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1744
John Newberry opened a bookstore in St. Paul's Churchyard, London. John published and sold books for children. -
1851
Nathaniel Hawthrone is considered the author of the first American book written specifically for children. A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls. -
1865
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was reprinted in English-speaking countries all over the world. -
1871
Lewis Carroll's two books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were written to give pleasure to children. -
1907
The first child labor laws were passed and freed to go to school. -
1919
The US publishing house Macmillan launched a department devoted entirely to children's books. -
1920's-1930's
Modern picturebooks began to develop -
1922
The John Newbery Award was established by the American Library Association -
1923
The Randolph Caldecott Award was established. -
1924
The Horn Book Magazine was published by the Bookshop for Boys and Girls in Boston under the guidance of Bertha Mahony and Elinor Whitney -
1933
May Massee moved to open a children's book department in Viking -
1940's-1960's
Children's and young adult's books became an increasingly important part of libraries, schools, homes, and publishing houses. -
1975
Harriet Rohmer established Children's Book Press and devoted to the publication of bilingual picturebooks that reflected a diversity of cultural experiences. -
1988
Other small presses such as Just Us Books, founded in 1988 were established to address the lack of diversity in the field, and forward-thinking editors such as Phyllis Fogelman, at Dial encouraged and supported the work of several now-notable African American Authors and illustrators -
1990
The establishment of the OrbitPictus Award, administered by the National Council of Teachers of English in 1990 -
1994
A study conducted in the final decade of the 20th century confirmed that the number of children's book that present pluralistic, balanced racial and ethnic images of children seldom paralleled census figures -
1994
Although the number of US presidents from parallel culture had increased dramatically, few books representing those groups were published between the 1960's and 1980's -
1994
Bishop found that only 3% to 4% of the children's books published in 1990, 1991, and 1992 related to people of color. -
1999
Since 1999, less than 3% of books published each year were by or about people of color -
2001
The Robert F. Sibert Award for outstanding informational books, administered by the American Library Association -
2002
Books that contained characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered were also few and far between, as books that contained characters with exceptionalities. -
2008
The classic description of a picturebook was shaken with the awarding of the Caldecott Medal, given for the most distinguished picturebook of the preceding year to Brian Selznick for The Inventio of Hugo Cabret -
2008
Sipe and McGuire combined and synthesized the work of several scholars, list six characteristics of postmodern picturebooks:
1. Blurring the distinctions between "high culture" and popular culture boundaries
2. Subversrion of literary traditions
3. Intertextuality
4. Multiplicity of meanings
5. Playfulness
6. Self-referentiality -
2012
The Newbery winner and the two honor books are all historical fiction -
2012
Raschka conveys emotions, action, and themes through the use of line, color, and the sequence of illustrations, he was awarded the 2012 Caldecott Medal.