Children's Literature Timeline

John Newbery Bookstore

1744

He published and sold books for children.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

1865

By Lewis Carroll

Songs of Childhood

1902

By Walter de la Mare

Just So Stories

1902

By Rudyard Kipling

Five Children and It

1902

By E. Nesbit

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

1902

By Beatrix Potter

First Child Labor Laws

1907

Law stated that children were free to go to school

The Wind in the Willows

1908

By Kenneth Grahame

Anne of Green Gables

1908

by L. M. Montgomery

Peter Pan

1911

By James M. Barrie

First Development of Modern Picture Books

1920

Lasted until the 1960's

The Velveteen Rabbit

1922

By Margery Williams

John Newbery Award

1922

Established by the American Library Association

Two Women Become Editors

1922

Helen Dean Fish and May Massee became the first children's books editors

When We Were Very Young

1924

By A. A. Milne

The Horn Book Magazine Published

1924

Published by the Bookshop for Boys and Girls in Boston

The Story of Babar

1933

By Jean de Brunhoff

Mary Poppins

1933

By P. L. Travers

May Massee

1933

She moved to open a children's book department in Viking

Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain

1936

By Edward Ardizzone

The Yearling

1938

By Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Randolph Caldecott Award

1938

Established by the American Library Association

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

1939

By T. S. Eliot

Madeline

1939

By Ludwig Bemelmans

Betsy-Tacy

1940

By Maud Hart Lovelace

Lassie Come-Home

1940

By Eric Knight

Make Way for Ducklings

1941

By Robert McCloskey

Curious George

1941

By H. A. Rey

Johnny Tremain

1943

By Esther Forbes

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

1950

By C. S. Lewis

The Borrowers

1952

By Mary Norton

Charlotte's Web

1952

By E. B. White

The Children of Green Knowe

1954

By Lucy M. Boston

The Eagle of the Ninth

1954

By Rosemary Sutcliff

The Fellowship of the Ring

1954

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Tom's Midnight Garden

1958

By Philippa Pearce

The Snowy Day

1962

By Ezra Jack Keats

A Wrinkle in Time

1962

By Madeleine L'Engle

Where the Wild Things Are

1963

By Maurice Sendak

The Book of Three

1964

By Lloyd Alexander

Harriet the Spy

1964

By Louise Fitzhugh

Zeely

1967

By Virginia Hamilton

The Outsiders

1967

By S. E. Hinton

A Wizard of Earthsea

1968

By Ursula Le Guin

The Pigman

1968

By Paul Zindel

The Planet of Junior Brown

1971

By Virginia Hamilton

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

1971

By Robert C. O'Brien

The Chocolate War

1974

By Robert Cormier

Children's Book Press

1975

Established by Harriet Rohmer, devoted to the publication of bilingual picturebooks

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

1976

By Mildred Taylor

Bridge to Terabithia

1977

By Katherine Paterson

Gorilla

1983

By Anthony Browne

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

1988

By Paul Fleischman

OrbisPictus Award

1990

Administered by the National Council of Teachers of English

The Giver

1993

By Lois Lowry

Out of the Dust

1997

By Karen Hesse

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

1998

By J. K. Rowling

Holes

1998

By Louis Sachar

Monster

1999

By Walter Dean Myers

Discovery of 1999

1999

Less than 3 percent of books published each year were by or about people of color

The Amber Spyglass

2000

By Philip Pullman

The Arrival

2000

By Shaun Tan

Michael L. Printz Award

2000

Adolescent literature award is administered by the American Library Association

Early 2000's Discovery

2000

Less than 1 percent of books were related to the LGBTQ community :(

Carver: A Life in Poems

2001

By Marilyn Nelson

The Three Pigs

2001

By David Wiesner

Robert F. Sibert Award

2001

An award for outstanding informational books was administered by the American Library Association

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, A Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread

2003

By Kate DiCamillo

The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights

2004

By Russell Freedman

Criss Cross

2005

By Lynne Rae Perkins

Show Way

2006

By Jacqueline Woodson

American Born Chinese

2006

By Gene Luen Yang

The Book Thief

2006

By Markus Zusak

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

2007

By Sherman Alexie

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

2007

By Brian Selznick

The Underneath

2008

By Kathi Appelt

WabiSabi

2008

By Mark Reibstein

The Hunger Games

2008

By Suzanne Collins

When You Reach Me

2009

By Rebecca Stead

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot

2010

By Sy Montgomery

Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same

2010

By Grace Lin

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night

2010

By Joyce Sidman

Press Here

2011

By Herve Tullet

Hearth and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans

2011

By Kadir Nelson