Children's literature

A mother reads to her children, drawn by Jessie Willcox Smith in a cover illustration of a volume of fairy tales written in the mid to late 19th century.

Children's literature refers to books written for children and young people. Many famous authors wrote for children including Hans Christian Andersen, Beatrix Potter, Dr. Seuss, A.A. Milne, J. M. Barrie, Edith Nesbit, Enid Blyton, Lewis Carroll, Astrid Lindgren, JRR Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The Newbery Medal is an award given to writers for children.

Classification

Children's literature can be divided into several categories, but it is most easily categorised by genre or the intended age of the reader. An example of a classification based on age is young-adult fiction, which is written for children between the ages of 12 and 18.

A literary genre is the style of the book. It also refers to the technique, tone, content, or length.

Picture books, including books that teach the alphabet or counting for example. They either have very few words or none at all.
Traditional literature, including folktales, which convey the legends, customs, superstitions, and beliefs of people in previous civilizations. This genre can be further broken into subgenres: myths, fables, legends, and fairy tales
Fiction, including fantasy, realistic fiction, and historical fiction
Non-fiction
Biography and autobiography
Poetry

Many children's books are meant to teach children the consequences of engaging in "bad" behaviour, such as running away, stealing and lying. Tom Sawyer and Toby Tyler are two notable examples of the genre.

Britsh Awards

There are a few children's literature awards in Britain. These include, Waterstones Award and the Caldecott Award.

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Children's Literature Media

The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) is a canonical piece of children's literature and one of the best-selling books ever published.
An early Mexican hornbook pictured in Tuer's History of the Horn-Book, 1896.
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A lesson for children in 1727.
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John Newbery's A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, originally published in 1744
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A woodcut of the eponymous Goody Two-Shoes from the 1768 edition of The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes. It was first published in London in 1765.
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Pages from the 1819 edition of Kinder- und Haus-Märchen by the Brothers Grimm
Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, London
Statue of C. S. Lewis in front of the wardrobe from his Narnia book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe