A Shell with zig-zag etchings is left at a site on the Solo River in Java. It is found by Eugene Dubois along with bones classified as Homo-erectus, Trinil 2 sart. Is the shell art, doodles, or a means for communicating?

Source: Jonathon Keats: in Discover July 2015

Also Smithsonian article

Explore more early artifacts on our Technology, science, math, engineering (STEM) timeline

An auroch bone fragment engraved with six lines is left at a site in Israel. Art, communication, doodling?

Source

Cave drawings: could have been warnings, messages, recorded history, maps, or Illustrations or prompts for

Oral traditions: see rock art dogs, bison sculptures, cave art pig,
Other media

• Notched sticks
• Rope quipu
• Wampum

What is writing?

Writing is a product of civilization, but it is not a necessary product of civilization.

Writing seems to evolve in a social group context (religious, political …) starting with symbols, which gradually became associated with sounds.

Also created hieroglyphics: sacred writings, which are carved or painted on to into bone, stone, hides, skin, ceramics, wood, bark, and later on papyrus.

Cuneiform is wedge shaped symbols pressed into clay tablets by the Sumerians who live along the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers, in Mesopotamia.

Stone is scarce so they use clay tablets and a stylus to create pictograms and ideograms. Such as: an open hand = peace, closed hand = war, crown, dish... Later started to use phonograms, which will also be used in European alphabets and Chinese characters. However, there lacks clear evidence of any links from Mesopotamia to Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese characters, and Mesoamerican scripts.

Writing is a product of civilization, but it is not a necessary product of civilization.

Writing seems to evolve in a social group context (religious, political …) starting with symbols, which gradually became associated with sounds.

Also created is hieroglyphics, which are sacred writings that are carved, painted, and later brushed on papyrus.

Among the Sumerians tablets is what might be the oldest recorded story?

An English version of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Humbaba, and an image of a statue of Gilgamesh, in the Louvre Museum.

Sample of Gilgamesh in cuneiform.

A clay pot in Canaanite is inscribed with six letters on two lines.

It may be the first use of the alphabet. It is believed the first of two lines spells the word ebed, meaning slave or servant combined with the name of a local god to symbolize devotion. The second line nophet, meaning nectar or honey.

What do you think the message is?

China writing on bones - Oracle bones Shang China

Source

• Hebrew and Arabic creates the first alphabet
• Phoenicians didn't have vowels. They borrowed ideas from the Egyptians.
• Greeks took some sounds from the Phoenicians and developed the first writing to represent all sounds with 24 letters.

See chart that compares early languages and the evolution of the alphabet

Aesop’s Fables  are written.

Most are tales with animals who are the anthropomorphic (human characteristics) characters with a short story line with a moral (lesson or theme about what is wise or right and wrong). They have been popular throughout history from which ideas have been used in various stories and media to entertain children and cnovey moral messages. Aesop may or may not have been an actual person, however, legend claims he was a slave who gained his freedom and became a wise advisor to a king.

His fables are translated into English in 1484.

Paper originated in China. Its use spread to the middle east in 500, Italy 1270, and Europe 1300.

Paper is introduced westward with Arab trade and expansion. It becomes the preferred surface for writing and printing as it can be quickly made and in large quantities. It is light, flexible, and can reliably be printed on. As a result, it will replace the use of costly parchment, made from animal skins.

Book comes from boc, Anglos Saxon word for beech, since they carved letters into slabs of beech bark.

See nice history on development of the modern hardback book.

Scroll of Animals, Toba Sajo.

The Grolier Codex. consists of eleven damaged sheets of fig-bark paper that is an almanac for the planet Venus. It is thought to have originally been about twenty pages. It is written and illustrated in a combination of Maya and Mixtec

Source

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

The tale of Three Young Men and Death

Johann Gutenberg is the first to use movable type with a printing press (probably adapted from an olive or wine press) to print a complete book with this method. See STEAM timeline

• Movable type is first made with wood blocks and later metal plates.
• Johann uses small metal prisms (lead) that are precisely cast in large quantities so they can be set into a grid, used, reset, and used again.
• Printing and movable type also meant a choice of style of text from hand written (calligraphy) script, written by scribes to print used by printers with the printing press.
• The big advantage at the time is: faster production and lower cost. Later readability along with communication for different styles and tones will also be considerations for chosing one over the other.

The first book he prints is the Gutenberg Bible. He also prints and sells other religious stories and playing cards.

• Gutenberg prints 180, two-volume Bibles in his workshop in about 1454.
• Before that, books are copied by hand and the process takes about a year.
• Gutenberg prints his in about six months.
• Each Gutenberg Bible has nearly 1,300 pages and weighs about 60 pounds. It's written in Latin and printed in double columns, with 42 lines per page. Most on paper, a few on animal skin, known as vellum.
• His press, prints the black letters and decorations were added by hand along with bindings for each buyer's taste and budget.

