Children's literature
.
Children's literature (also called juvenile literature)
consists of the books, stories, and poems which are enjoyed by or
targeted primarily at children. Modern children's literature is
classified in different ways, including by genre or the intended age of
the reader.
Children's literature has its roots in the stories and songs that
adults told their children before publishing existed, as part of the
wider oral tradition. Because of this it can be difficult to track the
development of early stories. Even since widespread printing, many
classic tales were originally created for adults and have been adapted
for a younger audience. Although originally children's literature was
often a re-writing of other forms, since the 1400s there has been much
literature aimed specifically at children, often with a moral or
religious message. To some extent the nature of children's fiction, and
the divide between older children's and adult fiction became blurred as
time went by and tales appealing to both adult and child had substantial
commercial success.
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