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Children's Literature: A Reader's History, from Aesop to Harry Potter
Ever since children have learned to read, there has been children’s literature. Children’s Literature charts the makings of the Western literary imagination from Aesop’s fables to Mother Goose, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Peter Pan, from Where the Wild Things Are to Harry Potter.
The only single-volume work to capture the rich and diverse history of children’s literature in its full panorama, this extraordinary book reveals why J. R. R. Tolkien, Dr. Seuss, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beatrix Potter, and many others, despite their divergent styles and subject matter, have all resonated with generations of readers. Children’s Literature is an exhilarating quest across centuries, continents, and genres to discover how, and why, we first fall in love with the written word.
“Lerer has accomplished something magical. Unlike the many handbooks to children’s literature that synopsize, evaluate, or otherwise guide adults in the selection of materials for children, this work presents a true critical history of the genre. . . . Scholarly, erudite, and all but exhaustive, it is also entertaining and accessible. Lerer takes his subject seriously without making it dull.”—Library Journal (starred review)>
“Lerer’s history reminds us of the wealth of literature written during the past 2,600 years. . . . With his vast and multidimensional knowledge of literature, he underscores the vital role it plays in forming a child’s imagination. We are made, he suggests, by the books we read.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“There are dazzling chapters on John Locke and Empire, and nonsense, and Darwin, but Lerer’s most interesting chapter focuses on girls’ fiction. . . . A brilliant series of readings.”—Diane Purkiss, Times Literary Supplement
The only single-volume work to capture the rich and diverse history of children’s literature in its full panorama, this extraordinary book reveals why J. R. R. Tolkien, Dr. Seuss, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beatrix Potter, and many others, despite their divergent styles and subject matter, have all resonated with generations of readers. Children’s Literature is an exhilarating quest across centuries, continents, and genres to discover how, and why, we first fall in love with the written word.
“Lerer has accomplished something magical. Unlike the many handbooks to children’s literature that synopsize, evaluate, or otherwise guide adults in the selection of materials for children, this work presents a true critical history of the genre. . . . Scholarly, erudite, and all but exhaustive, it is also entertaining and accessible. Lerer takes his subject seriously without making it dull.”—Library Journal (starred review)>
“Lerer’s history reminds us of the wealth of literature written during the past 2,600 years. . . . With his vast and multidimensional knowledge of literature, he underscores the vital role it plays in forming a child’s imagination. We are made, he suggests, by the books we read.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“There are dazzling chapters on John Locke and Empire, and nonsense, and Darwin, but Lerer’s most interesting chapter focuses on girls’ fiction. . . . A brilliant series of readings.”—Diane Purkiss, Times Literary Supplement
400 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2008
About the author
Seth Lerer
35 books20 followersProfessor Seth Lerer (1956 -) is a contemporary Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford University, specialising in historical analyses of the English language, in addition to critical analyses of the works of several authors, including in particular Geoffrey Chaucer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
September 7, 2019
This book is a truly great accomplishment by Seth Lerer, University of California Professor of Literature. Scholarly yet completely readable, relatable, and enjoyable. For serious book lovers, a total delight!
May 4, 2009
I chose this book for my Social History of Children's Literature class based on the first few chapters, which did a great job of exposing some of the pre-17th century roots of children's reading. Even there, his rather idiosyncratic approach to children's books (they are all about reading and writing - duh), which reflects his background as a philologist.
As we got further into the book, though, it was clear that he had/has a profound ignorance of large swaths of children's literature and of children's literature criticism - another guy coming in from outside to show the world how important kids' books are without realizing that there are those of us who spend our whole careers doing that.
By the time we get to the 20th century, the superficiality of his analysis of some of the texts is astounding, and his discomfort with children's books shows in the proportion of the text that is devoted to discussing writing for adults rather than for children.
Read the early chapters and skip the rest.
As we got further into the book, though, it was clear that he had/has a profound ignorance of large swaths of children's literature and of children's literature criticism - another guy coming in from outside to show the world how important kids' books are without realizing that there are those of us who spend our whole careers doing that.