William Caxton was the first printer in England. Some titles he printed were: Caxton's Book of Curtesye, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, The Boke of Histories of Hason, The Hi

torye of Reynart the Foxe, and The Fables of Aesop's
History of printing in England and William Caxton is described in the children's historical fiction book Bendy's Quest. (Map)

Hornbook had the alphabet (some upper and lower case letters), sometime common letter combinations and syllables, numerals, and the Lord's Prayer. It was a block of wood with a single parchment or sheet of paper covered with transparent horn to protect the paper, fastened with strips of brass around the edges, with tack heads to protect the horn from scratches, and some could be hung around the neck or on a belt.

Right. Miss Campion holding a hornbook, 1661. From Tuer’s History of the Horn-Book.

Supposedly Queen Elizabeth I used a hornbook and it's still in existence and she is believe to have given a silver hornbook to Lord Chancellor Egerton. Source

1539

1544

1584

Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s writings are adult literature. However, children and middle level learners become familiar with Shakespeare as a famous writer. How he is presented to children is for you to decide. Examples at Shakespeare for Kids.

One way is to share phrases used in his work. He may not have been the first to use them, but he helped popularize them throughout the world.

• A laughing stock (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
• A sorry sight (Macbeth) As dead as a doornail (Henry VI)
• Eaten out of house and home (Henry V, Part 2)
• Fair play (The Tempest)
• I will wear my heart upon my sleeve (Othello)
• In a pickle (The Tempest)
• In stitches (Twelfth Night)
• In the twinkling of an eye (The Merchant Of Venice)
• Mum's the word (Henry VI, Part 2)
• Neither here nor there (Othello)
• Send him packing (Henry IV)
• Set your teeth on edge (Henry IV)
• There's method in my madness (Hamlet)
• Too much of a good thing (As You Like It)
• Vanish into thin air (Othello)

Source Jamieson, Lee. List of Phrases Shakespeare Invented. ThoughtCo.

Don Quixote, written by Miguel de Cervantes, published in 1605, was an instant success and is considered the best Spanish novel of all time along with a second volume, published in 1615. Cervantes drew from his experiences to write a popular piece of fiction where a middle aged man, Don Quixote, is the main character.

Inspired by chivalrous ideals he gained from his literary past he arms himself with a lance and sword, mounts his trusty steed (old nag), Rocinante, and sets out to defend the helpless. In his quest he befriends, Sancho Panza, who becomes his loyal and faithful squirer as they travel La Mancha in search of adventure and glory to honor the Princess (peasant women) Dulcinea del Toboso. Cervantes has described his books as humerous tales to undermine ideas in other "vain and empty books of chivalry".

• More detailed information
• Online book in Spanish
• English translation PDF

• The History of Valentine and Orson, which is thought to be a fore runner of Mowgli in Kipling's Jungle Book's and
• Tom Thumb His Life and Death

World's first children's picture book

Moravian bishop and educator, John Amos Comenius (1592-1671) puts into practice his belief in better education for children by writing, illustrating, and publishing in Nuremberg Orbis Sensualium Pictus, (The World Illustrated). A German/Latin textbook with pictures and descriptions of all chief things in the World. It was to entice witty children to it ... to stir up their attention... by sport, and a merry pastime. It is translated to English in 1659 as A World of Things Obvious to the Senses.

The Project Gutenberg EBook - Orbis Pictus

The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

Mary Rowlandson, also Mary Talcott (c. 1637 – January 5, 1711) a colonial American woman captured by Native Americans and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed, in 1682. Six years after her ordeal, she wrote her book. It is considered a seminal American work read in New England and in England. It can be considered the first American bestseller. A narrative that was a resource for eighteenth and nineteenth-century writers: James Fenimore Cooper, Ann Bleecker, John Williams, and James Seaver. Source

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke (1632-1704) John describes his beliefs that children are rational creatures with individual needs, not miniature adults to be taught by rote. He believed in the effectiveness of learning through play rather than force-feeding of social values. That children are as blank slates (tabula rasa), which are filled with their sensory experiences, which they can interpret with reasoning and logic. He believes it is the the responsibility of adults to educate children and discounted heredity and the idea all children are born with the capacity to learn.

His ideas are later ignored and overshadowed by Rousseau.

In France Contes de Ma Mere l'oye or Histories of Long Ago or Tales of Long Ago with Morals, or more familiar Tales of Mother Goose.
It is questionable if they were written for children or adults, but children love them: The Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Blue Beard, The Master Cat or Puss in Boots, Diamond and Toads, Cinderella, Little Thumb, and Riquet with the Tuft.
Pierre Perrault d'Armancour the elder son of Charles Perrault is thought to have collected them.

Devine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children, by Isacc Watts (1674-1748). Moralized lessons in verse about busy bees and quarrelsome dogs, wrote tender and beautiful hymns which didn't dwell on fearful God, but God as our refuge.

