— Overview
The notes stay with that history and with the Taylor novel, and they stop before later assignment excerpts.
— Contents and key concepts
A middle class, and early instructive books
The notes open a short history of Anglo-American children’s literature. It was born, they write, with the growth of the middle class. As the thought spread that effort could raise a person in rank, and as ranks were split more finely and the distance between them narrowed, interest in education grew. More people could read, literature became a business that earned money, and publishers appeared, so that a literary market took shape. Claims opposed to a Calvinist view of the child as a seed of sin were gathered, and arguments arose that education should fit the child as the child actually was. From the 1780s, they write, writers with a sense of purpose began to write children’s literature aimed at instruction, and the work took on a didactic character more than a commercial one. In the early nineteenth century Hannah More and Mrs Trimmer led the field, in a conservative vein that defended the existing hierarchy and warned against a rush to rise in station.
School stories, adventure, and fantasy after 1829
The literature, they write, also took the form of adventure novels in which a family is wrecked together and then the children are wrecked on their own, and of school novels that sought the values of an institution and the ideal of a Christian gentleman. Late in the nineteenth century, under a labour-class revolt in Britain, a slump, and the Boer War, the school novel turned to criticizing the school, and in adventure novels the border of good and evil grew less clear. A praise of the child as originally pure ran into a wider cultural mood at the end of the century, and into stories in which a child in the countryside heals an adult’s wounds. In a slump of the fairy tale, between the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, fantasy that included supernatural or unreal elements was born, and after 1829 collections of tales were published that stressed the pleasure of reading. Contemporary children’s literature, they add, widens the chance to learn and increases international exchange; in Britain, fantasy later includes work such as the Harry Potter series, in which tradition and several genres are melted together.
Cassie, T.J., and a 1930s setting
They then turn to Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, and set it in 1930s America, in a time, they write, when Black people suffered heavy persecution. They retell three events. Cassie’s mother, a schoolteacher, writes exam questions her pupils can answer; T.J. fails the exam and tells white people that she teaches history differently from the textbook, and she loses her post. Cassie’s father then refuses to buy food at the white store that cut her, and is seen bringing goods from another town; the white men, they write, badly injure his leg. The third event starts, in their telling, when T.J. is with white people and a person is killed; the white people pin the crime on him. A fire, they say, draws attention away so that he is spared torture, but he does not clear his name and is put to death. All three events, they write, show Black people being persecuted one-sidedly, and the ending does not offer a happy close; it leaves the history as it was. From such events they take the 1930s as the novel’s setting. The notes leave the subject there, before later assignment excerpts. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
Sources
- Student notes on a history of Anglo-American children’s literature, and on Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Last updated 15 November 2026
Frequently asked questions
How do the notes date the rise of children’s literature?
It was born, they write, with the growth of the middle class. Social mobility and a finer split of ranks raised interest in education; more people could read, and a literary market and publishers appeared. Claims opposed to a Calvinist view of the child as a seed of sin were gathered, and from the 1780s writers began to write for children with instruction in mind. In the early nineteenth century Hannah More and Mrs Trimmer led the field, in a conservative vein that defended the existing hierarchy.
What later shifts do they mark?
Family wreck-and-adventure stories and school novels that sought the ideal of a Christian gentleman gave way, late in the century, under labour unrest, a slump, and the Boer War, to school stories that criticized the school and adventure stories in which the line between good and evil was less clear. A praise of the child as originally pure led to tales of a child in the countryside healing an adult’s wounds. In a slump of the fairy tale, from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, fantasy with supernatural or unreal elements appeared, and after 1829 collections of tales were published that stressed the pleasure of reading. In Britain, they write, that line later includes work such as the Harry Potter books.
How do they read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry?
They set the novel in 1930s America, in a time of hard persecution of Black people, and retell three events: Cassie’s mother, a schoolteacher, loses her post after T.J. tells white people she teaches history differently from the textbook; Cassie’s father, refusing the white store that cut her, is badly injured in the leg; and T.J., they write, is framed for a killing, escapes torture when a fire draws attention away, but does not clear his name and is put to death. All three, they say, show one-sided persecution, and the ending does not soften that history.
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