Children’s Folklore Recent Titles in Greenwood Folklore Handbooks Myth: a handbook

Th
 e Silver Chair
(1953), for example, schoolchildren Eustace and Jill discuss bullies’ torment 

---

Contexts 133
behind their school’s gym. Eustace asks, “Didn’t I stand up to Carter about the 
rabbit? And didn’t I keep the secret about Spivvins—under torture too?” (3). Ask-
ing Aslan, the great lion, to bring them from their school to the enchanted world 
of Narnia, Eustace and Jill gladly exchange their school’s grim environs for the 
quest to save Prince Rilian from the clutches of an evil witch. When Eustace and 
Jill return to school, Aslan frightens the gang of bullies, whose names indicate 
their nastiness: “Edith Winterblott, ‘Spotty’ Sorner, big Bannister, and the two 
loathsome Garrett twins” (255). Aslan’s visit scares the bullies and the school’s 
headmistress so much that changes take place, and pupils at the school begin to 
enjoy a more peaceful, comfortable way of life.
In the early 1970s, realistic fiction for children began to include more mate-
rial from the childhood underground. Judy Blume’s controversial “young adult” 
novels quickly gained many young fans but shocked some parents and teachers. 
Are You Th
ere, God? It’s Me, Margaret
(1970) explores girls’ beliefs and rituals 
related to menstruation and breast development, which had not previously ap-
peared in children’s literature. The counterpart of that book for boys on the verge 
of puberty is 
Th
en Again, Maybe I Won’t
(1971). 
Blubber
(1974) looks at chil-
dren’s cruelty toward overweight classmates, and 
Forever
(1975) describes a girl’s 
decision to become sexually active. Through Blume’s books, adults have gained a 
better sense of the dynamics of children’s traditions.
In 1992 the Children’s Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society 
first awarded its Aesop Prize and Aesop Accolades, which commend authors and 
illustrators for basing their work on folk tradition. The first winners of the Aesop 
Prize were Barbara Bader and Arthur Geisert’s 
Aesop and Company with Scenes 
from his Legendary Life
and Eric A. Kimmel and Erika Weihs’s 
Days of Awe: Stories 
for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Julie Hearn’s 
Th
e Minister’s Daughter,
which 
received an Aesop Accolade in 2005, is one of the recent winners that emphasizes 
children’s folklore.
A new era of children’s fantasy literature began when J. K. Rowling’s 
Harry Pot-
ter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
was published in 1997. Harry Potter, an orphan who 
sleeps in a cupboard under a staircase, fits the characterization of unpromising 
folktale heroes. Once he enters Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 
Harry makes new friends and gets acquainted with resident ghosts Nearly Head-
less Nick and Peeves the Poltergeist. He quickly becomes adept at quidditch, a 
ball game played by students flying on broomsticks. Learning a spell to make 
objects fly—“Wingardium Leviosa!”—Harry goes a step beyond the levitation 
ritual that children have practiced since the seventeenth century (170–71). As he 
gets accustomed to life at Hogwarts, Harry must confront the bullying of Draco 
Malfoy and his subservient friends. J. K. Rowling’s understanding of the child-
hood underground substantially contributes to the appeal of her books, which 
have delighted children around the world.

---

134 Children’s 
Folklore
FILM
School
A number of films about children and adolescents focus on troubles at school. 
Jean Vigo’s