Children's Literature
eBook - PDF

Children's Literature

A Reader's History, from Aesop to Harry Potter

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Children's Literature

A Reader's History, from Aesop to Harry Potter

About this book

Ever since children have learned to read, there has been children's literature. Children's Literature charts the makings of the Western literary imagination from Aesop's fables to Mother Goose, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Peter Pan, from Where the Wild Things Are to Harry Potter.

The only single-volume work to capture the rich and diverse history of children's literature in its full panorama, this extraordinary book reveals why J. R. R. Tolkien, Dr. Seuss, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beatrix Potter, and many others, despite their divergent styles and subject matter, have all resonated with generations of readers. Children's Literature is an exhilarating quest across centuries, continents, and genres to discover how, and why, we first fall in love with the written word.

"Lerer has accomplished something magical. Unlike the many handbooks to children's literature that synopsize, evaluate, or otherwise guide adults in the selection of materials for children, this work presents a true critical history of the genre. . . . Scholarly, erudite, and all but exhaustive, it is also entertaining and accessible. Lerer takes his subject seriously without making it dull."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Lerer's history reminds us of the wealth of literature written during the past 2,600 years. . . . With his vast and multidimensional knowledge of literature, he underscores the vital role it plays in forming a child's imagination. We are made, he suggests, by the books we read."—San Francisco Chronicle

"There are dazzling chapters on John Locke and Empire, and nonsense, and Darwin, but Lerer's most interesting chapter focuses on girls' fiction. . . . A brilliant series of readings."—Diane Purkiss, Times Literary Supplement

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c
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a
p
t
e
r
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e
•
34 
•
and 
the 
texts 
copied 
on 
papyrus 
scrolls 
or 
waxed 
tablets 
often 
provided 
performative 
models 
from 
great 
literature. 
And 
what 
these 
texts 
taught 
were 
not 
simply 
moral 
maxims, 
but 
habits 
of 
control. 
Children 
could 
be 
masters 
in 
the 
house; 
yet 
children 
of 
the 
slaves, 
too, 
could 
achieve 
beyond 
their 
birth 
to 
gain 
a 
path 
of 
honor 
through 
their 
merit. 
Phoinix 
advised 
Achilles 
to 
become 
a 
speaker 
of 
words 
and 
a 
man 
of 
action; 
children 
per-
formed 
in 
Rome, 
drawn 
from 
families 
of 
summi 
viri
and 
magna 
ingenia
; 
and 
Aesop’s 
fame 
lives 
on, 
much 
like 
that 
of 
little 
Q. 
Sulpicius 
Maximus, 
nec 
generi, 
sed 
virtuti
.
These 
oppositions 
will 
govern 
the 
legacies 
of 
antique 
children’s 
lit-
erature. 
Character 
and 
wit, 
birth 
and 
learning—these 
are 
the 
axes 
along 
which 
we 
may 
chart 
children’s 
reading. 
And 
when 
they 
read 
Aesop, 
in 
particular, 
they 
will 
find 
a 
menagerie 
of 
actors 
trying 
to 
make 
sense 
of 
fears 
and 
foibles. 
The 
Aesopica, 
as 
we 
shall 
see, 
brings 
together 
all 
the 
strands 
of 
antique 
children’s 
literature, 
not 
just 
for 
the 
students 
of 
the 
ancient 
world, 
but 
for 
those 
of 
the 
Middle 
Ages, 
Renaissance, 
and 
mod-
ern 
ages.

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. List of Illustrations
  3. Introduction
  4. 1 • Speak, Child
  5. 2 • Ingenuity and Authority
  6. 3 • Court, Commerce, and Cloister
  7. 4 • From Alphabet to Elegy
  8. 5 • Playthings of the Mind
  9. 6 • Canoes and Cannibals
  10. 7 • From Islands to Empires
  11. 8 • On Beyond Darwin
  12. 9 • Ill-Tempered and Queer
  13. 10 • Straw into Gold
  14. 11 • Theaters of Girlhood
  15. 12 • Pan in the Garden
  16. 13 • Good Feeling
  17. 14 • Keeping things Straight
  18. 15 • Tap your Pencil on the Paper
  19. Epilogue
  20. Acknowledgments
  21. Notes
  22. Index