Against Idleness and Mischief
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour;
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

How skillfully she builds her cell,
How neat she spreads her wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour, or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be past,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.

Songs of Innocence, by William Blake, a book of poems for and about children with each poem illustrated by him with a technique he calls, illuminated etchings, which introduce coloured pictures to the world of children’s literature. (1757-1827).
1794 Songs of Experience by William Blake a companion to Songs of Innocence.

See text source at Gutenberg

Blog article about William Blake and his works

Kinder-und Hausmarchen, First volume of Grimm Brother's fairy tales. By Jacob (1785-1863) & Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)

• They claim the tales they collected are from long ago. However, people thought they were taking literary license and their tales were more recent. For research supporting their claims, read -
  • Fairy Tales Could Be Older Than You Ever Imagined and
  • Comparative phylogenetic analyses uncover the ancient roots of Indo-European folktales.
• The brothers inspire others to collect fairy tales. Hans Christian Andersen in Denmark, Asbjornsen and Moe in Norway, Joseph Jacobs and Andrew Lang in England. English Fairy Tale (Joseph Jacobs), The Blue Fairy Book, and the Red Fairy Book (Andrew Lang).

Ivanhoe: A Romance, Sir Walter Scott

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. by Washington Irving is published. It includes the short stories: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle along with other essays and short stories he wrote while abroad in Birmingham, England. Both stories are early examples of American fiction which are popular across time and have had many versions for all ages.

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) published in two books. When she submitted it the publisher told her it was unacceptable. However, after his children read it, they convinced him to publish it. Set in the Civil War its popularity is maintained with the strong realistic characterization of four sisters. Unlike the more traditional didacticism or sentimentalism of authors of this time. Sometimes given credit or blame for attributing the use of blue for boy and pink for girls.

"Most remarkable children I ever saw. Which is which?" and Laurie bent like a well-sweep to examine the prodigies.
"Amy put a blue ribbon on the boy and a pink on the girl, French fashion, so you can always tell. Besides, one has blue eyes and one brown.”

See symbolism of colors and notes for pink

Books

Jules Verne (1828-1905)

• From the Earth to the Moon - 1865
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - 1869
• Around the World in Eighty Days - 1872

Books

Books

Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens (November 30 1835 (Haley's Comet -1910). He took the pen name Mark Twain which on the river means 2 fathoms or 12 feet, which is the depth of water that is safe or on the edge of safety or danger. He spoke for better treatment of Blacks, women's right to vote, against imperialism, against the savage treatment of people around the world, and the need to be taught over descrimination, and what it is to be human.

Also:

• The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, 1873
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876 (third person)
• The Prince and the Pauper, 1881
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884 (first person)
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889

Source

Books

Books

Books

Books

Books

Books

• Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle
• There are many Robin Hood books that have been written. The first may have been published in 1770 with many to follow. Pyle's was the first published in the United States for children. Source
• The Adventures of Pinocchio. Carlo Collodi (Italian writer) A memorable story with interesting symbolism. Many movies with interesting and sometimes frightening scenes.
• Nights with Uncle Remus, by Joel Chandler

Books

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was first published in the United Kingdom in 1884 and in the United States in 1885. A story of Huck and Jim, told in the first person by Huck and written in Southern American dialect of the mid 1800's. While the setting is during slavery it was written after the Civil War and the 14th Amendment was ratified (1868) over a period of time when Sam stopped writing it for five years and revisited the Mississppi Valley. It is thought Samuel Clemens wanted to make a statement about what he thought was the failure on the rejection of racist thinking. Some opposed and banned it for its use of language, dialect that was thought a poor example, and behaviors that were thought to celebrate a bad boy image. Others celebrated the humanization of a Black person, the rejection of slavery and Blacks as 3/5 a person, and as Langston Hughes noted, it took the romance out of slavery. Instead of being racist it is a story of the unlearning of racism. Source
• Heidi: Her Young Years of Wandering and Learning, (1881) Johanna Spyri (Swiss writer) First English translation. Popularized in 1937 movie by Shirley Temple.

1891

Carnegie Hall opened, May 5, 1891, with a concert featuring Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He was there five nights. On his 51^st birthday, May 7^th he conducted his Suite No. 3. Source

Books

• 1891 or 1892 Pinocchio, Translated C. Collodi penname for Carlo Lorenzini (1826-1890);
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, may be the first best known series of books and stories with the same characters. Arthur Conan Doyle, published his first story, A Study in Scarlet, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual (magazine) in 1887. In 1891, the series of Holmes stories began: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in 1894, The Return of Sherlock Holmes in 1905, and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes included stories from 1921-1927. All told Doyle wrote four novels and 58 short stories.

Books

Books

The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells is recognized by some as the first science fiction novel ever published. It was first published in the United Kingdom by Pearson's Magazine in 1897 and in the US. by Cosmopolitan magazine in 1898. Later as a book in London by William Heinemann in 1898.