By the time we get to the 20th century, the superficiality of his analysis of some of the texts is astounding, and his discomfort with children's books shows in the proportion of the text that is devoted to discussing writing for adults rather than for children.
Read the early chapters and skip the rest.
August 22, 2009
So, this book probably would have been much better from the start if it hadn't called itself a history of children's literature. Really, it's a history of pedagogy and child development using literature as somewhat of a thread. At times he some interesting things to say, and I did appreciate the general information about eras and themes and all that, but it was so jumbly and missing so much stuff that it was ultimately a lot of nothing. Too bad. Onto another book.
September 20, 2020
“At the very least I hope that readers will find templates for their own work: ways of reading books I have not discussed, ways of bringing texts into the ambit of the child’s imagination, ways of understanding how a parent and a college professor adjudicates between the love of learning and learning how to love.” (12)
Lerer's examination of children’s literature is a philologist’s and medievalist’s history of what children have read over the centuries. He begins in ancient Greece and Rome, stops over in the medieval era, looks over the shoulders of the Puritans, and settles down in the 19th and 20th centuries for the remainder of the book. The first four chapters offer up strong scholarship that is rarely considered, and you can tell that Lerer began as a medievalist. His work on the Puritans was especially enlightening, and it later spread into his analysis of Little Women, which I appreciated. However, I didn’t really connect with many of the pre-1800s works, since the only ones I knew from that long era were Augustine’s Confessions and Aesop’s fables. Yet, it was really interesting to learn about views of (male) childhood in Greece and Rome and roles of children’s literature over time.
In Chapter 9, “Ill-Tempered and Queer: Sense and Nonsense, from Victorian and Modern,” Lerer writes about the works of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. He chooses to focus on the cultural context of their books rather than looking to their lives for sources of their nonsense, a theme he continues in later chapters. This makes his arguments much more convincing, much more than “x represented y in this story because [insert vaguely Freudian reason here].” It frees the texts to interact more with the real world, and less as interpretive schemes for the psychology of the authors. Sometimes, nonsense is just nonsense, as any child will tell you.
Chapter 10, “Straw into Gold: Fairy-Tale Philology,” was one of my favorite chapters. Throughout the book, especially in centuries after modern English began, Lerer frequently consults the Oxford English Dictionary. He carefully considers word usage and tracking language change over time through children’s literature. Evidently, The Wind in the Willows marks the shift between Victorian English and Edwardian English, with bridges between the vernacular happening in single sentences. He really “gets” Tolkien in this sense, which is simply delightful, and connects the aesthetics of Middle-earth with Grimm’s fairy tales convincingly. Again, he turns to Tolkien's cultural context, and the stories he was drawn to and the sources he explored, rather than trying to play connect the dots with Tolkien's life and work. (Though we all know who Beren and Luthien are supposed to be.)
Given J. K. Rowling’s recent fall from grace, due to her inability to live up to the standard of tolerance she set in the Harry Potter books, I found it exceedingly interesting how Lerer interacted with her books. This book was published in 2008, just a year after the publication of Deathly Hallows. A consideration of children’s literature is hardly complete without Harry Potter now, and Lerer simply inserts Potter where convenient rather than placing it in his chapter on recent children’s literature. For example, he weaves Dumbledore with James A. H. Murray, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, in a glorious section of Chapter 10. They bear so many resemblances, it's impossible to unsee. A few pages later, book vs. movie Hermione stars at the beginning of the chapter on girlhood. In all of this, Lerer hardly ever mentions Rowling’s name, instead referring to them as “the Harry Potter” stories, books, or series. I found this interesting, given how much he referred to other authors by their names instead of their books. I first read the series as an adult, and the world seemed familiar despite my novice. Though Lerer doesn’t parse the series out in much detail, he points to the traditions and sources Rowling drew from. These I was familiar with, if not the books themselves, when I first read them. Similar to Lewis’s “magpie aesthetic” used in creating the Chronicles of Narnia, the Harry Potter series strikes me as less creative/novel than synthesizing. Rowling drew on the long tradition of the English school story, the classic orphan/chosen one setup, and familiar beasts/creatures from broadly European/British folklore. Two centuries’ worth of girls’ literature went into Hermione, who, like so many women, bears the burdens of the trio, be they intellectual, moral, or relational, freeing Ron to be the goof and Harry to be the hero. While she is more than the caddy for the group, she does not quite lose the trappings of being the "mom friend." I think this is why the books caught on like they did. They used familiar cultural touchpoints and made them fantastic again.
