• Self-Grading Review Quizzes for each of the 19 genre introductions


• Annotated Web links for study and research


• Timeline


• Public Domain Illustrations featured in The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature


• Additional Resources for Instructors are available at http://www.wwnorton.com/nrl.


• Learn more about The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature.

Our first encounters with literature take place in childhood, an age saturated with narratives that range from lullabies and hymns, fairy tales and bedtime stories, alphabets and how-to books, jokes and comic strips, beginning readers and school stories, to novels of fantasy, science fiction, and adventure. As children we listen to many different stories, become acquainted with their rhythms, learn to read narratives and create our own. As adults, we continue this literary tradition through our customs, deep-rooted and beloved, of nurturing, educating, and entertaining children. These customs, and the practices they engender, have profoundly influenced social structures and cultural mores throughout the ages. Indeed, the literature of childhood both establishes the foundations of literacy and interacts with literary history in general.