The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature
The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature
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  • 1911 J. M. Barrie's novel Peter and Wendy • Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden • Winsor McCay's animated short, Little Nemo, based on his comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland (1905-11)


  • 1914-18 World War I


  • 1914 Brownsville Children's Library, the first library devoted exclusively to children's books, founded in New York City


  • 1915 King Features founded to syndicate cartoon strips in newspapers


  • 1916 Bureau of Educational Experiments (later, the Bank Street College of Education) founded in New York City by Lucy Sprague Mitchell • Creation of Lincoln Logs by John Lloyd Wright (son of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright)


  • 1918 Johnny Gruelle's Raggedy Ann Stories


  • 1920-21 Publication of The Brownies' Book, a periodical founded by W.E.B. Du Bois and designed for African American youth


  • 1924 Horn Book Magazine, the first serial publication about children's books, founded in Boston


  • 1926 Sir William Nicholson's Clever Bill, an important early use of chromolithography • A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh • Hugo Gernsback founds Amazing Stories in America, the first science fiction magazine with a mass circulation


  • 1929 The Funnies #1, first U.S. comic book • First definitive publication of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up • U.S. stock market crash; the Great Depression begins


  • 1930 First Mickey Mouse comic strip


  • 1932 Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods


  • 1933 Hitler comes to power in Germany


  • 1936-39 Spanish Civil War


  • 1936 Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson's pacifist The Story of Ferdinand


  • 1937 And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, first book by Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) • J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit • Walt Disney's animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with backgrounds by Arthur Rackham


  • 1938 First Superman comic


  • 1939-45 World War II


  • 1939 Robert L. May's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, distributed free as a Christmas promotion by Montgomery Ward department stores


  • 1940 James Thurber's Fables for Our Time, variations on Aesopic themes. Further Fables for Our Time follows (1956)


  • 1941 Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings


  • 1945 United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki


  • 1947 Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon • Robert Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo, his first important juvenile science fiction novel


  • 1948 Unicorn Theatre, one of the most important theaters for children, founded in London by Caryl Jenner


  • 1950 Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles • C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first of the seven Narnia chronicles (1950-56) • Eagle #1, first of newstyle U.K. comics


  • 1951 J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye


  • 1952 Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl • E. B. White's Charlotte's Web
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