Lerer has an acknowledged Western, American focus. Children’s literature is so wholly broad that he leaves certain important areas untouched: illustration; comic books; series fiction (with its many sub-genres); and anime, manga, and graphic novels, to name a few. Any comprehensive study of children’s literature would be a multi-volume, multi-author production published over a decade or more. Thus, I find it hard to hold any lacunae against Lerer. Each chapter is a deep dive into a particular subject, and I don’t always see those subjects covered in other studies. This is just one book among many on this vast, important, and whimsical topic.
I do wish the blurb author had actually read the manuscript, or at a list of subjects to be compiled in the index. It mentions Laura Ingalls Wilder, who gets one (1) mention in a brief sentence about the rural-to-urban shift in recent children’s literature. There is plenty of research out there on Wilder, so my beef is not with the lack of inclusion, but instead with the fact that her name is used to sell the book when she gets so little page time. Lerer discusses female authors like Louisa May Alcott, L. M. Montgomery, and Frances Hodgson Burnett at length, all of whom have larger readerships than Wilder (Little House on the Prairie has just over 250,000 reviews on Goodreads, while Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden have well over 500,000 each. Little Women clocks in at over 1,000,000). With Lerer’s focus on Edwardian children’s literature, it would have been helpful to mention an Edwardian author like Montgomery or Burnett to hint at this focus.
All in all, this was a lovely scholarly work on children’s literature, giving me lots of food for thought about interpretation, change, and stability in childhood reading over the years. It is quite “heavy,” and didn’t contain as many pictures as it should, but I found a wealth of resources in the endnotes and look forward to continuing my exploration of children’s literature.
Lerer's examination of children’s literature is a philologist’s and medievalist’s history of what children have read over the centuries. He begins in ancient Greece and Rome, stops over in the medieval era, looks over the shoulders of the Puritans, and settles down in the 19th and 20th centuries for the remainder of the book. The first four chapters offer up strong scholarship that is rarely considered, and you can tell that Lerer began as a medievalist. His work on the Puritans was especially enlightening, and it later spread into his analysis of Little Women, which I appreciated. However, I didn’t really connect with many of the pre-1800s works, since the only ones I knew from that long era were Augustine’s Confessions and Aesop’s fables. Yet, it was really interesting to learn about views of (male) childhood in Greece and Rome and roles of children’s literature over time.
In Chapter 9, “Ill-Tempered and Queer: Sense and Nonsense, from Victorian and Modern,” Lerer writes about the works of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. He chooses to focus on the cultural context of their books rather than looking to their lives for sources of their nonsense, a theme he continues in later chapters. This makes his arguments much more convincing, much more than “x represented y in this story because [insert vaguely Freudian reason here].” It frees the texts to interact more with the real world, and less as interpretive schemes for the psychology of the authors. Sometimes, nonsense is just nonsense, as any child will tell you.
Chapter 10, “Straw into Gold: Fairy-Tale Philology,” was one of my favorite chapters. Throughout the book, especially in centuries after modern English began, Lerer frequently consults the Oxford English Dictionary. He carefully considers word usage and tracking language change over time through children’s literature. Evidently, The Wind in the Willows marks the shift between Victorian English and Edwardian English, with bridges between the vernacular happening in single sentences. He really “gets” Tolkien in this sense, which is simply delightful, and connects the aesthetics of Middle-earth with Grimm’s fairy tales convincingly. Again, he turns to Tolkien's cultural context, and the stories he was drawn to and the sources he explored, rather than trying to play connect the dots with Tolkien's life and work. (Though we all know who Beren and Luthien are supposed to be.)
