Children's Literature
'a Powerful Educational Tool'

By Lisa Caines
SPARK Program

The storybooks and children's tales that Prof. Daniel Chouinard reads and teaches to his students may seem juvenile in content and presentation, but he and his colleagues take children's literature very seriously. Still, after the release of the 100th issue of the world-renowned U of G-published periodical Canadian Children's Literature (CCL), they're still fighting for the respect they believe the study of children's stories deserves.

"Children's literature is a powerful educational tool, and its research is more multifaceted than research in other literatures," says Chouinard, who is director of the School of Languages and Literatures. "Children's literature elicits more reactions because parents and parent-teacher associations make the decisions to buy the books that are read by children, their grandparents and caregivers. To research children's literature, we need to use sociology, psychology, education and history, as well as many more disciplines."

CCL's editors dedicate each issue to a chosen theme. Chouinard says contributors write full-length research articles that put classic and contemporary children's tales and their authors into contexts that relate to contemporary issues and debates - just like adult literature research. Articles relate certain tales or genres to popular culture or varying perspectives such as feminism, post-colonialism and post-modernism.

Special issues in the past have discussed the relationship of children's literature to censorship and even the Holocaust. Many people mistakenly believe children's literature is exempted from such heavy issues, Chouinard says.

"Children's authors often take on the difficult task of representing history, but in a way that is suitable or palatable for children."

The periodical was born in 1975 with U of G's acquisition of Lucy Maud Montgomery documents and with a mandate to make Canadian children's literature known around the world.

Now, although the publication focuses mainly on literature in Canada, it boasts subscribers and contributors in countries around the world, including Holland, France, Poland and Bulgaria.

"Originally, we were printing stories about almost anything that was being published in the field," says Chouinard. "Now, the quality and quantity of English-language and French-language Canadian children's literature is extraordinary. There is a vast selection, and as stories are increasingly marketed by multinational corporations, it's even more interesting to research them in a social and political context."

Universities across Canada offer courses in the study of children's literature, but CCL is the only university-level periodical that is dedicated to taking children's literature seriously with a societal, academic and research interest. The publication is fully bilingual and averages 100 to 120 pages per quarterly issue.

Funding for CCL has been provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.