The influence of these books (which became known as ‘rewards’) was pervasive, and
should not be underestimated in literary and cultural terms.
The twentieth centuryIn the twentieth century, the division between mainstream children’s literature and
literature produced for religious reasons began to sharpen. Religious books, including
evangelical stories, are still written for children but now reach a smaller audience; they
are written by the faithful for the faithful, published by specialist publishers and sold
through specialist outlets, often to be distributed as Sunday School prizes. Few parents
see religious content as essential or even desirable in their children’s reading. naïve
offerings of writers motivated by faith rather than talent are not acceptable where
children have access to more choice.
While catechisms and prayer books are the responsibility of the specialist publishers,
the Bible is still an important source of inspiration for mainstream writers and
illustrators. Developments in colour printing have resulted in a wide range of attractive
illustrated collections of Bible stories and picture books.
In 1938 Dorothy P.Lathrop won the first Caldecott Medal for her illustrations in Animals
of the Bible, while in the early 1990s Jane Ray won much acclaim for her picture books,
The Creation (1992), which portrayed a pregnant Eve, Noah’s Ark (1990) and The Story
of Christmas (1991), in which the Virgin Mary is seen to be breastfeeding the Baby
Jesus. Walter de la Mare’s Stories from the Bible (1929) and Margherita Fanchiotti’s
Stories from the Bible (1955) are just two of the many distinguished retellings by major
writers. The life of Christ and lives of the Saints also feature in mainstream publishing as
in Eleanor Graham’s The Story of Jesus (1959), illustrated by Brian Wildsmith, and
Eleanor Farjeon’s Ten Saints (1936), with illustrations by Helen Sewell.
New editions of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress have been published throughout
the twentieth century, although it is no longer as central to children’s lives as it clearly
was in the nineteenth-century (Louisa M.Alcott’s Little Women (1868) is only one of
many books which attest to its influence). Bunyan’s story was retold in The Land of Far-
Beyond (1942) by Enid Blyton, who felt the language of the original was too difficult and
the ideas too hard for twentieth-century children. When this book was reissued in 1973,
with illustrations by the Greenaway Medallist, Pauline Baynes (who also illustrated
C.S.Lewis’s Narnia books) it was severely criticised by Brian Alderson, who compared it
unfavourably with earlier retellings by Mrs Sherwood, A.L.O.E and Frances Hodgson
Burnett which he felt had conveyed the allegoric force of the original (Alderson 1973:13).
One controversial re-visioning (rather than re-telling) of a Biblical text was Julie
Vivas’s The Nativity (1988), while ingenious glosses on Biblical narratives have included
Nicholas Allan’s Jesus’ Christmas Party (1991) and Margaret Gray’s The Donkey’s Tale
(1984).
It is in the field of fiction that the greatest division between mainstream and religious
writing is seen. Evangelical Christian publishing is essentially on the edges of the
children’s book market. In the past, Christian writers produced books in which the
religious message reflected general popular taste: this is no longer the case. For the first
fifty or sixty years of the twentieth-century, however, evangelical fiction for children,
274 TYPES AND GENRES