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© Janet Preslar

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE... a BRIEF History: Aesop's Fables

Children's Literature has evolved over the years in response to the world's changing ideas about children and childhood.
Family closeness, reflected in extended families and regions of related individuals, was a product partly of the tendency for its populations to be fairly stationary. Traditionally, many folks would be born and die within a 25 miles radius. "Many moves, as from villages and towns, are circulatory: the people begin at, go away from, but ultimately return to the same dwelling place and community" (Chapman). While this has changed due to wars and economic changes in an increasingly less fuedal and more capitalist society, this trend is turning completely around and now Asian countries are in the top ten for migration due to war and economics. Japanese Children's Literature Examples Chinese Children's Literature Examples Southeast Asian Children's Literature Examples Themes: Honor, Bravery, Duty and Loyalty, magic Characters: animals, spirits children (usually boys) royalty and workers

Works Cited

Circulation in Population Movement: Substance and concepts from the Melanesian case by Murray Chapman and R. Mansell Prothero feds.) (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985) 483 pages.
Saltman, Judith. Trade and Plumbcake Forever. The Riverside Anthology of Children's Literature, 6th ed. Houghton Mifflin, 1985.