Children's literature in Texas : a history and evaluation

Abstract

Literature written for children and set in Texas began in 1855 and continues to the present, but consideration of it as literature has been confined to cataloging and brief, annotated bibliographies. This study concerns itself with finding and evaluating all of the children's stories set in Texas from 1855 to 1980 and with evaluating the literary, historical, and cultural importance of this literature; the study also places this body of literature into the mainstream of children's literature written by American writers and set in places other than Texas during the equivalent time period. More than two hundred children's books set in Texas and published between 1855 and 1980 were located and read. Part I of this study divides these books into four chronological groupings to evaluate the literary merit of the major stories in any one time period, to see what major emphases in the stories were, and to compare the Texas books to other children's books written during the equivalent time period and set in other places. A chart is included with each time period that gives an overview of all of the books of any one era and lists the genre of each story, sex and ethnic group of the protagonist, the time and place of setting, and what the major emphasis of each story is. Part II of this study is an annotated bibliography which gives a brief synopsis and evaluation of each of the more than two hundred children's stories set in Texas and published between 1855 and 1980. A conclusion follows Part II which briefly summarizes the study. The overwhelming majority of Texas children's books are historical with rural settings and with Anglo protagonists; they are also overwhelmingly ordinary. However, books with true literary merit were found, written by Texas writers, and they vindicate the search for a worthwhile body of Texas children's books.