"The Storied World - From Storytelling to Fiction" Lecture
From The Riverside Anthology of Children's Literature/Saltman
"The Oral Tradition" (pp225-661)

Storytelling

The chief means of recording history, ideas, emotion
Stories recounted the hunt, the chase, the capture, the kill
Stories tell what happened, to whom, and where
In addition stories capture

• events
• character, perceptions of others
• behavior
• premonitions
• taboos/tabus
• beliefs
• emotion
• hopes, fears, courage, cowardice
• a search for help from the unknown

Stories give form to

• religion
• faith
• laws
• wit, humor

Stories offer a direct approach to children

because they capture the imagination and gain their interest

Stories align children with the past
Stories help children build worlds, set scenes and backdrops with their inner eye, create characters' faces
Storytellers' art teaches children to appreciate and enjoy the sound of language

t he variability of language

Very young children, before being capable of reading, can learn

beyond their years by listening to storytellers

For storytellers, the oral tradition was the way to impart truth

• Fables
• Folktales
• Epics
• Romances
• Myths
• Legends

Storytellers, in realism or fantasy, create illusions.
"Art," says Picasso, "is a lie that lets us see the truth."

The Storied World - From Storytelling to Fiction
From The Riverside Anthology of Children's Literature/Saltman
"Encounters and Adventure: Realistic and Historic Fiction"

Realistic fiction began with the Puritans
Preparing children for death was a common goal
Common too were accounts of children dying slowly in joyous anticipation of going to heaven ("Good Godly Books")
The realistic children's novel developed in the 18th Century
Many of the first novels were school stories
There were more school stories for boys than for girls (behavior)
The Governess, or the Little Academy by Sara Fielding-one of the earliest of the school tales
Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's School Days (1857)
George Emmet's Young Tom's Schooldays (1870)
Many of these stories featured good student behavior
Warnings of what happens to students doing bad things
Manners and morality featured
Eric, or Little by Little by Rev. F. Farrar (1831-1903) is about a boy who "goes to the bad"
St. Winfred's or The World of School also by Farrar (later boys made a mockery of these strangely compelling works)
P.G. Wodehouse, the inventor of "Jeeves" began career with a series
of school novels -The Captain, and The Head of Kay's (1905)

Rags to riches novels included:
The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes by Oliver Goldsmith which
features an orphaned girl who rises to fortune against all odds
The Ragged Dick series by Horatio Alger(1832-1902) is the 19th Century American counterpart of the rags to riches saga
Alger set the pattern for a whole series stressing the rewards of morality and hard work.
In the 1960's a New Realism emerged featuring controversial themes subjects and issues

Romantic adventure stories include:
Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883)and Kidnapped(1886)
Howard Pyle's Men of Iron
Captain Frederick Mayyat's (1792-1894) Wreck of the Pacific
R.M. Ballentyne's Coral Island, Hudson Bay, Everyday Life in theWilds of America (1848)
Anna Sewell's Black Beauty
G.A. Henty1832-1902 Redskin and Cowboy a tale of the Western Plains
The Storied World - From Storytelling to Fiction
From The Riverside Anthology of Children's Literature/Saltman
"Encounters and Adventure: Realistic and Historic Fiction"

Adventure stories for girls often took the form of a series
Some of these series had a number of authors
The series adventures often had elements of mystery
Some had continuous themes, story lines
Most had a dedicated reader group
Some main characters had traditional careers
Bobbsey Twins
Judy Jordon
Six Little Bankers
Carter Girls
Kay Tracey
Melody Lane
Peggy Lane
Grace Harlowe
Molly Brown
Pollyanna
Betsy Tracy
Judy Bolton thrillers
Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene is still very popular
Cherry Ames by Helen Wells and Julie Tatham is a series of 27 books
Chronicles stories of a dedicated quick-witted nurse, Cherry Ames, who becomes involved in numerous mysteries

LIVING IN OTHER WORLDS- LANDSCAPE
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe set a pattern for later works
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
These works concentrate on the protagonist's relationship with the landscape

Also providing a striking sense of the natural or physical world are works such as Heidi by Johanna Spyri bringing to the forefront life in the Swiss Alps, and The Secret Garden set in a Victorian English garden in Yorkshire

THE CHILD ALONE (Physically)
In these stories the child is able to live alone or with wild animals
Adults are absent for the most part
Children can

• test their own strength
• be responsible
• face danger and lonliness
• be resourceful
• be self reliant
• have a unique freedom
• take risks

Tom Sawyer is the classic example of the assertion of freedom
Island of the Dolphins and Julie of the Wolves

THE CHILD ALONE (Psychologically)
Children undergo trials
Generally there is a maturation process
They overcome fear as they attempt to form new families
to make new friends, or meet new challenges
The Secret Garden, The Planet of Junior Brown, Where the Lilies Bloom, Homecoming

FAMILY ADVENTURES
In these stories children work in teams or groups
Together the children are capable and competent
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, and Lois Lowry's Anastasia Krupnik, Nesbit's The Railway Children, and Konigsburg's From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

In many of these stories the resolution is not one of action but one of awareness.

THE CHILD IN SOCIETY
The conflict here is between the child and the group or state
Harriet in Harriet the Spy by Fitzhugh is alienated but she is also a spirited writer who learns hard lessons.
Jesse experiences a more serious conflict and is transformed in The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox; and, as does Jesse, the protagonist in The Chocolate War in this coming of age novel struggles with conscience.

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