Lesson 1: Historical Background

Question 1

Where can we look to find the beginnings of children’s literature?

Answer 1

Literature dates back to the early eighth century BC with tales from the Greeks such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as well as the bible stories such as Noah’s Ark, David and Goliath etc. These stories were intended for adults but would have been told to children as well.

John Newbery was the first man to see a market for children’s literature. His “A Little Pretty Pocket Book” was considered the first book intended for children.

Question 2

Medieval and Renaissance Period

Answer 2

• The only texts available to children were those already available to adults.
• Caxton printed Book of Courtesy (1477) for instructions on improvement for sons of aristocrats, as well as Reynard the Fox and Aesop’s Fables

Question 3

Puritanism and the
Seventeenth Century

Answer 3

• The Puritans were influenced by Calvinism and used children’s literature in order to preach to them and lead them to salvation
• Two books:
  – 1. James Janeway’s “A Token for Children” which described the mutilation and deaths of child martyrs, who all served as examples of good pious thinking.

– 2. Isaac Watt’s “Divine Songs” consisted mostly of verses, which attempted to offer religious teaching in terms that children could understand.

Question 4

Battledore

Answer 4

• in use since the fourteenth century in England, were used widely in the colonies as educational tools.
• modelled in their shape after the washerwoman’s paddle, were more elaborate in design than hornbooks, but similarly contained pictorial alphabets and verses.

Question 5

Early Eighteenth Century

Answer 5

• John Locke wrote “Thoughts Concerning Education” in 1693. He believed the minds of children were blank slates or tabula rasa.
• Three other writers with influence include John Bunyan (The Pilgrim’s Progress), Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), and Jonathon Swift (Gulliver’s Travels).

Question 6

Mid-Eighteenth Century

Answer 6

John Newbery establishes his children’s press. Newbery was the first person to see a growing market for children’s books. His “Little Pretty Pocket Book” (1744) is considered a landmark in children’s book publishing.

Question 7

Jean Jacque Rousseau

Answer 7

He was interested in moral development in the context of the natural world. His novel “Emile” (1762) focused on the moral education of Emile who lives in the midst of the natural world.

Question 8

John Locke

Answer 8

Wrote “Thoughts Concerning Education” in 1693. He believed the minds of children were blank slates or tabula rasa.

Question 9

Late Eighteenth Century

Answer 9

• Rousseau and the rational moralists (Thomas Day and Maria Edgeworth). They wrote books and stories that focused on the moral education of children.
• Day’s The History of Sandford and Merton is about two boys, Harry Sandford and Tommy Merton. Through a series of stories meant to offer them lessons in morals, their tutor, the cleric Mr. Barlow, attempts to educate the boys.
• Maria Edgeworth, daughter of Irish writer and part-time inventor Richard Lovell Edgeworth, wrote Practical Education (1798) with her father. She also wrote fiction for children (“The Purple Jar”), which, like Day’s Sandford and Merton, offered lessons in moral behaviour.

Question 10

Nineteenth Century (Folktale)

Answer 10

• A growing interest in folk literature.
• The German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm compiled the first notable collection of folktales.
• Norwegians Asbjörnsen and Moe gathered stories from Scandinavia, while in England Joseph Jacobs collected and wrote down English folk and fairy tales.
• Two writers who collected and wrote down stories specifically with their child audiences in mind are the Dane, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Englishman, Andrew Lang.

Question 11

Nineteenth Century (The Golden Age of
Children’s Literature)

Answer 11

• In England, children’s literature emerged fully as a recognized genre.
• The books, which we refer to today as the classics, began to appear in a seemingly random manner.
• This era spawned books such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan,” George MacDonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin,” Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” etc.

Question 12

hornbooks

Answer 12

• in use since the fourteenth century in England, were used widely in the colonies as educational tools.
• named for their protective covering of goat or sheep horn, were often paddle shaped and contained verses and illustrations on both sides.