buddhism brought were enjoyed by Chinese children because they were aboutfantasy , the supernatural, demons and monsters,
· There aretwo schools of thought about children and European Medieval literature.
· Philippe ArièsThe first schools of thought about children and European
in the 1960sMedieval literature developed from the writings of
· In Europe during the Middle Ages instructional texts in Latin were written specifically for children, by Clerics
· Clerics wrote instructional texts in Latin were written specifically for children, like the Venerable Bede and Ælfric of Eynsham
· According to Daniel Kline, Medieval Literature for Children divides children's literature in Europe into five genres.
· During the period 500-1400, children enjoyed literature like Gesta Romanorumand the Welsh Mabinogion
1400s
· During the Byzantine Empire, the Bible and Christian hymns and stories were popular
· William Caxton published Aesop's Fables followed by Le Morte d'Arthur in 1485.
· Aesop's Fables and Le Morte d'Arthur were intended for Adults and children
· European printers released versions of Aesop's Fables in their nativelanguages
1500s
· ABC-Book, an alphabet book published by Ivan Fyodorov in 1571 inRussia
· Russia's earliest children's books, primers, appeared around 1500s
· A Pretty and Splendid Maiden's Mirror, an adaptation of a German
book for young women
· Giovanni Francesco Straparola released The Facetious Nights of Straparola in Italy
· storybookThe Facetious Nights of Straparola, Called the first European
· The Facetious Nights of Straparola contain 75 separate stories and written for an adult audience
· Chapbooks, pocket-sized pamphlets that were often folded instead of being stitched, were published in Britain, eventually spreading to the United States
· Chapbooks, pocket-sized pamphlets Illustrated by woodblock printing
1600s
· The first picture book published in Russia, Karion Istomin's The Illustrated Primer, appeared in 1694.
· Adults saw children as separate beings, innocent and in need of protection and training by the adults around them Because of this shift in thinking, books were now printed and distributed specifically for children
· the Pentamerone from Italy is the first major published collection of European folk tales
· Charles Perrault began recording fairy tales in France
· In 1658, Jan Ámos Comenius in Bohemia published the informative illustrated Orbis Pictus, for children under six learning to read
· Orbis Pictus considered as the first picture book
The Puritans,mainly in England and North America, also played a
major role in developing writing for children by publishing books
intended to teach children to read and to instruct them in
· religious teachings
· one book from this movement that is still widely read today is The Pilgrim's Progress
· The first children's book published, in what would become the United States, was a catechism for children written in verse by the Puritan John Cotton
· John Cotton‟s book, nown as Spiritual Milk for Babes was published in 1646, appearing in England and Boston
· The New England Primer, was in print by 1691 and used in schools
for 100 years.
The Primer begins, "In Adam's fall We sinned all
and continues through the alphabet.
The Primer contained religious maxims, acronyms, spelling help and other educational items, all decorated by woodcuts.
1700s
· China still had no separate stories for children. Dream of the Red
Chamber, written in this period and published in 1791, told a story
of romance and friendship that children enjoyed.
· In Russia, Peter the Great's interest in modernizing his country
through Westernization helped Western children's literature
dominate the field through the 1700s.
· Nikolai Novikov started the first juvenile magazine in Russia
during Catherine the Great reign
· 1718saw the publication of Robinson Crusoe by Danial Defoe, an
English Puritan.
· A Little Pretty Pocket-Bookpublished by John Newbery
· A Little PrettyPocket-Bookreflected Jean-Jacques
Rousseau's new theories that children should be allowed to
develop naturallyand joyously.
· Rousseau's ideas had great influence in Germany
· According to Hans-Heino Ewers in The International Companion
Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, "It can be argued that from
this time, the history of European children's literature was largely
written in Germany