Given J. K. Rowling’s recent fall from grace, due to her inability to live up to the standard of tolerance she set in the Harry Potter books, I found it exceedingly interesting how Lerer interacted with her books. This book was published in 2008, just a year after the publication of Deathly Hallows. A consideration of children’s literature is hardly complete without Harry Potter now, and Lerer simply inserts Potter where convenient rather than placing it in his chapter on recent children’s literature. For example, he weaves Dumbledore with James A. H. Murray, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, in a glorious section of Chapter 10. They bear so many resemblances, it's impossible to unsee. A few pages later, book vs. movie Hermione stars at the beginning of the chapter on girlhood. In all of this, Lerer hardly ever mentions Rowling’s name, instead referring to them as “the Harry Potter” stories, books, or series. I found this interesting, given how much he referred to other authors by their names instead of their books. I first read the series as an adult, and the world seemed familiar despite my novice. Though Lerer doesn’t parse the series out in much detail, he points to the traditions and sources Rowling drew from. These I was familiar with, if not the books themselves, when I first read them. Similar to Lewis’s “magpie aesthetic” used in creating the Chronicles of Narnia, the Harry Potter series strikes me as less creative/novel than synthesizing. Rowling drew on the long tradition of the English school story, the classic orphan/chosen one setup, and familiar beasts/creatures from broadly European/British folklore. Two centuries’ worth of girls’ literature went into Hermione, who, like so many women, bears the burdens of the trio, be they intellectual, moral, or relational, freeing Ron to be the goof and Harry to be the hero. While she is more than the caddy for the group, she does not quite lose the trappings of being the "mom friend." I think this is why the books caught on like they did. They used familiar cultural touchpoints and made them fantastic again.
Lerer has an acknowledged Western, American focus. Children’s literature is so wholly broad that he leaves certain important areas untouched: illustration; comic books; series fiction (with its many sub-genres); and anime, manga, and graphic novels, to name a few. Any comprehensive study of children’s literature would be a multi-volume, multi-author production published over a decade or more. Thus, I find it hard to hold any lacunae against Lerer. Each chapter is a deep dive into a particular subject, and I don’t always see those subjects covered in other studies. This is just one book among many on this vast, important, and whimsical topic.
I do wish the blurb author had actually read the manuscript, or at a list of subjects to be compiled in the index. It mentions Laura Ingalls Wilder, who gets one (1) mention in a brief sentence about the rural-to-urban shift in recent children’s literature. There is plenty of research out there on Wilder, so my beef is not with the lack of inclusion, but instead with the fact that her name is used to sell the book when she gets so little page time. Lerer discusses female authors like Louisa May Alcott, L. M. Montgomery, and Frances Hodgson Burnett at length, all of whom have larger readerships than Wilder (Little House on the Prairie has just over 250,000 reviews on Goodreads, while Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden have well over 500,000 each. Little Women clocks in at over 1,000,000). With Lerer’s focus on Edwardian children’s literature, it would have been helpful to mention an Edwardian author like Montgomery or Burnett to hint at this focus.
All in all, this was a lovely scholarly work on children’s literature, giving me lots of food for thought about interpretation, change, and stability in childhood reading over the years. It is quite “heavy,” and didn’t contain as many pictures as it should, but I found a wealth of resources in the endnotes and look forward to continuing my exploration of children’s literature.
July 8, 2021
Disappointing, because it sounded so good! Incredibly dry (which is hard to do with something as wonderful as classic children's literature!) and really poor literary analysis. Skip it.
November 28, 2017
A very readable book that I used in my History of Children's Literature grad class. I enjoyed the historical aspect and how societal changes has affected how books are written and read today.
July 24, 2009
I really like Lerer's senses of the poetry in his prose--this isn't a dry theory book. However, his training as a philologist tends to make his entire outlook philological. There are many times I was disappointed in the binaries he would construct without addressing, and other times when his chapters held a great deal of promise that he never delivered on (the chapter on style in particular could have been amazing, but instead exchanged in-depth exploration for breadth of textual examples from fewer sources). The introduction and final chapter (not epilogue) are incredibly useful, and very enjoyable reads--again, Lerer writes academic prose in a really wonderfully poetic way--but definitely check this one out from the library instead of purchasing it.
