Republic of the Philippines

Laguna State Polytechnic University

Province of Laguna

COLLEGE OF TEACHER-EDUCATION

WRITTEN REPORT IN ENG11

Children and Adolescent Literature

Topic : Lesson 4: History of Children’s Literature

Lesson 5: Development of Children’s Literature
in the Philippines
Discussant : Alyssa Mae T. Manzanero
Professor : Ms. Nerissa Y. Bilo

Lesson 4: History of Children’s Literature

 Knowledge of the historical background of children’s literature through the
ages helps us understand the forces affecting the development of
children’s literature and their characteristics at different periods.
 The development of children’s literature reflects the spirit and interests of
the period.
 Before the invention in the fifth century of the printing press, which made
books more widely available, children listened to stories told by their
elders. The stories were about the adventures of the older people, about
animals, and imaginary characters.
Early Beginnings: Anglo-Saxon Period
 Monks and other learned men wrote “lesson books” for children. These
lesson books were designed for teaching.
 Aldhelm (640-709), an abbot of Malmesbury and bishop of Shernorne.
He was the first man to write lesson books for children.
 His De Septenario, de Metris, Enigmatibus, ac Pedum Regulis contained
the meaning and use of the number seven in the bible, riddles, and
puzzles in Latin which children were asked to solve.

The Medieval Period

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 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna

 By the fifteenth century, books on manners and morals began to appear

in England by 1430.
 One of these was William Caxton’s Boke of Curtayse published about
1477.
 Another was The Babies Boke which had the subtitle Manners and Meals
in the Olden Times. This book contained rules of behavior for boys who
trained to become knights during the Age of Chivalry.
ABC Books
 In the sixteenth century, ABC books or primers appeared.
 They were so called because they were used at the hour of prime as a
book of private devotions in the Angelican Church.
 Henry VIII had ordered the printing of both catholic and Protestant
primers that contained the alphabet and Christian principles.
 Thus, the term primer came to be applied to all the first books for children
in school.
Hornbooks
 These were the first books designed for children to handle.
 They were about 3 by 4 ½ inches long and 2 inches wide.
 Capital letters followed by vowels and their combinations with consonants
were printed across the top. The Lord’s Prayer was printed at the bottom.
 The paper used for this was covered with a transparent horn and was
place by metals like silver, brass and copper. It could be hung around the
necks of children.
 The hornbooks were used to teach the alphabet and combinations of
letters and to continue religious instruction.
Chapbooks
 Single sheets of paper printed on one side only called broadsides were
issued. These broadsides contained ballads of Robin Hood.

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 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna

 In 1697, Charles Perrault, a Frenchman, published his collection of tales

entitled Comtes de Ma Mere L’ Oye or Tales of My Mother Goose.
 These books were called chapbooks because they were sold by itinerant
peddlers called chapmen.
Puritan Period
 In England and America, books for children were influenced by Puritan
ideas.
 The book stressed fear of God, religious instruction and preparation for
death which the children did not enjoy.
 Children read books that interested them although the books were for
adults like John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), Daniel Defoe’s
Robinson’s Crusoe (1714).
 Between 1683 and 1691, the New England Primer, a book made especially
for the children of the American colonies appeared.
 It was a small book, about 3 by 4 ½ inches and had about 100 pages. It
contained the alphabet, words, and syllables for spelling lessons, the
Lord’s Prayer, catechism, hymns and verses, rhymes for each letter of the
alphabet.
First Picture Book
 In 1658, the first illustrated school book appeared. Orbis Sensualum or
Orbis Pictus (The World in Pictures) was invented by Johann Amos
Comenius, Bishop of Moravia and an educator who believed in teaching
children by letting them see things with their own eyes.
 The book was originally written in Latin and German, but was later
translated by Charles Hooke in England in 1664.

17th Century and 18th Century Books

 Books in the seventeenth century stressed religion and morals due to the
rise of Protestantism.

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Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna

 In 1715, Dr. Isaac Watts published Divine and Moral Songs for Children,
a companion volume to The New England Primer.
 Some writers consider Isaac Watts as the starting point of the history of
children’s literature, and “The Cradle Hymn” as the first children’s poem.
 The battledore (1746-1770) was a 4 by 6 ½ three-leaved cardboard
that folded like a pocketbook. It had the alphabet and easy-reading
matter that made it popular until 1840.

John Newberry Era

 John Newberry (1713-1767) was a writer and publisher who first

thought of publishing books solely for children.
 He was called the “father of children’s literature” for he conceived the idea
of publishing books for the enjoyment and entertainment of children.
 In 1744, he published his Little Pretty Pocket Book, the first book that can
be truly a child’s book.
 He also published a collection of nursery rhymes and called it Mother
Goose Melody.
 The Newberry Award, an award for the most distinguished children’s
book that was named after him in 1922.

The Didactic Period

 Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a French philosopher who

started a new philosophy in the education of children.
 Emile, his book embodied the philosophy that children are given freedom
to develop their natural interests and learn from actual experiences.
 He advocated that children be taught about the real things and the world
in which they live.
 Thomas Day, published History of Sanford and Merton, a story about a
good little boy and his teacher and both tried to reform a bad boy.

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Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna

 The Peter Parley books were informational about countries of the world,
about the wonders of science and about historical figures.

