Welcome to the first installment of Classroom Takeover, a new monthly feature! Every month, a new blogger creates an ideal college class featuring a subject, author, or genre that they think doesn’t get enough attention in mainstream college classes.
For my class, I decided to focus on something that I really enjoy reading: children’s literature from 1900-1950!
Intro
Children’s literature, like all other forms of literature, went through different stages in its history. In the late Victorian era, children’s literature really started to be written for children. Previously, “children’s books” were more like books that had been written for adults but could feasibly cross over into the kidlit sphere as well. Even the Grimm fairy tales were originally written for adults, and only became children’s stories later on. By the time the Victorian era was spreading into the Edwardian and later eras, however, children’s literature as a genre was starting to really take off.
The children’s books that appeared from 1900-1950 are arguably some of the most important books ever produced, not only because of their cultural and literary merit but also because of their impact on the generations of children who read them. Furthermore, the adults who were writing the books included their own understanding of the world they lived in within their texts, and they passed that understanding down to their readers (whether the readers even knew of the hidden messages or not). Children’s literature is so much more than a mere comforting blanket to retreat to when the world gets too tough; it is also a reflection of the times and the people that created it, and a thorough examination of the major trends in early 20th century children’s lit along with the more usual adult literature studies is desperately needed. Continue reading »
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