The Children's Literature Portal


Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader, from picture books for the very young to young adult fiction.

Children's literature can be traced to traditional stories like fairy tales, that have only been identified as children's literature in the eighteenth century, and songs, part of a wider oral tradition, that adults shared with children before publishing existed. The development of early children's literature, before printing was invented, is difficult to trace. Even after printing became widespread, many classic "children's" tales were originally created for adults and later adapted for a younger audience. Since the fifteenth century much literature has been aimed specifically at children, often with a moral or religious message. Children's literature has been shaped by religious sources, like Puritan traditions, or by more philosophical and scientific standpoints with the influences of Charles Darwin and John Locke. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are known as the "Golden Age of Children's Literature" because many classic children's books were published then. (Full article...)

Selected article

Magnifying glass
Nancy Drew is a fictional young amateur detective in various mystery series for children and teens. Created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm, the character first appeared in 1930. The books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Over the decades the character has evolved in response to changes in American culture and tastes. The books were extensively revised, beginning in 1959, largely to eliminate racist stereotypes; many scholars claim that in the process the heroine's original, outspoken character was toned down and made more docile, conventional, and demure. Illustrations of the character have also evolved over time, from portrayals of a fearless, active young woman to a fearful or passive one. Through all these changes, the character has proved continuously popular world-wide: at least 80 million copies of the books have been sold, and the books have been translated into over two dozen languages. Nancy Drew has featured in five films, two television shows, and a number of popular computer games; she also appears in a variety of merchandise sold over the world.

Selected picture

Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion
Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion

Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum

In this month

Madame d'Aulnoy

Selected quote

WikiProjects

WikiProjects
Parent projects
  • Literature • Books • Novels
Main project
  • Wikipedia:WikiProject Children's literature
Related projects
  • Artemis Fowl • Discworld • Fablehaven • Harry Potter • Inheritance Cycle • Lemony Snicket • Redwall • Oz

What are WikiProjects?

Selected biography

J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling is a British writer and author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold nearly 400 million copies. The 2007 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £545 million, ranking her as the 136th richest person and the 13th richest woman in Britain. Forbes has named Rowling the second-richest female entertainer in the world, and ranked her as the 48th most powerful celebrity of 2007. Time named Rowling as a runner-up for their 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom. She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain and One Parent Families. Harry Potter is now a global brand worth an estimated $15 billion (£7 billion), and the last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history. The series, totalling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages.

Did you know...

Alamogordo Public Library

Featured content

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories
Children's literature
Children's literature by nationality
Children's writers
18th-century children's literature
19th-century children's literature
20th-century children's literature
21st-century children's literature
African children's literature
Children's literary awards
Children's literature bibliographies
Children's books
Child characters in literature
Characters in children's literature
Children's literature criticism
Donaldson and Scheffler
Fairy tales
Children's book illustrators
Children's libraries
Children's magazines
Children's literature organizations
Plants in children literature
Children's poetry
Presidents of the International Board on Books for Young People
Children's book publishers
Children's short stories
Works based on children's literature
Children's literature stubs

Topics

Things you can do

Things you can do
  • Add {{Portal|Children's literature}} to the See also section of related articles.
  • Tag the talk pages of related articles with {{WikiProject Children's literature}}
  • Join WikiProject Children's literature and list yourself as a Participant in the project.
  • Cleanup: A cleanup listing for this project is available. See also the list by category, the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.
  • Deletion discussions: listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Literature
  • Notability: Articles with notability concerns, listed at WikiProject Notability
  • Rate the Unassessed articles in the Children's literature WikiProject.
  • References: Add references to Unreferenced BLPs.
  • Requested articles: Create a requested article on literature
  • Stubs: Improve a stub-class article

Wikimedia

Discover Wikipedia using portals

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.