Children's Literature Association

The Children's Literature Association (ChLA) is a non-profit association, based in the United States, of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers, and institutions dedicated to studying children's literature. Begun in the 1970s to generate interest in children's literature as an academic discipline and to provide a place for those studying children's literature to share ideas, the association sponsors an annual conference, two scholarly journals, and a series of awards. The association has also published a series of essays, Touchstones, attempting to establish a canon of children's literature.

In order to stimulate an interest in children's literature among humanities scholars, ChLA was formed in 1972 by Anne Devereaux Jordan, then teaching at Western Michigan University, and her colleague, Jon Stott. Later that year, Devereaux contacted Francelia Butler of the University of Connecticut, who had founded the journal Children's Literature in 1971, inviting her to combine her efforts with theirs. Butler, Jordan, and Stott all felt the need to bring scholars who were interested in children's literature together to "help raise the status of children's literature." As Butler wrote in The New York Times in 1973, "To many humanists...in languages, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, or history, the most embarrassing literature to study is not about autoeroticism or cunnilingus. On such works scholars pride themselves on their broadmindedness. What truly embarrasses them is literature for their own children—'kiddy lit,' they call it." On 20 August 1973, Jordan, Stott, Butler, Bennet Brockman, Glenn Sadler, and John Graham had a meeting to formally found the association, and unite the association and the journal (final board member, Rodney Morissett was unable to attend). As a result, the Children's Literature Association had its first conference the following March. The Board of Directors approved a constitution at this conference. Initially, the organization numbered 200; membership doubled the following year. Jordan served as the Executive Secretary and conference organizer of the organization until spring of 1976.

In his 1978 presidential address, Stott asked the membership to establish a canon, "which would provide common texts for shared dialogue and curricula and presumably position the field within canonical strata of academic privilege". By 1980, a committee whose responsibility it was to formulate this canon, which consisted of two English professors, two librarians from a public school and one librarian from a public library, presented a panel discussion on the issues surrounding the development of the canon. The committee members had a variety of different views on the structure of the canon, for example, whether the list should reflect "literary excellence and/or historic significance". The librarians in particular suggested popular titles, arguing that the association must listen to the opinions of child readers. Scholar Perry Nodelman responded to the panel in the following Children’s Literature Association Quarterly issue, describing the process as "an undemocratic but praiseworthy endeavor" where "some books are more important than others". He also explained how providing a rationale for the list was crucial.

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