See also Censorship; Computers; Crime; Internet;
Knox pornography case; Mapplethorpe obscenity
trial; Photography.
Children’s literature
Definition Books written and published for
children
A growing awareness in the United States and Canada of
increased diversity, global interdependence, changes in
family structure, and changing attitudes toward disability
and disease resulted in a number of new emphases in litera-
ture for the young.
Throughout the 1990’s in the United States, a major
trend in children’s literature was the use of multicul-
tural subjects and stories on environmental topics.
In 1992, many books commemorating the five hun-
dredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus first
landing in the Americas appeared. For older chil-
dren, books on friendship, social problems, getting
along with others, and growing up were the norm.
Other trends included recognition of changes in the
traditional family unit to include single-parent fami-
lies, homosexual couples, and grandparents rearing
grandchildren. Illustrations assumed a more impor-
tant role. Also, there was an increase in both mass
and variety of books published and networking be-
tween public and school libraries.
Canadian children’s literature included similar
subjects. However, differing attitudes about propri-
ety were reflected in a greater likelihood that Cana-
dian stories would focus on weaknesses in their char-
acters. The Canadian landscape played a great role
as well. Writers more consciously focused on captur-
ing the essence of being Canadian and encouraging
regional and then national identity.
Picture Books In the United States, picture books
in the 1990’s created a tension between the informa-
tion conveyed by the words and the pictures them-
selves, resulting in collaboration between word and
picture rather than a redundancy.Magpie Magic
(1999), by April Wilson, depicts through pictures
alone a young artist who draws a picture of a magpie
that comes to life and interacts with a series of addi-
tional drawings. Allen Say’s Grandfather’s Journey
(1993) resembles a family scrapbook. Still life water
colors contribute to the meaning of the story of a
young man who travels back and forth between Ja-
pan and America.The Paper Dragon(1997), written
by Marguerite W. Davol and illustrated by Robert
Sabuda, is an example of the illustrated book, in
which the text can stand alone without the pictures,
although the illustrations enhance this story of a
wise Chinese man who is able to still a dragon who
has appeared in the land.
In Canada, picture books for babies and toddlers
included Pierre Pratt’sHippo Beach(1997), which
was translated from French. It contains only two sen-
tences, in between which a hippo yawns; the yawn be-
comes a shoe; the shoe becomes a car; and the car
drives away into the blue sky. Concept books in-
cluded alphabet books such as Jo Bannatyne-
Cugnet’s A Prairie Alphabet(1992) and counting
books such asOne Grey Mouse(1995), by Katherine
Burton. The rich multicultural makeup of Canada
encouraged publication of collections of retold tra-
ditional stories, lavishly illustrated.Children’s Fantasy Some critics maintained that
contemporary Americans tended to respond nega-
tively to fantasy literature, possibly because of fear of
the consequences of freeing children to exercise
their imagination, but as the prejudice against such
literature diminished, more American children’s
authors began to produce fantasy works with charac-
ters ranging from ghosts, as in Pam Conrad’sStone-
words: A Ghost Stor y(1990), about Zoe, whose best
friend is a ghost, to dragons such as those inFlight of
the Dragon Kyn(1993), by Susan Fletcher. Other
characters from the animal kingdom were also pop-
ular. Miniature wild spiders come from a plant in
Sally Derby’sJacob and the Stranger(1994), and poi-
sonous spiders from the Ice Age who come to Ver-
mont provide humor in Gregory Maguire’sSeven Spi-
ders Spinning(1994). Among books published in the
United States, by any measure the most successful
fantasy book of the decade was J. K. Rowling’sHarr y
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone(1998; American title),
which was incorporated into the U.S. public school
curriculum and which was first on the 1999 best
seller lists ofThe New York Times,The Wall Street Jour-
nal, andUSA Todayconcurrently. In Great Britain,
the book was titledHarr y Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone(1997).
Fantasy books in Canada during the 1990’s
ranged from stories with imaginative humor to nov-
els that contained moral lessons beneath the humorThe Nineties in America Children’s literature 167
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