The study of children’s literature is not new in the United States. Books designed for a young reader’s edification and entertainment have been a printing industry standard since 1658 with the first Orbis Pictus. Today films like Home and the four-part Hunger Games, which are based on popular books for children, flood the theaters and bring in top dollars on opening weekends. Yet, the status of children’s books as “Literature” has remained questionable. In labeling books like these, a complicated pulling exists between “literature” and “popular” that really took hold as early as the 1920s in the United States. As teachers and librarians both tried to claim children’s literature as their own domains, pedagogical questions emerged as to whether a book could be both popular with readers and contain the value of Literature. As such, this presentation will cover how this historical conflict still exists for today plus its further complication by the introduction of adults as a primary reading audience for young adult and adolescent novels.
About the presenterJ Cassidy
Julie A. S. Cassidy is an Assistant Professor of English with City University of New York (CUNY). Her articles include “Popular” in Keywords for Children’s Literature and “Transporting Nostalgia: Little Golden Books as Souvenirs of Childhood.”