YPL: plan

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YPL plan

• History of Childrens Lit
• History of Young Adult Lit
• Characteristics of YAL
• Stages of literary appreciation

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History of Childrens Literature

• Anselm (Archbishop of Canterbury), Encyclopedia
  for Children11th Century

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Beginnings

• William Caxton, Aesops Fable (1484)
• Thomas Malory, Morte dArthur (1485)
• Jean Dupré, Les contenances de la table

• Gutenberg and the printing press, mid-fifteenth
  century.The first bible mechanically
  reproduced, Mainz, Germany, 1454-5.

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Gutenbergs bible
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First story really written for children

• James Janeway, 1671-2
• A token for Children being an exact account of
  the conversions, holy and exemplary lives, and
  joyful deaths of several young children. To which
  is now added, prayers and graces, fitted for the
  use of little children.

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James Janeway, excerpt

• A little child, whose mother had dedicated to the
  Lord in her womb, when he could not speak plain,
  would be crying after God, and was greatly
  desirous to be taught good things.
• He could not endure to be put to bed without
  prayer, but would put his parents upon it, with
  much devotion kneel down, and with great patience
  and delight continue till it was concluded,
  without the least sign of being weary. He seemed
  never so well pleased as when so engaged.

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Janeway

• He kept a watch over his heart, and observed the
  workings of his soul, and would complain that
  they were so vain and foolish, and so little
  busied about spiritual things.
• He abhorred lying with his soul.
• When other children were at play, he would be
  praying.
• He still grew weaker and weaker, but behaved with
  a great deal of sweetness and patience, waiting
  for his change. At last, calling upon the name of
  the Lord, and saying, "Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus!"
  he sweetly slept, dying when he was between five
  and six years old.

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Janeway, synopsys

• Child is born
• He is God-fearing and spends all his time praying
• He feels sinful even though he is almost sinless
• Out of nowhere, he is afflicted by some strange
  sickness
• But he can die happy because he has devoted his
  life to God and will be retributed after his
  death.

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The invention of childhood

• John Locke, 1693 Some Thoughts Considering
  Education

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1690-1740 A few good books

• Charles Perrault, Contes de mère loye (1697)
• Fenelon, Adventures of Telemaque (1699)
• Jonathan Swift, Gullivers Travels (1719)
• Daniel Defoe, Life and Strange Surprising
  Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1722)

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Perrault
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Perrault
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John Newbery

• First publisher of Childrens Lit., 1744.
• Little Pretty Pocket Book
• Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of
  Little Master Tommy, and Pretty Miss Polly, With
  two letters form
• Jack the Giant Killer
• As also A ball and a pincushion
• The use of which will infallibly make Tommy a
  good boy and Polly a good girl.
• To which is added a little Song-book, being an
  attempt to teach children the use of the english
  alphabet by way of diversion.

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Little Pretty Pocket Book
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Newbery Newtonian System of Philosophy
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Following Locke

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile, ou de léducation
  (1792)

• Resserrez donc le plus quil est possible le
  vocabulaire de lenfant. Cest un très grand
  inconvénient quil ait plus de mots que didées,
  et quil sache dire plus de choses quil nen
  peut penser. Je crois quune des raisons pourquoi
  les paysans ont généralement lesprit plus juste
  que les gens de la ville, est que leur
  dictionnaire est moins étendu. Ils ont peu
  didées, mais ils les comparent très bien.

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Rousseau

• Children and adults are different
•  Natural  children are better than civilised
  ones.
• Children must play, not think.

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Literary didacticism, late 18th Century-19th
Century

• Thomas day
• Maria Edgeworth
• Mary Sherwood
• Samuel Goodrich
• Martha Finley

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19th Century romanticism

• Fantasy and realism intertwined
• Fun and adventure
• Morals are less important than the story.

• Grimm Brothers
• Hans Christian Andersen
• Andrew Lang
• Edward Lear
• Robert Louis Stevenson
• Lewis Carroll

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19th Century, still read and known today.

• Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868)
• Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  (1884)

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20th Century, the multiplication of novels and
themes.

• Fantasy (C.S. Lewis)
• Realism (Edith Nesbitt)
• Science Fiction
• Development of YAL

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YAL, before the 1850

• No difference between Childrens lit and YAL lit.
  
• Change around 1860
• Alcotts Little Women (1867)
• Horatio Algers Ragged Dick Street Life in New
  York (1860s)
• Oliver Optic (more than 100 books)

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Cheap and numerous

• Series books
• Dime novelsAnn Stephens Malaeska The Indian
  Wife of the White Hunter (1860)Seth Jones or,
  The Captives of the Frontier (60 000 copies sold
  the first day).

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Dime novels

• First intended for adults, but boys read them.
• Westerns, adventures, mysteries, science fiction.
  