Read
May 17, 2011Potentially fascinating topic, but the execution prevented me from getting far. The author's writing style ("pompous literary cricitic", maybe?) irritated me to no end and made it hard to dig the concrete points out of the floaty, winding reams of text with no clear direction. He seemed to want to make connections between topics on the most tenuous of points, resulting in nearly every paragraph starting with either "Indeed, ..." or "So, too, did...".
Rant over. Some of the good bits included a look at how different historical cultures perceived children and childhood based on their literature; that "childhood" as a concept is not universal; and the children's books are the most popular segment of book publishing in our age.
Rant over. Some of the good bits included a look at how different historical cultures perceived children and childhood based on their literature; that "childhood" as a concept is not universal; and the children's books are the most popular segment of book publishing in our age.
January 6, 2013
I really enjoyed and found helpful Dr. Lerer's analysis of ancient literature. While I found myself disagreeing with some of his assertions as he discussed more modern literature, I do have to admit this book made me rethink some of my own opinions about children's literature.
December 12, 2022
Did not finish. Alas! I was so excited by the premise of this book, but its title is sadly misleading. It’s not first and foremost a “reader’s history,” as it’s surprisingly light on history and heavy on analysis. This wouldn’t be the end of the world if the analysis were worthwhile, but it isn’t. It’s pompous and wordy and devoid of any real insight. It reminded me very much of the character of Charles from the “Freddy the Pig” books; Charles is a pompous rooster who is always making long-winded and sort of impressive-sounding speeches that say absolutely nothing!
April 29, 2026
This was an extremely long book, and it acts as a good overview of children's literature. The reoccurring theme of education and children's literature was really interesting, which makes sense why at the University of Cambridge, children's literature is a part of the education faculty rather than the english faculty. I don't think I needed to read most of this, and a lot of this book is a bit pointless to read without the context of having read the referenced books. The chapter on Darwin's influence on children's literature was probably my favorite, with the earlier chapter on Virgil in the classroom being similarly interesting.
May 27, 2013
Did I finish this? No, I didn't even come close. After 6 weeks with this I barely got past ancient Greece/Rome. It was nice how Lerer included orally dictated stories as well as written, but I was bored out of my mind. He would continue to revisit points he clearly made earlier as if he hadn't said them at all, then reference obscure stories (to those, like myself, unfamiliar with various legends and stories from any given era and area) as if they were as common as Biblical stories. It made for a slow read, even with skimming. It was also clear that he had little to no respect for more recent Children's Literature. I would love to say that I'll come back to this, but I most likely will not. I picked this up for the sheer fun of expanding my understanding of the cultural and historical impact of Children's Literature, and this was far from fun.
September 30, 2009
Read it for the history (Aesop - 19th century) if you enjoy historical background and stop there.
I got excited about from the introduction and first couple of chapters. As a historian and children's librarian, I found the background on older (and ancient) works quite interesting. But once he got to the modern (20th and 21st century) I disagreed with just about everything he wrote. It seems that he doesn't like or enjoy anything written after 1950. Besides, not every modern book has to be literature, or ironic or pushing an author's agenda. These are books for children - what about pure fun? Additionally, I feel that illustrations are a significant part of children's literature today and he gave it a cursory and weak overview tacked on in the final chapter.
I got excited about from the introduction and first couple of chapters. As a historian and children's librarian, I found the background on older (and ancient) works quite interesting. But once he got to the modern (20th and 21st century) I disagreed with just about everything he wrote. It seems that he doesn't like or enjoy anything written after 1950. Besides, not every modern book has to be literature, or ironic or pushing an author's agenda. These are books for children - what about pure fun? Additionally, I feel that illustrations are a significant part of children's literature today and he gave it a cursory and weak overview tacked on in the final chapter.
July 30, 2022
I read this book as the main text for my History of Children's Literature class for my master's class. This is definitely a Euro-centric text without really acknowledging that, and sometimes Lerer's discussions of racism and colonialism are definitely clunky and cringeworthy. Also, although often enlightening and the area of the author's expertise, either the first chapters were written more circuitously or it took a while to get used to his writing style. I definitely enjoyed the back half of the book a lot more. Lerer is a professional philologist, and he filters his history through that lens (what the "reader's history" part of the title means), but overall a broad and enlightening introduction to Western children's literature.
