The child deserves only the rarest kind of best, because this is the stage when foundations are laid. — Walter de la Mare
ANY nation will bemoan being overlooked in international anthologies of children’s stories. They provide most favourable opportunities to understand and appreciate one another’s culture, aspirations and hopes, even sentiments and sensibilities. Some of the stories attain the status of classics to be read and enjoyed from generation to generation. I am hurt whenever I fail to find an entry from my country in such collections of children’s stories.
Recently, I was given a copy of Stories from South Asia. I had expected to find in it a story from Pakistan too, but, alas, it was not so. There were stories from most of the countries in the region but none from Pakistan.
The Asian-Pacific Literature for Young Adults (published by the Asian Cultural Centre for Unesco and printed in Tokyo in 1992) luckily contained a representative story from Pakistan. Happily, and unexpectedly, it was one written by me. While many of the stories in it were translated from the national languages of the countries included, mine was originally written in English and even the title cover of the book was embellished with one of the hand-drawn pictures which illustrated my story. The countries included were Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Laos, Maldives, Nepal, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Thailand, to mention some.
Imagine the disappointment I would have suffered if Pakistan was not represented in this beautiful and highly representative international anthology of stories for young people. I just could not bear pain of this international anthology appearing without the name of my country. It is an entirely different matter that this endeavour went completely unnoticed in my own country.
This rather unfortunate situation of being repeatedly ignored by international children’s literature inflicts itself despite the fact that children’s ‘literature’ has sprung like mushrooms in Pakistan. But everything committed to paper and published is not literature, nor is every story or episode written for the non-adult audiences.
Literature has its own well-defined demands. For children, the role of literature is more subtle for, as Walter de la Flare said: The child deserves only the rarest kind of best, because this is the stage when foundations are laid. It needs a very special kind of handling. Margaret E. Martignoni, the Series Editor of the Collier’s Junior Classics, puts the criterion in these words: “What do we mean by ‘best’ in a book for children?”
Best books reflect universal truths with clarity and artistry. Such books reveal that man is essentially good and that life is initially worth living. They do not deny the existence of evil, but rather emphasizing man’s thrilling struggle against evil through faith, courage and perseverance. They awaken the young reader’s imagination, call forth his laughter as well as his tears, and help him to understand and to love the fellow man. The reading of such books constitutes a rich heritage of experience which is every child’s birthright.”
The whole history of children’s literature is a very interesting and challenging one. In the West where it began, children’s literature received little or no attention until John Locke (1632-1704) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) pioneered the cause. It was under their dynamic influence that ‘education became more humane’, and people began to realize that children too needed books which were specially conceived and written for them.
Until then, literate children could satisfy their curiosity by secretly reading Aesop’s legends, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. The only book written for children, which seemed to treat all children as babies, was The Babees’ Book which appeared in the 15th century. It was primarily designed to teach children manners. Children must have shunned it, and must have been forced to sit down and study it like a school textbook.
The growing impact of Locke and Rousseau’s call luckily received response from celebrated writers who had already established themselves in the world of literature. It became a tradition and people who were attracted to writing for children, included such literary figures as J.D. Wyss (The Swiss Family Robinson), Brothers Grimm (German popular stories), W.M. Thackeray (The Rose and the Ring), Anna Sewell (Black Beauty), Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), R.L. Stevenson (Treasure Island), Sir Henry Rider Haggard (King Solomon’s Mines), Rudyard Kipling (Jungle Book), A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh), etc.
From rhymes and fairy-tales to adventures, children’s books burgeoned. There was a great demand for children’s books of high quality, and the quality was so high that many of the stories and story-books became classics. In short, it is the demand for quality and not for quantity that has kept high the standard of children’s literature in the West. Some of these have been turned into films which have been popular too, both with children and adults.
In developed counties today, children’s literature has turned into a vast industry attracting a large number of specialized writers, artists (illustrators), reviewers and promoters offering medals and annual prizes.
The East does not lag behind. In international anthologies, many Eastern countries are generously represented. Let us hope that we in Pakistan will also some day soon produce books constituting a rich heritage of experience which is every child’s birthright.
