arry Potter series was written and marketed for children, but it is also popular among adults. The series' extreme popularity led The New York Times to create a separate best-seller list for children's books.[6] Despite the widespread association

8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
Introduction[edit]

There is no single or widely used definition of children's literature.[1]:15–17 It can be broadly defined as anything that children read[2] or more specifically defined as fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama intended for and used by children and young people.[3][4]:xvii Nancy Anderson, of the College of Education at the University of South Florida, defines children's literature as "all books written for children, excluding works such as comic books, joke books, cartoon books, and non-fiction works that are not intended to be read from front to back, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference materials".[5]
The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature notes that "the boundaries of genre... are not fixed but blurred"[1]:4. Sometimes, no agreement can be reached about whether a given work is best categorized as literature for adults or children. Meanwhile, others defy easy categorization. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series was written and marketed for children, but it is also popular among adults. The series' extreme popularity led The New York Times to create a separate best-seller list for children's books.[6]
Despite the widespread association of children's literature with picture books, spoken narratives existed before printing, and the root of many children's tales go back to ancient storytellers [7]:30 Seth Lerer, in the opening of Children's Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter says, "This book presents a history of what children have heard and read... The history I write of is a history of reception."[8]:2
History[edit]

Early children's literature consisted of spoken stories, songs, and poems, that would have ben used to educate, instruct, and entertain children.[9] It was only in the 18th century, with the development of the concept of 'childhood', that a separate genre of children's literature began to emerge, with its own divisions, expectations, and canon.[10]:x-xi
French historian Philippe Ariès argued in his 1962 book Centuries of Childhood that the modern concept of "childhood" only emerged in recent times, and that for the greater part of history, children were not viewed as greatly different from adults, and were not given significantly different treatment.[11]:5 As evidence for this position, he noted that, apart from instructional and didactic texts for children written by clerics like the Venerable Bede, and Ælfric of Eynsham, there was a lack of any genuine literature aimed specifically at children before the 18th century.[12][13]:11
Other scholars have qualified this viewpoint by noting that there was a literature designed to convey the values, attitudes, and information necessary for children within their cultures,[14] such as the Play of Daniel from the 1100s.[8]:46[15]:4 Pre-modern children's literature, therefore, tended to be of a didactic and moralistic nature, with the purpose of conveying conduct-related, educational and religious lessons.[15]:6–8
Antiquity and the Middle Ages[edit]

literature, often with a moral or religious message, has been aimed specifically at children. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries became known as the "Golden Age of Children's Lit

This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (February 2013)


A mother reads to her children, depicted by Jessie Willcox Smith in a cover illustration of a volume of fairy tales written in the mid to late 19th century.
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, and poems that are enjoyed by children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
One can trace children's literature back to stories and songs, part of a wider oral tradition, that adults shared with children before publishing existed. The development of early children's literature, before printing was invented, is difficult to trace. Even after printing became widespread, many classic "children's" tales were originally created for adults and later adapted for a younger audience. Since the 1400s, a large quantity of literature, often with a moral or religious message, has been aimed specifically at children. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries became known as the "Golden Age of Children's Literature" as this period included the publication of many books acknowledged today as classics.
Contents  [hide]
1 Introduction
2 History
2.1 Antiquity and the Middle Ages
2.2 Early-modern Europe
2.3 Origins of the modern genre
2.4 Golden age
2.5 Recent national traditions
2.5.1 Britain
2.5.2 Continental Europe
2.5.3 United States
2.5.4 Russia and USSR
2.5.5 India
2.5.6 China
3 Classification
3.1 By genre
3.2 By age category
4 Illustration
5 Scholarship
6 Awards
7 See also

"Meta-Free-Phor-All" with Sean Penn.[117][118][119] Best Buy sold the DVD with a bonus disc containing several animated Tek Jansen adventures.[120] An hour-long Christmas special A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! was released on DVD November 25, 2008.[121] Music[edit]

r episodes.
Related multimedia[edit]

DVD[edit]
A DVD of highlights from the first two seasons of The Colbert Report was released by Comedy Central on November 6, 2007. Entitled The Best of The Colbert Report, the three-hour disc contains two "The Wørd" segments (including "Truthiness" from the first episode and "Wikiality"), one "Threat Down", various "Better Know a District" segments (including Robert Wexler), and interviews with Bill O'Reilly, Willie Nelson, and Jane Fonda (also included is Fonda's appearance with Gloria Steinem in a segment called "Cooking with Feminists"), as well as the special segments "Green Screen Challenge", "Stephen Jr. – Flight of a Patriot", "Indecision 2006: Midterm Midtacular", and Colbert's "Meta-Free-Phor-All" with Sean Penn.[117][118][119] Best Buy sold the DVD with a bonus disc containing several animated Tek Jansen adventures.[120]
An hour-long Christmas special A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! was released on DVD November 25, 2008.[121]
Music[edit]
Comedy Central released the complete soundtrack of A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All, featuring songs by performers such as Feist, John Legend, Willie Nelson, Toby Keith, Jon Stewart, Elvis Costello, and Colbert himself. It was released exclusively through iTunes.
In June 2011, Jack White's record label Third Man Records released a 7" vinyl single of Stephen Colbert and The Black Belles performing "Charlene II (I'm Over You),"[122] which they also performed together on the show.[123]
I Am America (And So Can You!)[edit]
Main article: I Am America (And So Can You!)
Referred to as a "pure extension" of the show in book form,[citation needed] I Am America (And So Can You!) was released on October 9, 2007. Written by Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report writers, the book covers Colbert's opinions on a wide array of topics not addressed on the show. Red margin notes appear throughout the book, providing reactions and counterpoints to Colbert's arguments in a style comparable to the Report's Wørd segment. The book draws some influence from and also parodies the literary endeavors of the character's pundit models, such as Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor (2000) and Sean Hannity's Deliver Us From Evil (20Children's literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Children's book)
For the academic journal, see Children's Literature (journal).
"Children's book" redirects here. For the A. S. Byatt novel, see The Children's Book.
"Children's story" redirects here. For the song, see Children's Story.