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Where Imagination Begins

Books for children are such a major part of contemporary publishing that it’s hard to imagine a time without them. But they are a relatively new phenomenon.

In ancient times, before books, children listened to oral stories like tales of the Trojan War and Aesop’s Fables. During the medieval era children were thought of as small adults, so there was no literature specifically for them. The production of instructional books for young readers, such the Horn Book and the New England Primer, began in the Renaissance, although books written for adults and containing graphic scenes of torture and death also continued to be popular amongst children.

The first golden age of books for children began in England from the mid-19th century, and saw the rise of the illustrated book. Master printer of the day, Edmund Evans, commissioned woodblock illustrations by renowned artists for a series of 'Toy Books'. A wonderful example of this genre is Walter Crane's Puss in Boots.

Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, the range of literature for children and young adults has continued to expand. As well as the picture books with simple narratives for young children, there are now picture books with complex social themes, such as Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing, that are aimed at older readers.