“Ever since there were children, there has been children’s literature.” (Lerer 1) Children’s literature has witnessed its own journey globally throughout the ages. For India, the genre was brought in from the remote country, England. Rimi Chatterjee examines its route to India in her edited book Reading Children: Essays of Children’s Literature as she writes,
The category of ‘children’s literature’ was, like the novel, the newspaper and patent leather shoes, imported into India by the British where it was quickly and enthusiastically taken over by certain fractions of Indians. (8) One of these Indians, Vandana Singh is an emerging name in the recent Indian Children’s Literature in English. Younguncle in the Himalayas and Youngleuncle Comes to Town are her two best seller books under the ‘children’s literature’ category. While writing for children, the writer has to describe what is acceptable from the children’s perspectives. She presents childhood in her books in a way as Phillippe Aries opines, “…childhood was not some essential or eternal quality in human life but was instead a category of existence shaped by social mores and historical experience.” (Lerer 2) Her literary creation Younguncle Comes to Town (2004) portrays a picture of its lead character Younguncle. A man who is in his 40 plus age is actually fond of childish behaviour. The lead character Younguncle is an uncle by his age and look; but a young man by his heart and actions. His name reflects exactly what he is. His name as ‘Younguncle’ can give amusement to all. He even prefers to be called by that name. Vandana Singh narrates,
He has always been called Younguncle. He says he prefers it that way – although it is quite ridiculous to be called Younguncle even by one’s parents. But he has always been a little different from other people. (3) Young-ness and Uncle-ness are two separate identities of
219-224. Library Services Institutefor Minnesota Indians. Guidelines for Evaluating Multicultural Literature: 1970, pp. iv-v. Norton, Donna. 'Through the Eyes of a Child. Prentice Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffes, New Jersey: 1995.
... Paula, Gerald Campano, and Ted Hall. "Braided Histories and Experiences in Literature for Children and Adolescents." Journal of Children's Literature. 38.2 (2012): 14-22. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. (Ghiso, Campano, and Hall 14-22)
Children are common group of people who are generally mislabeled by society. In the short story “Charles’’ by Shirley Jackson and ‘’The Open Window” by Saki showed examples of the labeling of children. In “Charles” the concept of parents labeling their children as being pure and sincere was shown. As in “The Open Window” by Saki “used the notion that girls were the most truthful sex and gives her a name that suggests truthfulness to make her tale less suspect.”(Wilson 178). According to Welsh “Because the fantasy is so bizarre and inventive and totally unexpected from a fifteen-year-old girl, the reader is momentarily duped.”(03). This showed that even we as the readers were a victim of misleading labels of society.
Marten, James. Children in Colonial America. New York and London: New York University Press, 2007.
Griffith, John, and Charles Frey. Classics of Children's Literature. 6th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. 21-29, 322-374. Print.
In Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden nature and its fantastical elements are crucial in making their novels the iconic children literary tales they are presently. However due to these fantastical elements both authors criticized for their romanticized view of nature and idealized depictions of childhood within nature. Scholarly critics Jacqueline Rose and Humphrey Carpenter argue that in creating idealistic narrative worlds both authors lose their ability to represent childhood in a realistic way and instead let their works become escape outlets rather than true depictions of childhood. In doing so these books are no longer true children’s literature, but simply ideals born out of an authors
Falconer, Rachel. The Crossover Novel: Contemporary Children’s Fiction and Its Adult Readership. New York: Routledge, 2009.
It has always been amazing to realize how well the literature I read as a child has stayed with me through the years. It takes an exceptional writer to compose a narrative that maintains a storyline on the same level of a child's understanding; it takes everything short of a miracle to keep a child's interest. However, that undertaking has been accomplished by many skilled authors, and continues to be an area of growth in the literary world. Only this year the New York Times has given the genre of children's literature the credit it deserves by creating a separate best-sellers list just for outstanding children's books. Yet, on another level, children's literature is not only for the young. I believe that the mark of a brilliant children's author is the age range of those who get pleasure from the stories; the wider the range, the better.
Children literature is a term that refers to the texts written for children. The artist uses creative ways to ensure that children are provided with educational books, touching on a variety of themes. This paper will include comparison of two characters from the two texts, “Hana's Suitcase: A True Story,” authored by Karen Levine and “Charlotte’s Web,” written by E.B. White, with the aim of understanding ways in which problems are solvable as indicated by selected characters.
The opening of Kathleen O’Neil’s article is a discussion of children’s picture books being used throughout history as tools to teach children cultural expectations. O’Neil mentions that children’...
Popular contemporary author, George R.R. Martin, once said: “Summer will end soon, and my childhood as well.” The six poems discussed explore the different aspects of childhood, and portray childhood as a brief but magical ‘summer’-time, especially Piano and Hide and Seek, which emphasize this by alluding to the constrictions of adulthood and the warmth of juvenescence. While Gareth Owen’s Salford Road avoids any portrayals of adulthood, it might map the progression of childhood to adulthood like Vernon Scannell’s Hide and Seek, and thus accentuate the carefree lives that children lead. Meanwhile, Half Past Two by UA Fanthorpe and Houses by Robert Hull focus instead on the freedom and creativity childhood brings, and therefore presents the theme of childhood in a more playful light reminiscent of Martin’s summer. Finally, Soap Suds by Louis Macniece brings the briefness of childhood into focus, much like summer in the span of a year.
Zitkala Sa’s autobiography “Impressions of an Indian childhood” Should remain a part of the American Literary canon because her writing is full of rich history. Within the history that she depicts, she shows a different perspective. A lot of times, people do not realize the perspective of the Indians when looking back at this time. Her writing shows what begins out as a happy childhood.
... (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University
Golden Age children’s literature focuses on the happiness and showing children the positive aspects of society. The...
The construction of children’s literature was a gradual process. For a long period of time children’s books were frowned upon. The stories were said to be vulgar and frightening. Adults censored children’s ears to stories of daily life, tales with improbable endings were not to be heard. It was not until the mid 1800s that stories of fairies and princesses began to be recognized. Although children’s literature was accepted, the books were not available for all children. With limited access to education, few public libraries, and the books’ costs, these texts were only available to the middle and high- class. As public education and libraries grew so did the accessibility of books and their popularity. They no longer were considered offensive, but rather cherished and loved by many children. Children’s literature became orthodox and a revolution began, changing literature as it was known.