Ernest Thompson Seton, author, artist
Along with Charles G.D. Roberts, Seton gave the animal story its distinctive form (Library
and Archives Canada/C-9485).
Ida and the Wool Smugglers
Illustration by Ann Blades, published by Tundra Books
(courtesy McClelland and Stewart).
Kusugak, Michael
Kusugak hunted caribou, seals and whales with his parents by dog team when he was young.
He relates these stories in his children's books (courtesy Maclean's).
326
Mary of Mile 18
Illustration by Ann Blades, published by Tundra Books (courtesy M&S).
"Wynken, Blynken and Nod"
"Wynken, Blynken and Nod" by Eugene Field, illustrated by Ron Berg (1985) (courtesy
Ron Berg and Scholastic-TAB Publishing Ltd).
327
"Jillian Jiggs"
Author Phoebe Gilman created the well-known character "Jillian Jiggs," a tenacious little
girl who loves to dress up but always makes a huge mess (courtesy Phoebe Gilman and Scholastic-
TAB Publishing Ltd).
Children's Literature in English
Children's literature in English, literature for children up to early adolescence, has been
written since the mid-19th century. It was originally a literature in which portrayals of life in the
new country - confrontations with and adaptations to the landscape and the native peoples,
colonizing the territories and then creating and developing a nation - were in search of appropriate
vehicles of expression. During the 19th and early 20th centuries the vehicles were generally those
fashionable in Great Britain. At the turn of the century the animal story, the first distinctively
Canadian genre, appeared. In the last half of the 20th century, authors and illustators have used a
variety of genres to reflect the geographical and cultural diversity of Canadian life.
The Animal Story
Although animals had been mentioned in earlier literature, the works of Sir Charles
G.D.
ROBERTS
and Ernest Thompson
SETON
gave the animal story its distinctive form. Seton's
highly popular
Wild Animals I Have Known
(1898) influenced Roberts, whose
The Kindred of the
Wild
appeared in 1902 and
Red Fox
in 1905. Drawing on their observations of wildlife and their
study of Darwinistic theories of natural selection, both writers focused on the lives of superior
members of various species. In
Red Fox
, Roberts combined exceptional strength and intelligence in
an individual fox, making him the novel's hero. To Seton, the important fact of animal life was
death, often at the hands of man and always tragic. Among later wild-animal stories that end with
death are Roderick
HAIG-BROWN's
Ki-yu: A Story of Panthers
(1934) and Fred Bodsworth's
Last
of the Curlews
(1955).
Pets have also provided the focus for many children's books. One of the best-known early
children's novels, Margaret Marshall Saunders's
Beautiful Joe
(1894), is the "autobiography" of a
"cur" who, having been rescued from a cruel master, lives a long and happy life.
Farley
MOWAT
's
The Dog Who Wouldn't Be
(1957) is the humorous story of Mutt, a pet who "at
some early moment of his existence ... concluded there was no future in being a dog."
Sheila
BURNFORD'S
The Incredible Journey
(1960) is the account of a 400 km trek across
northern Ontario undertaken by 2 dogs and a cat.
328
The Adventure Story
The adventure story, a major form of Victorian children's literature, influenced Canadian
books in the 19th century and, to a lesser degree, the 20th. Emphasizing the goodness of the British
Empire, Christianity and physical courage, such British novels as Frederick Marryat's
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