Children's literature Facts for Kids

A mother reads to her children, drawn by Jessie Willcox Smith in a cover illustration of a volume of fairy tales written in the mid to late 19th century.

Children's literature refers to books written for children and young people. Many famous authors wrote for children including Beatrix Potter, Dr. Seuss, A.A. Milne, J. M. Barrie, Edith Nesbit, Enid Blyton, Lewis Carroll, JRR Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The Newbery Medal is an award given to writers for children.

Classification
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Classification

Children's literature can be divided into several categories, but it is most easily categorised by genre or the intended age of the reader. An example of a classification based on age is young-adult fiction, which is written for children between the ages of 12 and 18.

A literary genre is the style of the book. It also refers to the technique, tone, content, or length.

Picture books, including books that teach the alphabet or counting for example. They either have very few words or none at all.
Traditional literature, including folktales, which convey the legends, customs, superstitions, and beliefs of people in previous civilizations. This genre can be further broken into subgenres: myths, fables, legends, and fairy tales
Fiction, including fantasy, realistic fiction, and historical fiction
Non-fiction
Biography and autobiography
Poetry

Many children's books are meant to teach children the consequences of engaging in "bad" behaviour, such as running away, stealing and lying. Tom Sawyer and Toby Tyler are two notable examples of the genre.

Dav Pilkey, author of Captain Underpants in 2019

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The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) is a canonical piece of children's literature and one of the best-selling books ever published.
An early Mexican hornbook pictured in Tuer's History of the Horn-Book, 1896.
The New England Primer
Newbery's A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, originally published in 1744
A woodcut of the eponymous Goody Two-Shoes from the 1768 edition of The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes. It was first published in London in 1765.
Pages from the 1819 edition of Kinder- und Haus-Märchen by the Brothers Grimm
Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, London
Statue of C. S. Lewis in front of the wardrobe from his Narnia book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Willy Wonka (from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and the Mad Hatter (from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) in London
J. K. Rowling reads from her novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Illustration from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 pirate adventure Treasure Island
Statue of Minnie the Minx, a character from The Beano. Launched in 1938, the comic is known for its anarchic humour, with Dennis the Menace appearing on the cover.
The Story of Mankind (1921) by Hendrik van Loon, 1st Newbery Award winner
Postal stamp of Russia celebrating children's books.
The Crescent Moon by Rabindranath Tagore illus. by Nandalal Bose, Macmillan 1913
A Tagore illustration of a Hindu myth
A late 18th-century reprint of Orbis Pictus by Comenius, the first children's picture book.
1900 edition of the controversial The Story of Little Black Sambo

Children's literature facts for kids

Contents

Classification

Related pages

Images for kids

See also