The Cool Web [antikvár]

Introduction In 1969 a collection of essays about books and writing for children appeared in Canada under the Oxford University Press imprint with the title Only Connect. The essays were chosen by Canadian teachers who studied and taught literature for children and whose concern was to show that, if the author's art is good enough, books for children are 'an essential part of the whole realm of literary activity, to be discussed in the same terms and judged by the same standards as would apply to any other branch of writing.' They continue by saying 'We do not subscribe to the view that criticism of children's books calls for the adoption of a special scale of values.' By including in the book the now classic pieces by T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and others, the editors summed up the claims that were being made for children's books at that time by authors, critics, librarians, and publishers (but, in England, less by teachers): that writing and reading stories for children was an activity of creative significance which adults could take seriously. They suggested that literature, however defined, began with Beatrix Potter and stretched in a developmental line to the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man-, that myth, legend, and fairy tales are archetypal forms which engage the imagination at an early age, and that children's literature has its own genres, comparable with those in adult literature, to be delineated and studied. This is an important thesis, built up from the statements of those whose contribution to children's literature is outstanding. It has a counterpart in the wider realm of certain kinds of literary criticism which maintains that literature is a vehicle for learning to mature, where 'mature' means putting away or growing out of childish things, and these things might even include fairy-stories, science fiction, and formula novels. While Only Connect and a more recent collection, Children and Literature, confirmed the belief of its editors and readers in the importance of adult standards and judgements of children's literature, it left essential questions unexamined. What do children actually get out of reading ? Do all children profit equally ? Do we really 'grow out of' fairy stories ? Can we be so sure about what a good book is without reference to the reader ? How can we form judgements when the reader cannot be S. Ego Seta/. Only Connect OUP Toronto 1969 V. Haviland (editor) Children and Literature Scott, Foresman 1973 English edition The Bodley Head 1974