Written by Alison Crowley, Ekta Rajagopalan and Camryn Vodden
Children’s books have been a staple source of entertainment for children since 1658 when the first picture book created specifically for children, Orbis Pictus (The Visible World in Pictures), was published by John Amos Comenius, a Czech philosopher widely regarded as the father of modern education.
Since then, many children’s books have captured the hearts and imaginations of children worldwide. For this month’s Children’s feature piece, we will be revisiting some of the most published children’s books.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Little Prince was published in 1943 by Reynal & Hitchcock in the United States, then published in France in 1946 by French publishing house Gallimard.
Since its publication, The Little Prince has sold five million copies yearly with 587 official translations and continues to be a bookshelf staple. It was also adapted for film in 2015, with the adaptation directed by Mark Osbourne.
The Little Prince follows Saint-Exupéry as the protagonist who, after a plane crash, happens upon a little prince who tells him all about his travels. The prince describes the planets he has visited and the people he has met along the way. From flowers, kings and a fox, he reveals what he has learnt from them all. The little prince leaves a lasting impression on Saint-Exupéry, who remembers his short-term companion fondly.
The moral of the story is the personal responsibility in relationships and the importance of being aware of one’s impact on the wider world. The essence of The Little Prince can be summarised by the quote: ‘It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye’.
While it is marketed as a children’s book, The Little Prince can be enjoyed by people of all ages for its universal themes of love, friendship and loss.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, written and illustrated by Eric Carle, is a children’s picture book focusing on the lifecycle of a caterpillar. Originally published in the US by the World Publishing Company and in the UK by Hamish Hamilton, it has since been published by Penguin Random House in 2019. Following the eating habits of a caterpillar throughout its first week of life, the caterpillar consecutively eats fruit throughout the week until Saturday, when it eats junk food and becomes very large. On Sunday, the caterpillar eats a green leaf, cocoons itself for two weeks and then blossoms into a butterfly. To this day, The Very Hungry Caterpillar has sold ‘more than 55 million’.
The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr
The Tiger Who Came to Tea, written and illustrated by Judith Kerr, is a children’s book which heavily uses anthropomorphic techniques to narrate a tiger entering the protagonist’s household unannounced, eating all the food and drinking all the drinks. Originally published in the UK by William Collins, Sons, the book has since been published in many languages, including Braille, German, Welsh, Japanese, Hebrew and Portuguese. The book’s popularity has allowed it to be turned into a film adaptation in 2019, a theatre show and also an immersive afternoon tea experience at London’s Savoy Hotel in 2018. ‘Possibly the most charming of all though, is the Savoy’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea. The Savoy has a strong literary history, including a regular writer-in-residence. This tea, launched in October, is based on the classic picture book by Judith Kerr’.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the best-known works of Victorian literature and has never gone out of print since its publication. Translated into 174 languages, its legacy includes adaptations to screen, ballet, opera, musical theatre and interpretations in board games and video games. Alice is a young girl who sits near the riverbank, bored, when she spots a white rabbit with a pocket watch and a waistcoat, lamenting that he’s late. Surprised at the sight and curious, Alice follows him down a rabbit hole, which sends her on an adventure beyond her imagination. It features a tea party, a Cheshire cat and a queen who insists on ‘off with his head’. The book was published and received wide critical praise. Many esteemed writers believed it to be ‘fantastic’ and inaugurated a new era where books written for children were aimed to ‘delight or entertain’. Carroll published a sequel in 1871 entitled Through the Looking-Glass and an abridged version for young children, The Nursery "Alice", in 1890.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a portal fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It was the first of The Chronicles of Narnia to be written and published, and it is also the only one that is most widely held in libraries. The four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, are relocated to a large country house during wartime evacuation. During a game of hide and seek, the young Lucy hides in a huge wardrobe in the spare bedroom, and as she backs up, she trips and tumbles out of the wardrobe and into Narnia. Most of the novel is set in Narnia, a land of talking animals and mythical creatures. Lucy's three siblings are with her on her third visit to Narnia. The siblings seem fit to fulfil an old prophecy and find themselves adventuring to save Narnia and their own lives. Time Magazine featured the novel in its List of the 100 Best Novels (best English language novels from 1923 to 2005). In 2003, the novel was listed at number nine on the BBC's survey The Big Read. It has also been published in 47 foreign languages.
It must be said that while many incredible authors continue to publish great works of literature to this day, we continue to revisit the timeless classics that never grow old.
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