Ch. 1 Childrens Literature Timeline

  • The Early Years- Childrens Bookstore

    The Early Years- Childrens Bookstore

    John Newberry opens a childrens bookstore where he published and sold books for children. Before this, childrens books were given plain (Chapbooks, battledores and hornbooks). These were as boring as can be with no pictures, as they only contained the alphabet or Bible verses. This brought on joy, sparking creativity and imagination, a new world here to stay!
  • Children are free to be kids-No more work

    Children are free to be kids-No more work

    Child Labor Laws were passed, allowing children to go to school and learn to read and write. This increased the amount of books published for children. New technologies also surfaced allowing cost of publications to decrease, starting public libraries worldwide!
  • Dept. for Childrens Books

    Dept. for Childrens Books

    Macmillan launches a dept. devoted entirely to childrens books.
  • John Newbery Award

    John Newbery Award

    This Award was established by the American Library Association which later established the Randolf Caldecott Award in 1938.
  • First Childrens Book editors

    First Childrens Book editors

    Helen Dean Fish and May Masse were the first children's books editors, Massee later moved to open a childrens book department at Viking and that led to more publishers to do the same.
  • Modern Picture books and YA books

    Modern Picture books and YA books

    From the 1920s through the 1960s childrens and young adult books became an important part of libraries, schools, homes and publishing houses with rooms dedicated soley for them.
  • Diversity in Picturebooks

    Diversity in Picturebooks

    Harriet Rohmer established Childrens Book Press, dedicated to the publication of bilingual picturebooks that that reflected a diversity of cultural experiences after realizing how low diversity publications were. In 1988 other small press followed suit.
  • Diversity in all fronts remains low

    Diversity in all fronts remains low

    While there were more efforts to publish books that represented all people from different ethnicities, there were even less books published that were inclusive with characters who were gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered.
  • A small but good shift

    A small but good shift

    With the rise in popularity of teen books, there has been a shift in books that are culturally diverse and inclusive of all people, while there is still hestiancy in the choices of books published, there are more books available now that many can relate to.