What is
literature for children?
Children's literature has its roots in the stories and songs that adults told their children before publishing existed, as part of the wider oral tradition. Because of this it can be difficult to track the development of early stories. Even since widespread printing, many classic tales were originally created for adults and have been adapted for a younger audience.
There is no single, widely accepted definition of children's literature. It can be
broadly defined as anything that children read, but a more
useful definition may be fiction, poetry and drama intended for and used by children and young
people, a list to
which many add non-fiction. Nancy
Anderson of the College of Education at the University of South Florida defines
children's literature as all books written for children, "excluding works
such as comic
books, joke books, cartoon books, and
nonfiction works that are not intended to be read from front to back, such as
dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference material".
Classification
Children's literature can be divided a number ways. Two useful divisions
are genre and
intended age of the reader.
Children's
literature by genre
A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be
determined by technique, tone, content, or length. Anderson lists six
categories of children's literature, with some significant subgenres:
- Picture books, including board books, concept books (teaching an alphabet or counting for example), pattern books, and wordless books.
- Traditional literature, including folktales, which convey the legends, customs, superstitions, and beliefs of people in past times. This genre can be further broken down into myths, fables, legends, and fairy tales.
- Fiction, including fantasy, realistic fiction and historical fiction.
- Non-fiction.
- Biography and autobiography.
- Poetry and verse.
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