Abstract: Some writers maintain that children literature differs from adult literature in degree of "kind", that is, that the word literature when used in the context of children literature cannot necessarily be related in any straightforward way to the word literature as used in other contexts. That purpose is sometimes seen in terms of both information and entertainment; sometimes, however, entertainment alone is the critical definitional feature, the emphasis generally being on works belonging to the narrative genre Less often, definitions that relate primarily to purpose focus on empathy, children literature being classified as literature that is designed to help children to understand, and emphasize with, the world views and experiences of others, including other children Even though children literacy was hardly universal during the Romantic period, more and more children were learning to read and, beginning at the end of the eighteenth century, children literature began to develop. While many twentieth-century children texts explored the lives of older children, most critics point to Maureen Dalys "Seventeenth Summer" and J. D. Salingers "The Catcher in the Rye" as the beginning of adolescent literature as a genre separate from children literature. Despite the recent trend of categorizing children literature by age, an increasing number of adults have begun reading children books, blurring the boundaries between children and adult texts.
Keywords: children, Literature, World views, categorizing.
Title: Childhood in English literature
Author: Abdulaziz Hashem Al-said Ali Al- tahiri
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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