Long before the Wright brothers took flight, H.G. Wells has Martians arrive in cylinders, land in England, spread around the world to feed off of humans, aided with heat ray weapons.

The Martians he wrote:

"heads—merely heads,” with “a pair of very large dark-colored eyes,” a “fleshy beak,” and “whiplike tentacles about the mouth".

The plot focuses on mass histeria with an overall theme about the fraility of life. Book source

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles broadcast an adaptation of The War of the Worlds, with the Martians landing in New Jersey, on his radio program, The Mercury Theatre. The broadcast created hysteria among some of its listeners.

Virginia OHanlan wrote the Sun editor and asked, "Is there a Santa Claus?" the editors reply ...
Yes Virginia A thousand times yes ... First printed September 21, 1897, in The New York Sun.

Books

Books

Books

Book

Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter set the standard for illustrations in children's books. She believed that when writing for children one should have something to say and say it in simple direct language. She also wrote diaries in code, sketched fungi and raised prize-winning sheep. Source

Peter the Rabbit - Gutenberg.org text and images

Books

• John Crow's Garden, by L. Leslie Brooke
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, by Kate Douglas Wiggins made into a popular 1930's shirley Temple Film both have a sentimental tone and moralizing.
• Peter Pan or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up, J. M. Barrie first written as a play and later as a story Peter and Wendy (1911) Barrie is credited with the invention of the name Wendy.
• The Call of the Wild by Jack London. First published in The Saturday Evening Post in four editions.
  • Written in the first person or dog
  • Set in1890's in Yukon, Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush
  • Plot - With sled dogs in high demand, Buck, a St. Bernard Scotch Collie mix is stollen in California and sold as a sled dog in Alaska. He is forced to survive with his instincts and become the top dog and leader in the wild.

Books

• The Bobbsey Twins or Merry Days Indoors and Out, by Howard Garis
• Ann of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Canadian writer)
• Freckles, by Gene Stratton Porter. Great adventure story about a young boy hired to patrol the Limberlost forest and be on the look out for lumber poachers. Gene's description of the animals and plants is great for anyone who loves being outdoors. See also A Girl of the Limberlost 1909

Books

Book

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter

• Great story about a young girl, Elnora Comstock, growing up in the Limberlost Swamp in Onabasha (fictional town maybe base, Geneva, Indiana) in the early 1900's. We learn she is an independent enterprising young women who raises herself as her mother is suffering from the death of her husband and Elnora’s father. The story beings in the summer, as Elnora enters high school. As a freshman. The plot describes her struggle to go to school using the resources of the Limberlost and her ingenuity. The healing of her family, from her father’s death, adoption of Billy, social settings in school, dealing with your desires, marriage, and her stedfast desire to resolve a failed engagement with grace and honor. Characters include: Mrs Comstock, Aunt Margret, Uncle Wesley, Billy, Bird Women, Philip, Polly, Edith, Hart, Freckles, & Angel.
  Gene Stratton Porter made the Limberlost Swamp famous in the early 20th century, where she lived for years on its periphery, wrote about it and its environment, which she lobbied unsuccessfully against its destruction. See more about her and the Limberlost.

Books

Books

First separate children's book department was established by Macmillan Company. The book department was headed by Louise Seaman who published a wide variety of informational books. Other children's book departments were created from 1920-1940

Book

The Ransom of Red Chief, O. Henry

Books

• The Story of Dr. Dolittle, Hugh Lofting
• The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting won the second Newberry Medal Award

Scholastic magazine is first published from the home of Maurice R. (Robbie) Robinson. For the purpose to: Explain things to kids.

Book

• It was the first winner of the Newberry Medal Award in 1922.
• The Story of Mankind, was published by Horace Liveright, an adult book publisher.
• It is one of the very few nonfiction winners of a Newberry Award and the only history book. Other nonfiction books are biographies.

Book

The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams Bianco

Nanook of the North is considered the first nonfiction or documentary feature length film. Robert Flaherty lived with the Canadian Eskimos for years when he decided to make his film. A French fur company financed his production. He used film he previously shot and developed new equipment and methods to capture additional shots over one year. Including extreemly cold weather. Filming recorded events as they happened and staged scenes to fit with his narrative. Source

Book

The first Horn Book Magazine was published

BookWhen We Were Very Young, A. A. Milne

Book

Doubleday starts a children's book department

Book series

• The Hardy Boys is first published, The House on the Cliff, and becomes a mystery series where the brothers Frank and Joe Hardy solve mysteries adults are unable to solve. Edward Stratemeyer created the charaters and series and publishes many books under the pen name, Franklin W. Dixon. The series is successful in a variety of media: books, TV, comics, video games, and movies. See more
• First Freddy book, To and Again, by Walter R. Brooks is a chapter book where a group of barnyard characters have adventures as the title of each book suggests. Walter writes 26 Freddy books from 1927 - 1958.
  In his third book, Freddy the Detective, written in 1932. Freddy the pig, assumes the role as the main character, Simon, the rat, is introduced as the antagonist, and the detective role becomes one Freddy will often assume with the use of wit and logic to solve problems in other books. The stories have interesting plots, humorous dialogue, and a literary style unique in animal stories for when they were written and now.

