Children’s Literature is defined as “Writings specifically intended for children or that children have made their own”. If you think that a rather broad description, you are correct. Essentially by that definition any book that is read and highly regarded by a child is classified as “Children’s Literature”.

So why the broad definition?

Well, it’s really difficult to discern where children’s literature ends and young-adult or adult literature begins. By all standards it’s a no brainer for us to categorize picture books as belonging to the children’s literature genre, but what about “Harry Potter”? Or even classic books like “The Hobbit” that turned movie and touched the heart of children under 12 years of age? Is it still considered a “young adult” book based on content, or did it bridge the gap between children’s and young adult upon its rise to movie fame?

It’s a tough call, and one that I am not sure I want to try to answer personally.

In addition, as years have passed, the censorship limits applied to child and adult media have changed, which again leaves the boundaries of acceptable/unacceptable children’s content a bit blurry. Speaking from personal experience, I know when I turn on the television to Nickelodeon for my seven year old son, the crude and rude behavior of the animated characters on the screen were not regarded as acceptable media for a child when I was his age. Burping or the insinuation of swearing cloaked by wacky noises was not considered funny then. Rather Jerry whacking Tom in the face with a frying pan was funny! Burping and cursing was just plain prohibited from cartoons!

All in all, the point being made is that the classification of literature under the children’s genre really depends on a variety of factors and cannot be discerned easily.