Although this week’s texts were a bit too scholarly for my taste, they each had their own valid point of which I took to better understanding the concept of what is children’s literature. Kiddie Lit let me think about this concept of what is considered “childish,” and roused my understanding of our use of it, and other comparable words (kiddie, child, boy, girl), as a derogatory context within our language. The Little People essay reminded me that our view of what a child is, in the context of what we now-a-days, within the American culture, socially consider a child, has not always been the case; due in part to both the changing times and the multitude of diverse cultures. The Case against Peter Pan essay (in its first couple of sentences alone) gave me a major epiphany; that not all children’s literature is specifically aimed at stimulating children, and that sometimes adults get much more out of these stories then a child ever could. This epiphany I had was then backed up by the How to Read Children’s Literature text; mainly in its explanation of what an “implied reader” was and its explanation on how a text is meant to grab a specific type of reader. It also reminded me that everyone gets something different then everyone else when reading a genre as specific as children’s literature.

This cadre of confusion brought upon by these four texts has me rethinking not only what is children’s literature, but what is child appropriate in general. However, I know that this institution of child appropriateness is run by adults and is both subject to, and victim to, adult allusions. How many people know that the story of Peter Pan was originally a story within a story about an older man and his connection with a boy who is not his son (not implying anything, but acknowledging its “iffy-ness”)? More importantly, if more people did know about its origin, would that change Peter Pan’s widely accepted child centric draw on a socially acceptable level? There’s also the famous nursery rhyme “Ring around the Rosie,” whose rhymes have been believed to allude to the symptoms of the Black Plague, which is definitely not a child appropriate subject. However, this nursery rhyme is still sung by adults to children and children themselves, all over the world, and very few people have ever not heard of or know it. There’s also the famous incident over the purple Teletubby and this dumb idea that the character represented the gay community. No child, of whom the Teletubbies was specifically made for, would ever distinguish this allusion, let alone care (even if it was true).