THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Children’s literature has got its name from the mid half of the nineteenth century and still there is a doubt on the history of its origin. The earliest History of Children’s literature began with the oral tradition. The older people narrated their experiences with several imaginations of entertainment to the younger ones, though the language and dialects varied according to the location, the written form of those stories took ample amount of time but had a good beginning. The History of Children’s Literature crossed various major milestones including the oral tradition, there was a scarce for the printed books for the children to write because of the expense to print a book was much. Before the Puritan’s influence William Caxton the first English printer published Recuyell of the History of Troy (1474), and was also responsible for the first editions of The Fables of Aesop, Reynard the Fox and Le Morte Darthur. Though these editions were made for the adult audience, children were interested and attracted in reading them. (Gillespie, 13).

The instructional books opened with the letters of the alphabet, as well as a short catechism. Around 1538 in London, Thomas Petyt published a primer which included the alphabet, a table of vowels and syllables, prayers and a grace for meals. Horn books, letter boards shaped like the paddles later known as battledores, included the Lord’s Prayer, an invocation to the trinity, the vowels, a table of syllables, and nine digits. Other forms of teaching the alphabet included needle samplers and gingerbread, which was printed with the designs of the letters. The home page of Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society briefs more on the history of this literature. The first picture book in 1659 was especially designed for children by Charles Hoole. .By the end of Eighteenth century some cheap booklets known as the Chapbooks were sold, this included the popular folktales like the Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, and the Arabian Nights became available for both adult and children.

Prolific writers like Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway and Ralph Caldecott contributed the best