adult interest in books through the rapid growth of teacher training and of school
libraries. Rose’s (1984) is a fascinating account of the relationship between schooling
and literature. The second factor was the growth of innovative techniques in printing
and publishing and the rise in new technologies which made for mass production. More
care and attention could be given to the physical format of texts for the young.
Developments in the form and production of the picture book in the post 1950 years are
a prime example.
After Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows and the works of E.Nesbit,
twentieth-century fiction for the young was able to develop what the Rustins term ‘a
diversity of modes of exploration of central life experiences, reflecting the complexity of
society as it is experienced by child readers’ (Rustin and Rustin 1987:21). Increasingly
sophisticated insights into childhood gave rise to more sensitive depictions of children’s
lives and feelings. It was realised that young children may be small, but their emotions
are large. A post-Freudian generation of adult readers have seen the symbolic
possibilities within literature for the young.
The twentieth-century development of a whole field of literature for young children
was one element in an emergent culture of childhood in Western society. The language
used to talk about stories for children parallels and draws upon the discourses of
psychology, child development, educational theory, psychoanalysis and social policy.
Whereas ages and stages can be unhelpful and over-simplifying, it is appropriate in this
survey to think in terms of the years of infancy (birth to 5); the early years (5 to 7) and
of the newly independent (7 to 10).
Birth to FiveInterest in the earliest years of child development, drawing upon educationalists such as
Froebel and Pestalozzi and psychologists such as Piaget and Vygotsky have changed our
perceptions. Children are no longer seen as passive recipients of adult knowledge but as
active agents, learning about their environment through a continuous process of
assimilation and adjustment to novel experience and emotions. It is now widely
acknowledged that books play a crucial part in early learning by providing strong and
accessible images of the world.
Books with clearly defined, uncluttered pictures and bright primary colours like those
of the Dutch artist, Dick Bruna, are appealing to very young children. Dorothy Butler’s
work is an outstanding account of the ways in which books play a part in children’s
development from their earliest days. There are startling, yet very practical accounts of
how books such as Bruna’s alphabet books can make an impact upon children as young
as eight months. (Butler 1980:28, and see Butler’s excellent bibliography which includes
all the classic alphabet, concept, animal and counting books).
During the past twenty years, there has been a growth in the number of books
designed to stimulate children’s senses and to encourage investigation. The British
artist, Janet Ahlberg, who with her husband Allan, has achieved success in many areas,
produced several books popular with the very youngest children which illustrate the
power of books in the child’s exploration of the world. The Baby’s Catalogue (1982) uses
the textual format of the trade catalogues which are often the first written texts that a
BOOKS FOR YOUNGER READERS 375