History of Children Literacy

  • 1744

    John Newbery opened a bookstore in St. Paul’s Churchyard, London
  • Period: to

    1851/1893

    Nathaniel Hawthorne, is considered America’s author for children books.
  • 1865

    Lewis Carroll’s, reprinted in English Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
  • 1907

    The first child labor law was established and freed children to go to school. Where they learned to read and write.
  • 1919

    The US publishing house Macmillan launched a department devoted entirely to chil- dren’s books.
  • Period: to

    1920/1960

    Modern picture books began to develop during the 1920 through 1960s
  • 1922

    The John Newbery Award was established by the American Library Association.
  • Period: to

    1922/1923

    Two women, Helen Dean Fish and May Massee, became the first children’s books editors.
  • 1960

    In the 1960s and 1970s books presented girls and women in what at the time were “nontraditional” roles, then changed at the end of the twentieth century.
  • 1975

    In 1975 there a lack of picture books being distributed due to lack of diversity.
  • 1988

    In 1988 they addressed the lack of diversity in the field.
  • 1994

    In 1994, Bishop found that only 3 to 4 percent of the children’s books published in 1990, 1991, and 1992 related to people of color.
  • 2001

    An increase in nonfiction for children and adolescents.
  • 2002

    In 2002, books are sold internationally and less than 1 percent of books published in the United States were books that had been translated.