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Children's books like all books come in fiction and non-fiction. There were a wide variety of both types. One especially popular theme was life at boarding schools, which interestingly reflected only a snall portion of British boys. There were also a variety of non-fiction books. There were also many popular annuals and monthly publications with stories by lesser know authors. Much of this literature in the late and early 20th century was aimed at boys from comfortable if not affluent families. The standard was often boys attending expensive private schools. Since World War II (1939-45) the focus of English children's literature has change markedly and the target audience broadened considerably. We also note different kind of publications. There were monthlys and annuals and omnibus publications which might combine stories, comics, and activity suggestions. We notice publications dealing with sports and Scouts. There were also annual devoted to popular characters like Just William. We also noted different popular themes. After World War II, especially in the 1960s, childen's books became increasingly diverse. We belive that this in pat was due to increasing prosperity that was giving a widerrange of the population the ability to buy children's books.
We are just beginning our assessment of English children's literature. We have found several different over-lapping types of books. But this is just our initial assessment.
Single children's books, like all books, come in fiction and non-fiction. There were a wide variety of both types. A perenial favorite for younger children who can not yet read or who are beginning readers, is the story book. There are a wide variety of story books. Older boys turn to books with adventure or youth themes. British books before World War IIoften had imperaialistic themes. Another especially popular theme was life at boarding schools, which interestingly reflected only a small portion of British boys. In fact much of the literature written before World War I seem written for a small part of the English population. This continued until well after World War II, although not in such a clearly observable way There were also a variety of non-fiction books. There was a relatively limited range of these books until well after World War II when non-fictions books on an increasingly wide range of topics began to appear.
There were popular series of both fiction and non-fiction books. Some are still well known today. Some of the mystery series were the most popular. Some were written in an almost industrial way. Some of the fiction series (Famous Five, Jennings, Secret Seven, Just William, ect.) became cultural icons. Some such as Just William were popular with adults as well as children. There were also non-fiction series as well. While not as well know, some of these non-fiction books were very popular at the time.
Periodicals are a bit different in that they often mix fiction and non-fictional material. There were also many popular annuals and monthly publications with stories by lesser know authors. These annuals seem a particularly English genre. I do not remember comparable American annuals. There were monthlys and annuals and omnibus publications which might combine stories, comics, and activity suggestions. Perhaps the most well known was The Boys' Own Paper which was a monthy publication. I assume that there was a similar girls publication. We notice publications dealing with sports and Scouts. There were also annuals devoted to popular characters like Just William. We also noted different popular themes. Hopefully our British readers will provide us some deatails on the publications that they remember as boys.
An activity book was a children's book that was not limited to lierature or nonfiction reports, but included directions for various activities, both at home and outside the home. Some activity books were really story books with a few activities added. Other activity books were entirely composed of actovities. We are not sure when activity books forst appeared. We begin tgo note them in the 1930s, at least in Britain. We are not sure as to the extent they appaeared in other countries. In Britain we notice the Wonderbook seeies, but there were many others as well.
One particularly interesting type of book is school books. We beliece that this is an especially interesting topic. We believe that hou can tell a great deal about a country by the books prepared for school children. Unfortuntely we have made little progress in this area. We do have one English school reader a 1920s books republished in the 1950s. It includes an illustration by William Fassett. An English HBC reader recalls how the standard reading books in his primary school began to address genfer roles, picturing girls repairing cars and boys in the kitchen.
Much of this literature in the late and early 20th century was aimed at boys from comfortable if not affluent families. The standard was often boys attending expensive private schools. Since World War II (1939-45) the focus of English children's literature has change markedly and the target audience broadened considerably. We also note different kinds of publications. After World War II, especially in the 1960s--children's books became increasingly diverse. We believe that this in part was due to increasing prosperity that was giving a wide range of the population the ability to buy children's books.
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