Children’s Stories In Voice

C. M Hewins wrote in the ‘The History of Children’s Books’ for the Atlantic magazine ‘there have been children's stories and folk-tales ever since man first learned to speak. Children's books, however, are a late growth of literature"

Oral Story Telling
Books were not affordable for everyone so a lot of stories got passed around orally. People told stories for centuries before writing was invented. Children's books, like adult books, emerged from these oral traditions. Every culture has used storytelling to pass on traditions and beliefs to future generations, as well as to explain the mysteries of nature, convey history, influence values, and entertain. Tales had to be told in such a way that they would be remembered. In the middle Ages storytellers could be seen in the market places and were honoured members of in royal courts. A Medieval storyteller, also called a troubadour or a minstrel, was expected to know all the current tales because that’s how they earned their living and needed to be able to conjure up an interesting and amusing story upon request. These stories were meant for adults but children also captured the amazing happenings and daring feats that happened in these stories. Travelling storytellers journeyed from land to land, gathering news and learning the favourite stories of various regions. Storytellers exchanged stories and changed stories so that it is difficult to trace the origins of many stories. Many of these stories were the staples of our well known stories we loved when we growing up.

This is a introduction to children’s literature I found while researching and it brought up some interesting points that I had discovered and some other I would like to explore further. Although the bear itself is a little odd in its movements and sporadic dancing and jumping the information it imparts orally is fascinating.

Nursury Rhymes
Nursery rhymes have also played a part in literature for children; it began to be printed in England as early as 1570. Printing allowed the production of books and cheap pamphlets, or Chapbooks-a small book or pamphlet containing poems, stories. More people during this time were learning to read but the chapbooks were also popular with people who could not read as they contained pictures A Middle Ages version of a Children's comic. So the Nursery Rhyme was then passed from one generation to the next by word of mouth and in a printed format and many had hidden meaning but were adopted by children because of easy to understand language. Their first real appearence in print was in John Newberry Mother Goose's Melody, this book of poems for childrenwas published in England in 1781, and the name "Mother Goose" has been associated with children's poetry ever since.
 

Mother Goose's Melody
http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/is/enroom/chapbooks/172.htm

Research Process:
When I started this research I thought to begin at the begining, the begining of stories were all told orally and they have been past down through the genrations. All we have left today are watered down versions of these great and epic tales. I thought that if they captured the hearts of so many people adults and children alike they must have been something spectacular. I started of my research on this topic as general children literature and discovered that in comparison with other literature it developed quite late. These oral stories and Rhymes weren’t even first published for children, but now they are thought of as children’s tales. So I went about looking for information about  them not related specifically to children, but as genral tales and I found it interesting how they have been adapted to the stories and songs we have nowadays.

References:
Hewins. C.M 2010, The History of Children’s Books,  The Atlantic Issue 1888, Viewed 30 September 2011, < http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1888/01/the-history-of-children-apos-s-books/6098/1/>.

The Secret History of the Nursery Rhyme, n.d, Veiwed 30 Steptember 2011  http://www.rhymes.org.uk/nursery-rhyme.htm

Dal6 2009, A Sketch of the History of Children's Literature, Viewed 1st October 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9le18qWScA

University of Pittsburgh, Mother Goose's Melody : or, Sonnets for the Cradle in Two Parts. Viewed 1st October 2011, < http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/is/enroom/chapbooks/172.htm>