The Return of Fairy Tales Old and New

 The publication of Grimm’s Fairytales revived the interest for the

imaginative stories.
 Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected the old German stories not for the
entertainment of children but to record them scientifically for posterity.
These stories were translated into English in 1823 and were called
Grimm’s Popular Stories.
 Hans Christian Andersen published his Fairy Tales in 1846.
 He was regarded as the great master of the literary fairy tale. Among his
tales were “Thumbelina”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, and the
“Nightingale”.
 Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense marked the need for laughter in the
normal development of children.
 Lewis Carroll, a mathematics professor at the Oxford University who
made up stories for a little girl named Alice Lidell whom Lewis became
very fond.
 He called his collection of stories Alice in Wonderland it was followed by
Through the Looking Glass.

Realistic Literature

 This period was marked with the appearance of stories of boys and girls in
simple home situations, stories of adventure, of brave men and women,
history and growth of countries the wonders of nature and science.
 The best example of realistic story was Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women in
1868. This is the story of four little girls, their petty quarrels, their courage
and their affection for one another. This was followed by Little Men.

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Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna

Lesson 5: Development of Children’s Literature in the Philippines

 Children’s literature in the Philippines had been in existence as far back as

the primitive era.
 Even before colonizers came to the Philippines, the Filipinos already had
their own language, their own alphabet, knew how to read and write and
had a system of communication.
 Due to the dearth of writing materials, oral means prevailed in the
transmission and preservation of ideas.
 Early literature for children was in the form of lullabies that mothers
hummed or chanted to their children, songs for different occasions like
planting songs, verses, riddles, proverbs, ditties, nonsense rhymes, and
fairy tales.
 Baliwayway, an Ilongot lullaby, shows how a father expresses his hopes,
fears, and doubts about his growing boy’s future.
 Diwaya, an Ilocano lullaby.
 Panghehele, of the Tagalogs, express the mother’s wishes to share the
child’s glory and pride.
 There were tales of beasts, legends of strange events and phenomena,
origin of the first man and woman, stories about strange creature like the
Pugot, the kapre and other.
 There were also stories about mythical heroes and heroines like Bernardo
Carpio, Lam-ang, Mariang Makiling and others.
 The early Filipinos were fond of proverbs and riddles which embodied
their own philosophy and unwritten code of morality.
 When the Spanish colonizers came to the islands, they not only brought
Christianity and their culture but also religious literature and instruction
for children.

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Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna

 In 1593, the first book for children in the Philippines, Doctrina

Christiana en Lengua Tagala y Espanola (1593) by Father Domingo
Nieva. The book was used by the elders for religious instructions and
prayers.
 Caton or Cartilla which contained the Roman alphabet and syllables.
These were the Filipino child’s first and only book for over 3 centuries.
 Children of the very few elite families had the opportunity to attend
schools and had some textbooks in grammar, arithmetic, and logic.
 Memorias de la Vida en Lengua China, published in 1606. Pamphlets
containing the lives of saints, novenarios, prayers and sermons of the
missionaries and parish priests. They were written in the principal dialects.
 The Pasion, the story of the life and suffering of Jesus.
 Corridos, metrical tales in which the characters were kings and queens,
knights, monsters, etc. Some of the corridos are Florante at Laura and
Pitong Infantes de Lara. European heroes like El Cid of Spain,
Roland, and Charlemagne of France.
 “The Monkey and the Turtle”, children story written by Jose Rizal. He
also translated some fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen from Danish to
Tagalog.
 When the Americans came to the Philippines in the 1900’s, they
introduced books in English like Pilgrim’s Progress, Mother Goose
Rhymes, Alice in Wonderland, Aesop’s Fables, Rip Van Winkle,
originally written for the American children.
 The Filipino children imbibed the attitudes, values and philosophies that
American children’s literature embodied. Thus, America’s literature
became a part of the literature of Filipino children.
 Philippine Folklore Stories (1904) of Hugo Miller was published by
Ginn and Company.

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Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna

 Philippine Readers, Books 1 to 7, known as Osias Readers (1920)

was published by Camilo Osias.
 The Philippine Readers contained native folktales, myths and legends,
stories of animals.
 Maximo Ramos, one of those writers who recognized the importance of
preserving the literary heritage, especially for children, wrote Tales of
Long Ago and Philippine Myths and Tales.
 1940, The Philippine Book Company was founded. They published All
Time Favorite, Fairy Tales in English and in Filipino, The Voyages
in Reading Series.
 1962, Bookmark Incorporated published the work of a group of Maryknoll
students. Mostly picture books. These were mostly picture books.
 In 1945, Bookman Incorporated encouraged writers to translate some
foreign children’s books like The Little Lame Prince and Rubaiyat of Omar
Kayyam.
 1946, National Bookstore engaged in reprinting foreign books and in
translating fairy tales in Filipino like the Ladybird Series. They also
published comics in Filipino and English.
 Alemar-Phoenix Publishing House published children’s books like:
Myths and Legends of the Early Filipinos by F.L. Jocano, Philippine
Folktales by Aquino, et. Al., The Old House, The Ginger Girl and other
stories by C. V. Pedroche.
 In 1962, Pamana Incorporated started producing children’s books.
Among these are: Makisig: The Little Hero of Mactan by Gemma Cruz and
Horgle and the King’s Soup by Gilda C. Fernando.

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