January 8, 2017
Elaborate (and exceedingly unconvincing) theories based on surprisingly little knowledge of actual history--and an astonishing degree of ignorance of, and ignoring of, a vast range of writing for young people across the centuries. The book refers at the end to theories of bullshitting--the building of complex webs of words on as little real knowledge as possible--and is itself a perfect example of it. A very bad book. For more, see:
http://pernodel.wordpress.com/2009/01...
http://pernodel.wordpress.com/2009/01...
January 22, 2018
Being a first grade teacher, I LOVE children's books so I was excited about reading this. I have to admit, though, that it took me a long time to finish it. The first several chapters were not that interesting to me...probably because they're about ancient literature I've never heard of. The last couple were quite good and made up for the beginning. Also, who writes a 30 page introduction? (It wasn’t really 30 pages, but felt like it)
June 17, 2008
I actually began reading this book last May. Aside from the author's relative lack of familiarity with the field of children's literature studies, the book is boring beyond belief. I didn't finish it, but I finally wanted to get it off my currently-reading list, so I've marked it [half-]read.
March 17, 2009
Painfully dry and completely marginalizes women authors and the feminine in the literature.
August 1, 2009
Bored to tears while reading about one of my favorites topics? No thanks Lerer. I feel like throwing it over my shoulder in a huff, Angelina style.
July 19, 2014
Boooooorrrriiinnngggg. zzzzzzzzzz
January 20, 2021
When he writes about books I know well I often disagreed with some of what he said, so who knows about his arguments about the older work?! But it's helpful as a very broad, shallow history.
March 13, 2018
The basic thesis of this book is that the history of children’s writing is a history of reading ; of the ways, didactic and otherwise, that books shape our childhoods .
This works to an extent and fascinating ground is covered : Use of Aesop in Ancient Greece , medieval teaching , Puritan literacy that fed secular equivalents , Victorian and Edwardian trends and finally some nods to modern developments .
His train of thought on how modern books continue to owe to the past and the way texts reflect us is interesting and valuable : but, too much of importance is missing. The author is right that there isn’t room for everything but important trends are missed. The teenage detective genre from Nancy Drew ( who gets a quick passing mention ) to Enid Blyton May have had its day a bit (Alex Rider arguably owes more to Bond than Drew)but it’s influence was huge ; many women in positions of power today cite Drew as an empowering influence . The tracing of the boarding school novel goes no further than the turn of the last century , but through the lines of Billy Bunter , Jennings and again Enid Blyton and Elinor Brent Dyer, the genre survived to flourish as the comprehensive school novel in the new age of social realism in children’s writing (Bernard Ashley etc) before re emerging in the more fantastical context of Harry Potter . And on the subject of children’s realism it was a huge turn that paved the way for tv series such as Grange Hill and Degrassi whose achievements in dealing with young peoples issues was immense , but the only mention here is given to Judy Blume and her then fresh treatment of adolescence and emergent sexuality .
The ever iconic Roald Dahl ( to whom it has always seemed to me that Harry Potter, with its neglected childhood into which magic breaks has always owed this intellectual debt ) is thankfully mentioned via Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Mr Fix; odd however for a book so focussed on the philology and pedagogy of children’s writing to omit Dahl’s most bookish heroine , Matilda , feels odd.
There is also no mention of the childhood gothic; the gothic has always under the cloak of fantasy dealt with real emotional issues that real world fiction was slower to allow coverage of ; in point horror and romance Kay the beginning of the YA genre as it now is; again The sole mention goes to Blume .
Still , interesting all the same though again I could name authors without whom no treatment of myth in children’s books Is complete !
Via audible
This works to an extent and fascinating ground is covered : Use of Aesop in Ancient Greece , medieval teaching , Puritan literacy that fed secular equivalents , Victorian and Edwardian trends and finally some nods to modern developments .
