Monday, December 15, 2008

Economic disasters


Between 1929 and 1939, United States suffered one of the most critical economic period along his history. In those days, Great Depression obligated to many people to emigrate to other areas into United States. Countryside and cities were hardly knocked by this situation, a sad situation. It was the largest and most important economic depression in modern history all around the world.
Sometimes, when I think about the actual economic crisis, I obviously think about that past period of United Stated history too. We hope another Great Drepression doesn’t repeat now….
There are a lot of examples of good books that are based in facts of Great Depression, like The grapes of wrath (John Steinbeck) or Jack London’s creations. There are a lot of children’s books with these characteristics too; one of these books is The gardener, where Sarah Stewart and David Small tell us the story about Lydia Grace, a girl who leaves her home and parents, and goes to the big city with her aunt Jim. There she helps her aunt Jim with his bakery while she plants seeds and bulbs that her grandmother sends her… Read it if you want to know the pretty end. A book very appropriated in these days.
This title obtains a place in Caldecott Honour Books in 1998.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Victorians




We can do comparisons among some Children’s Literature books and we will find certain shared characteristics.
It’s surprising that the best Children’s Literature creations have been written in English. It could sound very strange too, but some Children’s Literature masterpieces were written in the reign of Queen Victoria –Victorian era (second half of 19th century)– , one of the most prolific time period in this kind of Literature.
Writers like James M. Barrie, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens or Robert Louis Stevenson, whose began to write for adults (we can never see Great Expectations or De profundis like Children’s Literature examples…), have been exalted like excellent Children’s Literature creators for ages because traditionally they have been read for children. Titles like Peter Pan & Wendy, Alice in Wonderland, A Christmas Tale or Treasure Island, have fed a lot of children imaginations in the world.
We can add one more detail: it’s a coincidence that their authors were British.
All these things and coincidences have promoted that many Literature investigators and linguists centre his studies in these books or authors.
One of these cases is Alison Lurey’ studies that have been published in some books like Don’t tell the grown-ups: Subversive Children’s Literature. If you are interested in, simply read it.