Books

• Millions of Cats, Wanda Gag
• Abe Lincoln Grows Up, Carl Sandburg

Book

Book series

First Nancy Drew mystery book The Secret of the Old Clock is published.

Carolyn Keene is a pen name for the many authors of the series.

The publisher, Edward Stratemeyer, imagined a series as successful as the The Hardy Boys for the female half of the young-adult book empire. Stratemeyer, however, cast Nancy in a traditional female role. However, Mildred Wirt, who wrote 23 of the early 30 books, authored Nancy as a young independent woman that becomes a favorite of the readers and viewers of her adventures in books and other media. See more

Books

• On the Way Home (1962),
• The First Four Years, (1971)

Book

Books

• The Invincible Louisa, the Life of Louisa May Alcott, Cornelia Meigs one of few nonfiction (biography) to win Newberry award (1934)
• Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers The 1964 Disney movie is much different.

Book

Books

• And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, Dr. Seuss's first book. There were many more over the next fifty plus years.
• Hobbit, John Ronald Reuel Tolkein - map
• Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck. Tragic fiction about two out of work ranch workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, who travel California in search of jobs during the Great Depression. Spark notes.
• The White Stag, Kate Seredy. Epic legend of the migration of the Huns and Magyars from Asia to Europe. Rhythmic prose and & sketches. Newbery winner. Cover & first page. Myth & Legend Unit based on The White Stag

First Caldecott Medal awarded.

First Superman comic book sells for 10 cents.

One will be sold at auction on February 2, 2010 for for $1,000,000.

Another will be sold in 2024 for $6 million.

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles broadcast an adaptation of H. G. Wells book, The War of the Worlds printed in 1897 with Martians landing in New Jersey, on his radio program, The Mercury Theatre.

Books

• Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans
• Daniel Boone, James Daugherty. One of a few nonfiction (biography) to win Newberry Award (1940).

Books

• Call It Courage, Armstrong Sperry
• Abraham Lincoln, the picture book biography Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire won the Caldecott Medal in 1940. The book doesn't mention Lincoln's assasination. It ends at the end of the Civil War and Lincoln sits down to rest in his rocking chair.

Books

• Indian Captive, The Story of Mary Jemison, Lois Lenski
• Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey

Book

Books

• Little Navajo Bluebird, Ann Nolan Clark
• Johnny Tremain, Esther Forbes

Books

• Rabbit Hill, Rabbit Lawson
• One God: The Ways We Worship Him, photo illustrated nonfiction book of rituals of the major religions in America

Books

• Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren (Swedish writer) about a girl with superhuman strength, complete independence, and strong character.
• Animal Farm, George Orwell, is set in a dystopian society. However, the plot and setting begins as a utopian society that soon becomes clear that the price for a utopian, perfect, society is ... well, the theme of the book.

Books

• Stone Soup, Marcia Brown
• Discovering Designs, Marion Downer photo illustrated nonfiction about patterns found in nature and in art

Howdy Doody (puppet) and Buffalo Bob. First kids TV superstars on the Howdy Doody Show.

Crusader Rabbit was drawn for an animated TV show. Creator, Jay Ward, later created the longer remembered, Rocky and His Friends

Book

1984. - George Orwell sets 1984 and Animal Farm in dystopian societies. Phrases from these books include Orwellian society and Big Brother. Along with memorable quotes. Such as: Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past.

Book

• Narnia Chronicles, C. S. Lewis. Are Christian allegories beginning with the book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Published the series from 1950-1956
• Henry Huggins, Beverly Cleary

Books

• Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger is a book for adolescents. It was the beginning of a realistic style that deals with real world problems with all the blemishes and harsh realities of life. Not a sterile, everything is great, world.
• Amos Fortune, Free Man, Eliz abeth Yates. One of few nonfiction (biography) to win the Newberry award (1934).
• We of Nagasaki, Dr. Takashi Nagai. Takashi records first person stories of different survivors of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. It is set in the days before and after the bombing. Each chapter can stand alone with each being a different person's story. Each from their point of view from different geographical places, starting from several miles from ground zero with each story closer to ground zero. The first story from the book is included in the Galaxy Houghton Mifflin basil reader for sixth grade (1971): Child of Nagasaki, a first person account by Kayano, Dr. Nagai’s daughter, Kayano.

Books

• Anne Frank Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank, autobiography.
• Charlotte's Web, E. B. White - analysis as quality fiction
• The Biggest Bear, Lynd Ward

Winky Dink and You. First interactive TV program for kids. Viewers put a piece of plastic over the TV and drew on it with crayons to help Winky solve problems.