His train of thought on how modern books continue to owe to the past and the way texts reflect us is interesting and valuable : but, too much of importance is missing. The author is right that there isn’t room for everything but important trends are missed. The teenage detective genre from Nancy Drew ( who gets a quick passing mention ) to Enid Blyton May have had its day a bit (Alex Rider arguably owes more to Bond than Drew)but it’s influence was huge ; many women in positions of power today cite Drew as an empowering influence . The tracing of the boarding school novel goes no further than the turn of the last century , but through the lines of Billy Bunter , Jennings and again Enid Blyton and Elinor Brent Dyer, the genre survived to flourish as the comprehensive school novel in the new age of social realism in children’s writing (Bernard Ashley etc) before re emerging in the more fantastical context of Harry Potter . And on the subject of children’s realism it was a huge turn that paved the way for tv series such as Grange Hill and Degrassi whose achievements in dealing with young peoples issues was immense , but the only mention here is given to Judy Blume and her then fresh treatment of adolescence and emergent sexuality .
The ever iconic Roald Dahl ( to whom it has always seemed to me that Harry Potter, with its neglected childhood into which magic breaks has always owed this intellectual debt ) is thankfully mentioned via Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Mr Fix; odd however for a book so focussed on the philology and pedagogy of children’s writing to omit Dahl’s most bookish heroine , Matilda , feels odd.
There is also no mention of the childhood gothic; the gothic has always under the cloak of fantasy dealt with real emotional issues that real world fiction was slower to allow coverage of ; in point horror and romance Kay the beginning of the YA genre as it now is; again The sole mention goes to Blume .
Still , interesting all the same though again I could name authors without whom no treatment of myth in children’s books Is complete !
Via audible
April 23, 2024
"Children's Literature: A Reader's History, from Aesop to Harry Potter" by Seth Lerer offers a detailed look into how children's books have changed over time. Lerer takes readers on a journey from ancient stories like those of Aesop to modern favorites like Harry Potter, showing how these stories have always been a big part of how kids see the world. He looks at how these books not only tell fun tales but also teach kids about right and wrong and reflect the changing ideas about children and learning in society.
Lerer digs deep, looking at how the times and the culture around the stories have shaped what's written for kids. He shows how kids books do a lot more than just entertain; they help kids understand their own world and the people in it. Lerer covers key ideas like why fantasy and realism are important in these books, and how ideas about what it means to be a child have evolved.
This book shows just how important children's books can be. Lerer writes in a way that makes these ideas clear and interesting to everyone, whether you're a teacher, a parent, or just someone who loves books. What makes this book a WOW book is its ability to make us appreciate the depth and influence of children's literature. It's not just about stories for kids it's about how these stories shape generations. Overall, Seth Lerer's book is an important read for anyone interested in how books have shaped and continue to shape young minds.
Lerer digs deep, looking at how the times and the culture around the stories have shaped what's written for kids. He shows how kids books do a lot more than just entertain; they help kids understand their own world and the people in it. Lerer covers key ideas like why fantasy and realism are important in these books, and how ideas about what it means to be a child have evolved.
This book shows just how important children's books can be. Lerer writes in a way that makes these ideas clear and interesting to everyone, whether you're a teacher, a parent, or just someone who loves books. What makes this book a WOW book is its ability to make us appreciate the depth and influence of children's literature. It's not just about stories for kids it's about how these stories shape generations. Overall, Seth Lerer's book is an important read for anyone interested in how books have shaped and continue to shape young minds.
June 18, 2025
This was a helpful read in my pursuit of rounding out my knowledge of the history of children’s literature. I especially enjoyed Lerer’s coverage of the Aesopica and the ways it shaped, and was shaped by the childhood, values, and social imagination of the ancient and medieval western world. In this thorough walk through history, there’s at least one chapter on books for boys and how 17th-20th century books were shaped by ideals of control and domination. The chapter on girls’ fiction was good too, but I found it less compelling, perhaps because it’s more familiar territory. For me, some highlights were his mention of the impact of Isaac Watts, his description of the establishing of children’s rooms in public libraries, and his commentary on Stuart Little, a book I had previously dismissed as episodic and weaker than White’s other work.
