Children's literature, like many things, is constantly evolving. During the Victorian era (1800s), a lot of children's literature continued the traditions of moral stories and lessons (Roderick McGillis, Children's Literature). 

Children's literature began in the Victorian Period, in the 1880s and 1890s.

• They were treated as an accessory, rather than a necessity
• This is because the majority of children's books were published around the Christmas season
• Children's literature were also more focused on art, rather than literature. Authors expected to be praised on their artistic ability, rather than the actual storyline.  
• Illustration also enabled children, as well as adults to become educated at this time.
• "Six of the ten best-sellers in the United States between 1875 and 1895 were children's books: Heidi, Treasure Island, A Child's Garden of Verses, Hucklberry Finn, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and King Solomon's Mines" (Lundin 40)
• Literature was also expected to teach a lesson or theme
• Gender division became a trend in the 1860s  
• It wasn't until the late nineteenth century that children's literature and adult literature began to have separate entities

Children's Fiction and American History

• Themes recurrent in American children's literature: 
• The Search for Values
• Problems of Growing Up
• Travel and Understanding People in Foreign Lands
• Lives of Heroes-The Desire to Achieve-Overcoming Great Odds
• Fun and Fairy Tales
• The Urge to Know  

Resources Consulted:

• Anne H. Lundin. "Victorian Horizons: The Reception of Children's Books in England and America, 1880-1900." The Library Quarterly 64.1 (1994): 30-59.
• Anne H. Lundin. "Little "Pilgrims' Progress": Literary Horizons for Children's Literature." Libraries & Culture 41.1 (2006): 133-52.
• Jean Duncan Shaw. "Children's Fiction and American History." Elementary English 45.1:89-94.

Special thanks to class members Ginny Chung, Maithy Do, and Sinead Leon for assisting with research on the history of children's literature.