Comparative Children’s Literature: What is There to Compare?

Literary texts do not appear in a vacuum. Literature in Western society has been written for several thousand years, and literature written specifically for children has existed for at least two hundred years. Thousands of children’s books are published every year. Writers have usually read books by other writers or are at least aware of them. In the case of children’s writers, they are most likely to have read the major children’s classics, but they have probably also read mainstream literature. Whether conscious about this or not, writers are affected by what they read and even by what they have not read, but only heard about. Not all people today have actually read Shakespeare, but many know the plots and characters of at least the most famous plays. Literature is also disseminated through other channels, such as film, television, comics and computer games. When we read a book, we are often struck by its similarities to others we know. For instance, if we compare The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone we will observe many similarities: events, happenings, settings, characters, symbols, and messages. At the same time, we will most likely note that in many ways the two novels are different and perhaps contemplate the nature of the difference.