Books

• The Borrowers, Mary Norton
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a dystopian novel where books are outlawed burned when found, hence, the title: derived from the temperature at which paper catches fire. Spark notes

Books

• Lord of the Flies by: William Golding is fiction that unfortunately has too often been considered as a reality of human nature. For a real life example of human nature, consider what acytually happens in 1965 when Mano Totau and five of his friends recklessly set off for Fiji and became stranded on the island of Ata, an uninhabited speck in the Pacific Ocean. Discover how they worked together to survive for 15 months. Investigate a real Lord of the Flies story.

The movie Gojira (coined from gorira (gorilla) & kujira (whale) and home environment and in turn the creature destroys Tokyo. Inspired by a March 1954 U.S. nuclear weapons teat at Bikini Atoll that produces 2.5 times the radioactive fallout expected. The radiation radiates tuna and 23 crew members of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru who suffer acute radiation sickness. Over the next 60 years Godzilla will increase in size as shown in this diagram:

Source Science May 31, 2019

• Eloise, Kay Thompson (actress, composer, and singer) illustrated by Hilary Knight who uses black and white illustrations with pink highlights. Is credited for expanding the meaning of pink to include mischievous. The story is set in the Plaza a New York hotel with many famous guests. Eloise is a mischievous six year old girl who lives by: Getting bored is not allowed. Released as an adult book. Eloise’s pranks and antics make the book controversial for children. Other characters include her nanny, dog (Weenie), and turtle (Skipperdee). Additional books include: Eloise in Paris, Eloise at Christmas, Eloise in Moscow, and Eloise Takes a Bawth. Interesting facts about Eloise.
• Carry On Mr Bowditch, Jean Latham. One of few nonfiction (biography) to win Newberry award (1956).
• What's Inside?, May Garelick. A photo illustrated nonfiction book that shows a step-by-step birth of a gosling.
• Men, Microscopes, and Living Things, Katherine Shippen. Color symbolism fact sheet and activity to investigate color and culture

Captain Kangaroo, the Captain, Mr. Greenjeans, Bunny rabbit, and other friends offered morality lessons, for 30 years.

Mickey Mouse Club. Kids soap opera for daily after school viewing.
First teen TV idols Annettte Funnecello, Jimmie Dodd, Bobby Burgess, Cubby O'Brien, Doreen Tracy, Karen Pendleton, Lonnie Burr, and Sharon Baird. Roy Williams was ...

Psychologist Frederic Wertham testified to Congress that comic books contribute to juvenile delinquency.
The general thought about comics ranged from reading them is okay, to reading them is a waste of time. That only the uneducated or those who never would amount to much read them, to they will rot your brain.

Book

Miracles on Maple Hill, Virginia Sorenson. First page.

Books

• Building Blocks of the Universe, Isaac Asimov
• The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss, Theodor Seuss Geisel

Books

• The Cabin Faced West, Jean Fritz
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare. Kit Tayler raised as a independent young women in the Caribbean she must learn how to adjust to New England culture as she arrives on a morning in April 1687. First page.

Books

• My Side of the Mountain, Jean George
• Little Blue and Little Yellow, Leo Lionni - biography
• Words of Science and the History Behind Them, Isaac Asimov

Books

• Let's Read and Find Out series, nonfiction science books as a response to Sputnik published by Thomas Y. Crowell.
• A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond
• Island of the Blue Dophins, Scott O'Dell. First page.
• Inch by Inch, Leo Lionni, Leo Lionni - biography
• The Cricket in Times Square, George Selden & illustrated by Garth Williams. Connecticut cricket - Chester is found by Mario and experiences New York before returning.

Books

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis
• Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster. Main character Milo who discovers the Lands Beyond. Great use of language & literature elements to explore a theme of, education is valuable and essential for survival. First page.
• The Incredible Journey, Sheila Burnford. Journey of two dogs and a cat across Canada. Style does not use a personification of the animals. Uses realistic descriptions to tell about their epic journey. First page.

The FCC chairman, Newton Minow, declares: TV is "A VAST WASTELAND"

The Bullwinkle Show airs. Its themes and plots attract kids and parents who enjoy satire and creative writing.

Marvel Comics on November 1961 released the Fantastic Four. A series about four astronauts who travel through a radiation shower and attain super powers because of radiation induced mutations. First radiation induced superhero characters.

Newpaper

Dorothy Butler Gilliam becomes the first Black women journalist at the Washington Post. In 2019 she writes a book about her experiences: Tailblazer. Listen to Grio's interview of Dorothy

Books

• A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L. Engle.
  • First page
  • Prereading & intro activity
  • Reader's theater chapter 2
• The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats
• Pat the Bunny, Dorothy Kunhardt

Books

• Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
• It's Like This Cat, Emily Neville

Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Welcome to the neighborhood, won't you be my friend?

