the historical development of children's literature literature written specifically for an audience of children began to be published on a wide scale in the 17th century most of the early books for children were didactic rather than artistic meant to teach letter sounds and words or to improve the child's moral and spiritual life but before diving into the core of this lesson let's take a look back on the beliefs of childhood before the 17th century how was childhood depicted in the literature before enlightenment and how were perceptions of childhood differ from those of today you might remember in your history classes or earlier in your college career that that the enlightenment is also called the age of reason which roughly took place during the late 1600s to the early 1800s during this time people believed that children are actually smaller versions of adults they did not see children as different from adults and childhood is not accepted as a distinct phase of life until the 1800s so in the late 1600s the philosopher john locke suggested that there should be books expressly written for children in his works entitled some thoughts concerning education now let's take a look at a brief history of children's literature from its emerging oral tradition just as other forms of literature children's literature grew from stories passed down orally from generation to generation irish folk tales can be traced back as early as 400 bce while the earliest written folk tales are arguably the panchatantra from india which were written around 200 a.d the earliest version of esop's fables appeared on papyrus scrolls around 400 a.d in imperial china storytelling reached its peak during the song dynasty from 960 to 1279 a.d during the classical world ancient greece and rome roughly 850 bce to 407 ce there was no distinction between adult and children's literature as they regard children as smaller versions of adults the stories of homer and other storytellers of the era would certainly have appealed to children esop's fables or the isapika is a collection of fables credited to esop a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient greece between 620 and 564 bce in the roman counterpart roman stories like virgil's init and ovid's metamorphos also appealed to children as europe became a cultural center of the world instructive texts became increasingly common these books were mostly written in latin with the purpose of instructing children during the middle ages or the medieval world between the fall of rome and the rise of the renaissance roughly 476 to 1450 ce very little literature was written for the sole purpose of entertaining children horn books textbooks containing basic texts like the lord's prayer and the alphabet would not appear until the 1400s the roman catholic church dominated the social and political scene and was responsible for what education there was education was a luxury books were extremely rare and expensive and few people could read or write biblical stories were very popular the lives of saints were used to set examples for young people secular stories medieval romances were also popular such as the romantic tales of the legendary king arthur and his knights of the round table the epic describing the great heroes roland song of roland from france or the cid the lay of the cid from spain or even beowulf from the norse during the renaissance a time for a rebirth of the ideals of ancient greece and rome between 1450 to 1700 hornbooks were created for children they had an alphabet and bible verses pasted on them between 1440 to 1450 a significant contribution to not just literature but to the history of books the invention of the printing press by johannes gutenberg this led in the production of books long before books had to be handwritten in the early renaissance educational books called the courtesy books were made for young gentlemen between 1600s to 1800s the very first picture book for children was published and that was called as orbis sensualium pictus or the world in pictures this was considered as one of the first non-fiction book for children and it featured some woodcut illustrations this book was different from many other books published at the time because it was meant to inform children rather than to indoctrinate them at that time the content of school books was influenced by puritan beliefs that children were inclined to evil and needed to be taught morals however during this time cheaply published books called chap books containing popular stories and tales also began to be produced and sold puritanical thinking eventually gave way to the enlightenment ideals characterized by the philosophy of john locke which marked a shift in the view of children to that of a blank slate that could be written upon during this time moral tales and fables were still published but more light-hearted books featuring word play riddles rhymes and games began to appear in children's books as well children's books also borrowed stories originally written for adults such as gulliver's travels ivanhoe and robinson crusoe during the late 18th and early 19th centuries john newberry a writer of children's books greatly influenced children's literature by starting the first publishing house dedicated to children's stories he published his own stories as well as the works of other children's book authors the idea of a publishing house just for children's stories reflected a shift in how society thought of children like rousseau and the moral tale the emile in 1762 the revival of old folk tales like tales of mother goose that includes cinderella little red riding hood sleeping beauty and tales from the arabian nights that include sinbad and aladdin the victorians the golden age of children's literature roughly between 1830 to 1900 during this time greater numbers of books were written for children's play and enjoyment like fantasy stories alice's adventures in wonderland 1865 by lewis carroll england the princess and the goblin 1872 by george mcdonald england the adventures of pinocchio 1883 by carlo colotes italy the wonderful wizard of ounce 1900 by frank baum u.s peter pan 1904 by j.m barry england adventure stories for boys were present as well like treasure island 1883 by robert louis stevenson the adventures of tom sawyer 1876 and the adventures of huckleberry finn 1884 by mark twain and domestic stories four girls little women 1868 by louisa mayalkit and of green gables 1908 by lucy maude montgomery the secret garden 1911 by francis hodgson burnett the 20th century or widening worlds from 1900 zeros to the present the second golden age of children's writing fantasies and realistic fiction were popular like winnie the pooh 1926 by a milne little house in the big woods 1932 by laura ingalls wilder the hobbit 1937 by j r r the little prince 1943 by antoine de saint-exupery harry potter and the sorcerer's stone 1998 by j k rowling during this time period children's book awards were established such as newberry medal it is awarded annually by the association for library service to children a division of the american library association to the author of the most distinguished contribution to american literature for children since 1922. the caldecott medal was named in honor of 19th century english illustrator randolph caldecott it is awarded annually by the association for library service to children a division of the american library association to the artist of the most distinguished american picture book for children since 1938. the carnegie medal is a british literary award that annually recognizes one outstanding new english language book for children or young adults it is conferred upon the author by the chartered institute of library and information professionals since 1936 the kate green away medal is a british literary award that annually recognizes distinguished illustration in a book for children it is conferred upon the illustrator by the chartered institute of library and information professionals which inherited it from the library association since 1956 the realism of children's literature since then represented a radical shift similar to many of the other shifts throughout history related to historical political and societal influences the historical development of children's literature