European children share a common literary heritage—the Moomintrolls (Finland),
Heidi (Switzerland), Struwwelpeter (Germany), Babar (France), Pippi Longstocking
(Sweden) and Alice (England) are all characters known to many children in different
countries. From Hans Christian Andersen onwards, there are authors who are
universally recognised and loved. Indeed, children’s literature has always had an
international dimension: certain themes and plots enjoy international popularity. The
earliest datable Cinderella story appears in a book written in China in the ninth
century; the ‘desert island’ motif, famously used by Daniel Defoe in Robinson Crusoe
(1719), was quickly embraced by children, and Defoe’s book spawned so many
imitations that ‘Robinsonade’ became a recognised term in European literature: in the
twentieth century there have been countless variants for children from Scott O’Dell’s.
Island of the Blue Dolphins (USA, 1960), to Ivan Southall’s To the Wild Sky (Australia,
1967) and Monique Peyrouton de Ladebat’s survival novel The Village that Slept (France,
1963).
Children in the English-speaking world also share a common literary heritage. The
USA and English-speaking Canada, Australia and New Zealand all exchange books
happily with each other and with Britain, and have done so since each began to produce
their own children’s books. The work of Louisa M.Alcott, L.M. Montgomery, Ivan
Southall and Margaret Mahy may all be as familiar to British children as that of Lewis
Carroll and Robert Louis Stevenson. Since the 1960s West Indian writers such as John
Asgard and James Berry have become part of the British children’s literature scene. In
India, English-speaking Africa and elsewhere, English is a common language in which it
is often more economic to publish than in the wide range of local, indigenous languages.
In the period between 1950 and the late 1980s both the USSR and China recognised the
international standing of English in the world of children’s books and produced
quantities of English language books which were exported and sold cheaply. In India, for
example, in the early 1980s, English language picture books originating in Russia were
more readily accessible in many places than the excellent books published by the
Children’s Book Trust in Delhi, because the cost of production was subsidised.
While countries with small local production may turn to translation, in the USA and
Britain there are so many books available that there is little incentive for publishers to
pay for translations. Although in the 1960s a number of British publishers made a point
of publishing translations of prize-winning books from other European countries,
relatively few were widely bought even by libraries, in the belief that children are easily
deterred by foreign names, footnotes and explanations. Nevertheless many children’s
books, as we have seen, have appeal which crosses national boundaries; it is sad,
therefore, that the number of translated titles may fall as authors are able to meet the
needs of their own countries. Even worse is the feeling in some quarters that in the
1990s children everywhere read far less imaginative literature than they once did.
Spain and Portugal have influenced those countries settled by their adventurers in
previous centuries, and export children’s books to Central and South America. A strong
Portuguese influence can also be seen in Angola. Similarly, children’s books produced in
France enrich the range available in French-speaking Canada and Africa.
Many of the countries along the north coast of Africa are, as far as children’s literature
is concerned, linked to the Arab world. Elsewhere in Africa, countries share the common
THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION 649