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Children were given poorly crafted books meant for instruction only. Chapbooks were little these books sold by only by peddlers or chapmen. Battledores which were folded sheets of cardboard that had wood cut outs of the alphabet or Bible verses. Hornbooks were small wooden paddles that had lesson sheets tacked on them with strips of brass and covered with a thin transparent sheet of cow’s horn.
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John Newbery opened a bookstore in St. Paul’s Churchyard, London. This is where he published and sold books specifically for children. His books taught children proper behavior, but without using scare tactics of fire and brimstone if they did not behave as all other children's literature did at the time.
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Books were written to purely nurture children's imaginations and to be fun to read. Most books came into North America came from England. Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
(1865/1992) and Through the Looking Glass
(1871/1977). Nathaniel Hawthorne authored of the first American book written specifically for children, A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls (1851/1893). -
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the first American book written specifically for children, A Wonder
Book for Boys and Girls (1851/1893). -
England continues as a major source of literature for North American children and led the
way to global publishing. American children saw no distinction between British and American books or even those from other countries.
Carlo Collodi’s "Pinocchio" was published in1883, from Italy. Johanna Spyri’s "Heidi" was published in 1879–1880, in Switzerland. Selma Lagerlöf’s The "Wonderful Adventures of Nils" was published in 1906–1907 in Sweden. -
Child labor laws were passed for the first time ever in 1907. This gave children the freedom to go to school, and paved the way for more children to learn how to read and write thanks to the public schools (1st - 8th grade). Due to this, the amount of books and the type of books rapidly increased in number. New technology reduced publishing costs, charitable individuals financed and grew public libraries, books for children became profitable to produce.
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The US publishing house Macmillan
started a department devoted only to children’s books. The department head was a woman named Louise Bechtel Seaman, and she was previously taught in a progressive school. -
Modern picture books began to develop during the 1920s and through 1960s. Children and young adult books were an important part to libraries, schools, homes, and publishing houses.
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The John Newbery Award was created by the American Library Association, followed by the Caldecott Award in 1938. In the early 1920s, Helen Dean Fish and May Massee became the first children’s book editors. The Horn Book Magazine launched in 1924, and by 1933, Massee opened a children’s department at Viking, inspiring other publishers to do the same. Children's book rooms in libraries spread in popularity opening the path for more readers to enjoy children's literature.
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As children’s literature grew more diverse, young adult literature flourished in the 1960s and 1970s with works like Hinton’s The Outsiders, Zindel’s The Pigman, Lipsyte’s The Contender, Cormier’s The Chocolate War, and Blume’s Forever.
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Harriet Rohmer established the first Children’s Book Press that was devoted to the publication of
bilingual picture books that reflected a diversity of cultural experiences.