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]