Marvel Comics released X-Men in September 1963. It was the first plot with conflict between mutants and normal humans. Where the mutants are forced to segregate themselves at a school for the gifted to protect and rehabilitate them. Professor X is the founder of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters (X-Mansion) in Salem Center, Westchester County, New York. Characters include,five mutants: Angel (Archangel), Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey); Professor X and archenemy - Magneto.

President Johnson's, Great society program funded all types of children's books with nonfiction getting the largest percentage. Thomas Y. Crowell created a series of history books about prominent men and women.

Books

• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ian Fleming
• Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
• The Pushcart War, Jean Merrill
• The Book of Three, Lloyd Alexander five books of high fantasy
• Across Five Aprils, Irene Hunt

Books

Books

• The Outsiders. S. E. (Susan Eloise) Hinton. Sixteen year old friends Mark and Byron struggle with involvement with girls, drugs, and gangs. Cliff notes.
• The White Mountains, John Chrostopher. Trilogy.
• Zeely, Virginia Hamilton
• A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin Earthsea series

1. A Wizard of Earthsea - 1968
2. The Tombs of Atuan - 1971
3. The Farthest Shore - 1972
4. The Wind's Twelve Quarters - 1975
5. Tehanu - 1990
6. The Other Wind - 2001
7. Tales from Earthsea - 2001

Book

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Konisberg

Sesame Street sets a new standard for kids TV and PBS home of good kids' TV

Books

• To Be a Slave, Julius Lester first book on African American history that won a Newberry Honor award.
• Trouble River, Betsy Byars later television movie
• Where the Lilies Bloom, Vera and Bill Cleaver
• Sounder, William H. Armstrong
• The Cay, Theodore Taylor. Survival story of Phillip, blind, and Timothy, West Indian, on a Caribbean Island.
• Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, William Steig

Books

• Small Worlds Close Up, Lisa Grillone and Joseph Gennaro photo illustrated nonfiction.
• Summer of the Swans, Betsy Byars
• Blowfish Live in the Sea, Paula Fox
• Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Judy Blume. Movie - Released in 2023.

The Electric Company for kids after Sesame Street to learn to read.

Books

• Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Robert O"Brien. First page.
• Frog and Toad Are Friends, Arnold Lobel
• Moha Means One: Swahili Counting Book, Muriel Feelings
• Leo, the Late Bloomer, Robert Kraus
• That Was Then, This Is Now, S. E. (Susan Eloise) Hinton.

Federal subsidies for the purchase of books is stopped and many older titles go out of print.

Results in a stabilazation of the number of hardback books published into the 1990's and a significant increase in paperpback books published.

Books

• The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula Le Guin
• Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George. First page.
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Viorst
• The Marrow of the World, Ruth Nichols

Books

• Nana Upstairs Nana Downstairs, Tomie de Paola
• A Taste of Blackberries, Doris Smith

Books

• The Slave Dancer, Paula Fox
• The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper
• The Valley of the Shadow, Janet Hickman

Books

• Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt. First page. Movie released in 2000.
• Dragonwings, Lawrence Yep
• M.C. Higgins the Great, Virginia Hamilton
• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, Leo and Diane Dillon

Where Do All the Prizes Go? Milton Meltzer, in Horn Book February 1976. Awards created on the heels of this publication: The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for nonfiction; The Golden Kite Award for nonfiction given by the society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators; the Orbis Pictus Award presented by the National Council of Teachers of English; and The Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Award.

Books

• Lizard Music, D. Manus Pinkwater
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred Taylor. Sequel novella to Song of the Trees, 1975. Main character Cassie, sixth grader. Historical fiction seting is an African-American farmstead in 1930 Mississippi. First page

Books

• Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
• I'm Deborah Sampson: A Soldier in the War of the Revolution, Patricia Clapp
• Anpao: An Indian Odyssey, Jamake Highwater

Nickelodeon first children's network started and is commerial-free

Teachers in New Zealand’s were using oversized or big books for shared reading with their students. Described in Foundations of Literacy (1979) by Don Holdaway.

Books

• Children of the West, by Russell Freedman photo illustrated with archival photographs and nonfiction.
• The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende (German). English translation in 1983 by Ralph Manheim. Later several videos. A fantasy adventure with a theme of the value of fantasy, truth, wishes, creativity, and lies, in literature and life. Plot sustains a desire to know what happens to Bastian Balthazar Bux, across 400⁺ pages. Inspite of a lack of supporting plausible information and character development beyond survival.

The Smurfs. Took marketing to a new level. First seen as sexist, but evolved into a message-heavy show by 1987

Books

• Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson
• The Haunting, by Margaret Mahy (New Zealand writer) book won Carnegie Medal
• Let the Circle Be Unbroken, Mildred Taylor. Sequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry 1976

Books

• Water; The Next Great Resource Battle, by Laurence Pringle
• When I Was Young in the Mountains, by Cynthia Rylant

Books

• The Changeover, by Margaret Mahy (New Zealand writer) book won Carnegie Medal
• Dicey's Song, by Cynthia Voight

The Transformers - characters- based on a toy, plot violence driven, and theme of power are central to every show.

