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Period: 850 BCE to 8 BCE
Earliest Literature
Stories such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, Aesop's Fables, Metamorphoses, etc. These tell stories of Roman/Greek mythology and talking animals. -
Period: 900 to 1400
Middle Ages
Included stories such as Beowulf, medieval tales, and biblical stories that upheld the Roman Catholic church. -
Period: 1400 to
The Renaissance
School books such as the New England Primer and the Orbis Sensualium Pictus and books for pleasure with a moral purpose such as The Pilgrim's Process and Gulliver's Travels. -
Period: to
Eigteenth Century Morality
Essays such as thoughts concerning education, the book Emile, Simple Susan, and the History of the Fairchild Family which are about the ideals of education and morals. -
Period: to
Rise of Folktales
Fairytales such as the Tales of Mother Goose, the Tales from the Arabian Nights, and Grimm's Fairy tales that began to tell nursery rhymes and stories for children. -
Period: to
Victorian Golden Age
Stories such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, A Book of Nonsense, Little Woman, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Wizard of Oz, and Peter Rabbit. All of these books became strictly pleasure and for Children's entertainment. -
Period: to
Early Twentieth Century
Books such as Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, The Secret Garden, Marry Poppins, and The Hobbit were written during this time. It featured realistic novels on the rise as well as fantasy stories straying from the norm. -
Period: to
Late Twentieth Century
Books such as The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, Chronicles of Narnia, Charlotte's Web, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Catcher and the Rye, and anything Doctor Seuss gained many children's literature awards and experimented with the traditional structure of Children's Lit.