• Heroes such as Diamond Dick and Deadwood Dick
• Popular yet highly criticized.
• Very moral

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Stratemeyer, dime novel

• Sports make manly men
• Never trust foreigners
• Stay outdoors, its healthy
• Be courteous and show good manners
• Work is always good
• A good heart and soul will be enough to defeat
  adversity, whatever its form
• In a war, the good side (Gods) will always win
• A person is either evil or good, and evil never
  wins

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1900-World War II

• Mostly series books- Tom Swift- Nancy Drew-
  The Hardy Boys- Baseball Joe- Ruth Fielding-
  Book-of-the-month club (1926)

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The literary canon for students

• School libraries are created
• University examinations focus on classics
• 1926, Carleton Washburne and Mabel Vogel,
  Winnetka Graded Book List Books that were
  definitely trashy or unsuitable for children,
  even though widely read, have not been included
  in this list 
• Elsie Dinsmore, Tarzan of the Apes, Pollyanna,
  Tom Sawyer Abroad, The hound of the Baskervilles,
  etc.

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1930s-1940s

• Juvenile divisions in major publishing houses
• Proliferation of paperbacksBantam, Penguin,
  Ballantine, Dell, Pocket Books, etc.230 million
  paperbacks published annually in the US in 1951

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Post-war to 1960s, make them read first

• George Norvell Our data shows clearly that much
  literary material being used in our schools is
  too mature, too subtle, too erudite to permit its
  enjoyment by the majority of secondary-school
  pupils to increase reading skill, promote the
  reading habit, and produce a generation of
  book-lovers, there is no factor so powerful as
  interest  (1946)

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10 ways to know you are the protagonist of a YAL
novel circa 1955.

• 1- You are going on a date with the sexiest
  person on earth and your main goal is to hold
  his/her hand
• 2- You are invited to a wild party where the
  closest youll get to ingesting alcohol is by
  inhaling the hairspray your best friend is using.
• 3- Everyone around you is white, and if a black
  person should appear, this person will be happy
  to be talked to in a condescending way and to
  disappear right away.

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10 ways to know you are the protagonist of a YAL
novel circa 1955.

• 4- The girls and the boys around you are all
  beautiful and extremely respectful of others
  (apart form the evil people, of course).
• 5- God will always guide the football in your
  hands, the baseball on your bat, or the handsome
  girl/boy in your arms if you believe in Him.
• 6- School is the greatest place on Earth to be.
• 7- All adult couples have perfect relationships.
  Everyday is like the first day of their honeymoon
  (i.e. holding hands, kissing and being nice to
  the significant other).

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10 ways to know you are the protagonist of a YAL
novel circa 1955.

• 8- Anyone who smokes is a really bad person (and
  none of your friends do).
• 9- You and your friends are less likely to use
  foul language than a priest.
• 10- Popularity is a consequence of honesty,
  bravery, and integrity. It has nothing to do with
  looks (especially when everyone looks great).

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Beyond Stratemeyer and other similar series
Topics

• Dating without desire
• Parties without alcohol
• Class rings without cruelty
• Senior year without rebellion
• Popularity without alienation
• Teen romance without sex

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and taboos

• Obscenity
• Profanity
• Suicide
• Sexuality
• Sensuality
• Homosexuality
• Rebellion
• School drop-outs

• Social injustice
• Racial injustice
• Pregnancy
• Early marriage
• Drugs
• Alcohol
• Divorce
• Alienation

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Some authors who are transgressing these taboos

• Florence Means
• Maureen Daly
• Mary Stolz
• James Summers

• Paul Annixter
• Henry Felsen
• Jack Bennett
• John Tunis

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And some great books not for young adults, but
read by them

• Alan Paton, Cry the Beloved Country (1948)
  racism
• Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) racism
• Mina Lewiton, A Cup of Courage (1948)
  alcoholism
• Zoa Sherburne, Too Bad About the Haines Girl
  (1967) pregnancy
• J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
  coming-of-age
• William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1955) cruelty

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1960s- The Golden Age (so far)

• New topics
• - S.E. Hintons The Outsiders (1968)
• Gangs, violence, cruelty, death, suicide,
  hopelessness
• - Paul Zindels The Pigman (1968) Loneliness,
  death, cruelty
• - Robert Cormiers The Chocolate War (1974)
• Cruelty, injustice, death, religion, rebellion,
  conformity

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7 Characteristics of YAL

• 1- YA authors write from the viewpoint of young
  people
• 2- The young protagonist is able to accomplish
  great tasks by him(her)self
• 3- YA writers avoid speechifying
• 4- YA lit includes a variety of genres and
  subjects

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7 Characteristics of YAL

• 5- The body of work includes stories about
  characters from many different ethnic and
  cultural groups
• 6- YA books are basically optimistic, with
  characters making worthy accomplishments
• 7- YA lit is influenced by mass marketing and pop
  culture trends

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Stages of literary appreciation (Donelson and
Nielsen)

• 7 levels from birth to adulthood
• The stages add on so that at each level the
  readers keep what they had in the lower levels
• Although no reader normally skips a level, some
  readers are progressing more rapidly from one
  level to another.

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7 stages

• 1- Birth to kindergarten
• 2- Primary grades
• 3- Late elementary
• 4- Jr. High
• 5- High School
• 6- College
• 7- Adulthood to death

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Workshop