My only complaint is that the segues in this scholarly work are so clever that I found myself wondering if he was distracting the reader as a ploy to avoid offering additional evidence for his points or deeper literary insights in his commentary. I listened to the book. I just may need to get a paper copy to more carefully follow the thought process at the places where the smooth and sparkling prose served to bamboozle this reader.
My only complaint is that the segues in this scholarly work are so clever that I found myself wondering if he was distracting the reader as a ploy to avoid offering additional evidence for his points or deeper literary insights in his commentary. I listened to the book. I just may need to get a paper copy to more carefully follow the thought process at the places where the smooth and sparkling prose served to bamboozle this reader.
September 16, 2020
Insightful and informative review of the reader's history of children's literature from the Greek and Roman eras, to Victorian and Edwardian, and concluding with the beginning of the twenty-first century. I appreciate that this was written from a philologist perspective as it allowed me to see familiar children's classics in a new light when it comes to the use of language. I also appreciate his blunt and honest analysis of what the late 20th & early 21st century of children's literature looks like. Considering this was published in 2008, I'm quite curious what an additional chapter would look like that covers the last 10+ years of children's literature studies. Lastly, I loved that the book's Epilogue highlighted the important aspect of the history of the book (book as both artifact and content) and how well it pairs with children's literature. Indeed, these books were once treasures and gilded like ones. What does this tell us of children's literacy, books and reading, then and now? What does the future of children's literature and books look like?
July 31, 2022
I read this book for my History of Children's Literature class. I was really hopeful that it would be interesting from the subject matter and lively publisher description. And some of it was. I thought it gave a decent (but certainly not exhaustive) survey of what's been available and popular through the ages (or more like, pre-1950, since modern children's lit is only touched on) in the Western world. I learned some things. But the writing is on the drier side--not quite as bad as academic journals, but I can't picture many people who happen to love children's lit picking up this book for "fun" reading. Some sections definitely needed more context; at times I had to google lesser-known titles because the book was talking all about them without really saying what they were about, while other more popular titles were adequately described. And sometimes I was scratching my head over the things Lerer chose to focus on while leaving out what I think would've been more interesting topics. But I did make it through the whole book, so that's something.
August 19, 2026
This was a very helpful introduction to understanding the origin and history of Children's Literature. I found the progression to line up helpfully with the recent book I read about the history of libraries. I definitely liked this one, but a few times he read into things beyond the author's intention or purpose. For example, he talked about the color limitations of Dr. Seuss books and what it symbolized, but when I read a book about Dr. SeussDr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography, it said that he was concerned about keeping Beginner Books sturdy (hardcover) and cost-efficient (limited colors to save printing costs), so I don't think it could be what Lerer claimed it to be, which I can't fully explain because I kind of zoned out. Overall, it was helpful for those looking for an introduction to the subject.
May 17, 2026
Loved it! Tis the kind of book that makes you fall in love with reading all over again. I picked it up through the Portland LGBT+ Book Club, and I was fascinated by the way Lerer traces the journey of children’s stories from Aesop’s fables to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, showing how these books have shaped generations of readers. What stood out to me most was how he connects beloved authors like J. R. R. Tolkien and Dr. Seuss, proving that stories written for children carry some of the most powerful ideas in literature. If you’ve ever wondered why the books you read as a child still live in your imagination, this is an unforgettable and rewarding read.
May 17, 2026
I didn’t expect a book about children’s literature to feel this personal, but it genuinely made me rethink the stories I grew up with. Came across this through the Portland LGBT+ Book Club and loved the way it moves from ancient fables to modern works without treating any era as “less important” than another. I especially dig how it explains why certain children’s books stick with us long after childhood, not just because of plot, but because of how they shape imagination and early curiosity. It’s thoughtful without being heavy, and easy to stay with even when the ideas get deep. If you’ve ever looked back at the books that raised your imagination, this is absolutely worth your time.
May 26, 2026
Children’s Literature is one of the most comprehensive explorations of the evolution of storytelling for young readers that I’ve encountered. What stood out most during our Portland LGBT+ Book Club discussion was the way Seth Lerer traces the relationship between morality, imagination, and cultural instruction across centuries.
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