WIS Programme

Storylines Children's Literature Association 40 years on

On 24th May the Children’s Literature Association of New Zealand celebrated its 40th anniversary with a reunion held in Takapuna Grammar School on Auckland’s North Shore.

Perhaps the key word in The Children's Literature Association is “Literature”. If the first renaissance of children’s literature was at the beginning of the 20th century, the second came in the 1960’s and it was the acknowledgement of this renaissance that led to the formation of the Association.

At the newly established North Shore Teachers College Tom Fitzgibbon, Head of the English Department and Barbara Purton, Librarian, were both well aware of developments in the field and decided to hold a One Day School on children’s literature to test whether there would be any support for a Children’s Literature Association. This was held in May 1969. More than a hundred enthusiastic people attended and the Association was born.

The Association had three main aims. The first was to give information and guidance on children’s books to parents and teachers. The second was to achieve academic respectability for children’s literature. It must be remembered that for many years the leading author of children’s books, and the one most recognized, had been Enid Blyton. The depth and complexity of subject matter and the stylistic elegance of authors such as Rosemary Sutcliff, Leon Garfield, Joan Aiken and Alan Garner were largely unknown, and certainly unrecognized, in New Zealand. The third aim was to encourage and promote New Zealand writers for children.

The first aim, that of supplying information to teachers and parents, was the most easily achieved. Various community groups were contacted and public meetings with speakers were held at North Shore Teachers College.

Word quickly spread about the Association in Auckland and meetings were well attended. The opportunity to contact other areas came when Radio New Zealand agreed that Betty Gilderdale should give three talks about children’s literature on Feminine Viewpoint, precursor of today’s Nine to Noon. It was an opportunity to publicise the newly formed Children’s Literature Association and to say that it could give advice to parents on what to read to their children.

The resulting avalanche of more than two hundred letters was unexpected but the fact that advice was sorely needed was highlighted when one particular listener asked,
‘Is my two-year-old son too young to be read Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island?’

The immediate response to this need was to start sending out four annotated lists of recommended books a year.

Another result was that the letters were sorted into the districts of origin and it was suggested that they form their own groups so that by 1977 there were branches in Christchurch, Waikato, Hutt Valley, Manawatu, and Hawkes Bay as well as in South Auckland and West Auckland.

Publishers gradually became aware of the Association’s existence and arranged for visits from some literary luminaries among them Margery Fisher, the best known commentator on children’s literature of the period, Kaye Webb, enthusiastic editor of Puffin books and Joan Aiken, who gave an inspirational talk on writing for children.

It was becoming evident that interesting talks and annotated book lists should have a more permanent form and the first Yearbook was issued in 1972 . The Yearbooks subsequently became a valuable annual record, offering the growing number of out-of-town members an opportunity to read the text of talks they had been unable to attend.

The aim of disseminating knowledge of children’s books certainly required effort, but in many ways it was easier to achieve than the second aim, that of becoming academically respectable. A beginning was made by organising lectures on children’s literature at the Continuing Education Department of the University of Auckland and classes were always well attended.

Another breakthrough was achieved when Ted Reynolds, enterprising Features Editor of the New Zealand Herald, initiated a regular review column on children’s books, a column that endured for twenty-five years and was able to publicize and evaluate books that were appearing in the “Renaissance” of children’s literature.

Initially the books reviewed were almost all from overseas. It was generally thought that there had been no books written by New Zealand authors worthy of note, but the publication of Betty Gilderdale’s A Sea Change, 145 Years of New Zealand Junior Fiction (1982) drew attention to the fact that there was, indeed, a literary heritage and that authors of the calibre of Esther Glen, Edith Howes, Isabel Maud Peacocke, Mona Tracy and Joyce West proudly held their own in international markets. There had been no lack of New Zealand books for children, there had simply been a shortage of publishers prepared to re-issue them, exacerbated by the fact that many of the books were originally published overseas.

The literary heritage revealed in A Sea Change encouraged Prof. Terry Sturm, editor of The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature to include a section on literature for children in the History – It seemed that the second aim of the Association, that of academic recognition, had at last been achieved.

1969, the year of the formation of The Children’s Literature Association of New Zealand proved to be a seminal year for children’s literature in New Zealand. It was the year that saw the publication of five picture books by Margaret Mahy in the USA and the UK and of The Duck in the Gun by Joy Cowley in the USA. These two inspirational authors have spear headed writing for children in New Zealand and their example, added to the factors already mentioned, encouraged New Zealand writers to produce their own renaissance.

Over the years the Children’s Literature Association merged with The New Zealand Children’s Book Foundation and both are now part of Storylines. The stalwart group of the Association’s early pioneers who met to celebrate on 24th May, included Dorothy Butler, Joan Brockett, Sarah Metge and Ian Free as well as many others who had given selfless service in the cause they believed in. They had every reason to be satisfied with the outcomes of their efforts.

© Betty Gilderdale, 2009