Books

• One-Eyed Cat, by Paula Fox
• Dear Mr Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary
• The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear, by Don and Audrey Wood. Picture book, Plot about a clever little mouse that tricks a big hungry bear to save his strawberry. Story element teaching plan

Books

• Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogan, by Rhoda Blumberg.
• Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan

Book

Lincoln: A Photobiography, by Russell Freedman one of few nonfiction (biography) to win Newberry award (1988) first since 1956 Carry on Mr. Bowditch.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Action and violence seemingly reduced with an emphasis on character, teen turtles with Italian artist names, and fight scenes that appear more pretend than realistic ... How can it be violent if it's pretend?

Book

• Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, by Paul Fleishman
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen - a modern day Robinson Crusoe

Children's Television Act. Legislation that requires networks to broadcast three hours of educational programming per week.

Book

Oh the Places You'll Go, by Dr. Seuss

Mange graphic Novels - Tokyo Babylon: A Save Tokyo City Story, Clamp published in Japan. Story Nanase Ohkawa, Comic Mokona Apapa.

Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel, by Avi

Just Grandma and Me: First Living Book ever produced was released March 31, 1992. Original book by Mercer Mayer was printed in 1983. The Learning Company, Inc.

Barney - purple dinosaur. If you love him you're either under five or need something to keep a child occupied while you catch your breath. Marketing the purple reptile seems a fact of nature by now. Isn't evolution great Smurfs ... Barney ....

Book

The Giver, by Lois Lowry. First page.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - first girl superhero, incase you didn't know, she's the Pink Ranger...

Peter Steiner’s cartoon appears in the New Yorker.

On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.

In 2023 it will sell for $175,000, the highest amount ever paid to date for a single-panel cartoon.

Toy Story produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures in the US Nov. 22, 1995. Critics claim it rendered children films like Bambi, Pinocchio, Dumbo, The Lion King... extinct. As the script talks to adults, with its dry humor, as well as children. Paving the way for later filmns such as Shrek, Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wall-E, and so on.

Books

• The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963. Christopher Paul Curtis. Historical fiction about a family who travels South, where one family member becomes involved in one of the darkest incidents in American history.
• Phillip Pullman begins his His Dark Material: trilogy of fantasy novels
  • Northern Lights 1995 (published as The Golden Compass in North America)
  • The Subtle Knife 1997
  • The Amber Spyglass 2000
  • Later, 2018 adds a prequal Book of Dust

Blue's Clues. Dective work with an adorable puppy... yeah the color is?

The Children's Online Privacy Act (COPPA) was written to regulate the personal collection of personal information from children.

The Children's Online Privacy Act (COPPA) goes into effect and begins the regulation of the collection personal information from children.

Harry Potter in Books was on the best seller's list for so long that a Children’s Literature best seller list was created.

Book

Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson. Historical fiction. Fourteen year old, Mattie Cook struggles to stay alive in Philadelphia during a Yellow fever epidemic. Author web site summary.

Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli activity - random act of kindness discussion ideas

Yu-Gi-Oh. Let me see. I must have one of those cards here somewhere. Tv series based on the manga o2001f the same name by Kazuki Takahashi. The main character, Yugi Mutou, solves an ancient Millennium Puzzle, and awakens an alter-ego within his body that that is able to assist him with gaming solutions based on the trading cards. It was first aired in Japan in 1998 and in the United States in 2001. Available on DVD Hulu. Yu-Gi-Oh Official web site

Wikipedia launches

Books

Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case. by Chris Crowe

Green Angel. by Alice Hoffman - activity analyzes Green Angel with attributes of modern fantasy, derived from Frank E. Williams three dimensional model for teaching productive divergent thinking.

The Tale of Despereaux. by Kate DiCamillo. novel & graphic novel

Facebook is launched by Mark Zuckerbert for Harvard students.

Facebook is launches a version for high school students.

Facebook opens to anyone 13 and older.

Movie

Stardust see 1999

Book

The Mailbox by Audrey Shafer - instruction plan - framework to critically analyze different forms of multimedia. Includes example with The Mailbox and Homer's painting, Country School.

Facebook announces plans to develop controls allowing children under 13 to use the social media site.

First, 1938 Superman comic (10¢) sells at auction for $1,000 ,00 on February 2, 2010.

Another will sell in 2024 for $6 million.

Book of Dust trilogy prequal to Phillip Pullam,

• La Belle Sauvage, 2018
• The Secret Commonwealth, 2019

BBC TV adaptation of Phillip Pullam's His Dark Materials trilogy, starring Dafne Keen as the child Lyra, Ruth Wilson as the sinister Mrs Coulter and James McAvoy as Lord Asriel.