The Children and Young Adult Literature Portal

Children's and young adult literature is that written and/or marketed primarily towards a juvenile audience. While some books are originally intended for a youthful audience, others become associated with children through marketing or tradition. Still others are "crossover" books, read by children and adults alike. Literature addressed directly to children arose in Western Europe in the late 17th century and early 18th century and became a very profitable industry in the 19th. Throughout its 300-year history, children's stories have reflected the values of the societies that produced them.

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A fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and talking animals, and usually enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events. In modern-day parlance, the term is also used to describe something blessed with princesses, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairy tale romance", though not all fairy tales end happily. Fairy tales commonly attract young children since they easily understand the archetypal characters in the story. Fairy tales are found in oral folktales and in literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace, because only the literary forms can survive. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, although not perhaps recognized as a genre. Literary fairy tales are found over the centuries all over the world, and when they collected them, folklorists found fairy tales in every culture. Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today. The older fairy tales were intended for an audience of adults as well as children, but they were associated with children as early as the writings of the précieuses; the Brothers Grimm titled their collection Children's and Household Tales, and the link with children has only grown stronger with time.

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Credit: John Newbery

John Newbery helped popularize children's literature in Britain with the publication of books such as A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (1744).

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In this month

• 15 December 2006 – A film version of E. B. White's novel Charlotte's Web is released
• 17 December 1934 – Birth of Jacqueline Wilson, whose children's works are known for their challenging themes
• 20 December 1812 – Publication of the first edition of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's (pictured) Fairy Tales
• 22 December 1943 – Death of Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit
• 27 December 1904 – Debut performance of Peter and Wendy, the basis of J. M. Barrie's novel Peter Pan

Selected biography

Michael Chabon is a twentieth-century American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation," according to the The Virginia Quarterly Review. His first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), was published when Chabon was 25 and catapulted him to literary celebrity. He followed it with a second novel, Wonder Boys (1995), and two short-story collections. In 2000, Chabon published The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a critically acclaimed novel that The New York Review of Books called his magnum opus; it received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. His most recent novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, an alternate history mystery novel, was published in 2007 to enthusiastic reviews and won the Hugo, Sidewise, and Nebula awards. His work is characterized by complex language, frequent use of metaphor, and an extensive vocabulary, along with numerous recurring themes, including nostalgia, divorce, abandonment, fatherhood, and issues of Jewish identity. He often includes gay, bisexual, and Jewish characters in his work. Since the late 1990s, Chabon has written in an increasingly diverse series of styles for varied outlets; he is a notable defender of the merits of genre fiction and plot-driven fiction, and, along with novels, he has published screenplays, children's books, comics, and newspaper serials.

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Did you know...

• ...that the bestselling children's book The History of the Fairchild Family by Mary Martha Sherwood inspired the character of Pip in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations?
• ...that Lord of the Nutcracker Men was a 2001 children's novel about World War I?
• ...that the German children's series Bibi Blocksberg has been criticised because it can give a negative view of politics to children?

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WikiProjects

Parent projects

Literature, Books, Novels

Main project

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Children's literature

Related projects

Artemis Fowl, Discworld, Fablehaven, Harry Potter, Inheritance Cycle, Lemony Snicket, Redwall, Oz,

Selected quote

"If you please, I should like to have the flower-pot; that is, if you won't think me very silly, mamma." "Why, as to that, I can't promise you, Rosamond; but when you have to judge for yourself you should choose what would make you happy, and then it would not signify who thought you silly." — Maria Edgeworth, The Purple Jar

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Categories

[Slovenian Children's Literature http://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedija:WikiProjekt_Slovenska_mladinska_književnoste]

Featured content

Featured articles: Anna Laetitia Barbauld • Anne Frank • Batman • Captain Marvel • Fairy tale • The Hardy Boys • J. K. Rowling • J. R. R. Tolkien • Lessons for Children • Make Way for Ducklings • Mary Martha Sherwood • Nancy Drew • Original Stories from Real Life • Proserpine (play) • Sarah Trimmer • Some Thoughts Concerning Education • The Adventures of Tintin • The Guardian of Education • Thoughts on the Education of Daughters • To Kill a Mockingbird • Tom Swift

Topics

Children's literature and Young adult literature

Children's literature: Book talk • Children's literature canon • Children's literature criticism • Children's literature periodicals • Children's literature timeline • International Children's Digital Library • Native Americans in children's literature

Young adult literature: Gay teen fiction • Lesbian teen fiction • List of young adult authors • Young Adult Library Services Association

Associations and awards: Children's Book Council of Australia • CBCA book awards • Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature and Illustration • IBBY Canada • American Library Association • Association for Library Service to Children • Newbery Medal • Caldecott Medal • Golden Kite Award • SCBWI • Sibert Medal • Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal • Batchelder Award • Coretta Scott King Award • Belpre Medal • Carnegie Medal • Kate Greenaway Medal • Nestlé Smarties Book Prize • Guardian Award • Hans Christian Andersen Award • Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award • Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

Lists: List of children's classic books • List of children's literature authors • List of children's non-fiction writers • List of fairy tales • List of illustrators • List of publishers of children's books

Things you can do

Add {{Portal|Children and Young Adult Literature|Tom Sawyer 1876 frontispiece.jpg}} to the See also section of related articles. Tag the talk pages of related articles with {{WikiProject Children's literature}} Join WikiProject Children's literature and list yourself as a Participant in the project. Cleanup: A cleanup listing for this project is available, updated by WolterBot. More information... Deletion discussions: listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Literature Notability: Articles with notability concerns, listed at WikiProject Notability Rate the Unassessed articles in the Children's literature WikiProject. Requested articles: Create a requested article on literature Stubs: Improve a stub-class article

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