Classic Children's Literature

Here at Ballet Petite, we have a "story dance" portion of the class, where we sit down and read a story to the students and then dress up as the 'main character' and dance the tale we had just read.  We primarily focus on classics in these story corners, every once in a while mix in a current "ballet story" such as Angelina Ballerina or Ella Bella Ballerina.  The classics include:  Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, The Nutcracker, Hansel and Gretel, and many other stories we all remember as children.  These stories, mostly originated in Germany or England, are a part of our history and are carried from one generation to another.

I am honestly surprised when I hold up a story I know well, especially one that I've known for as long as I can remember, and my students say they've never heard it before.  "REALLY?  You've never heard of the story of Little Red Riding Hood?!  REALLY?"

A part of me is thrilled that they get to hear these iconic stories through me for the first time.  For most of these stories, I don't remember where I heard of them first, but a few of them, I do- like Hansel and Gretel was reading it sometime in grade school and then we saw a performance of it done by high-schoolers.  It was so cool for me to see the story come to life! 

A parent recently was upset that we lacked diversity in our stories during "story corner" and the comment hurt.  I completely understood where she was coming from. We do have a few stories that feature characters of different ethnicities, but out of the hundreds of stories we carry, it is possible that in a semester one of these might not make it into a specific class.  Her comment highlighted a bigger issue that exists within our culture today.  The large majority of our stories are classics and unfortunately, stories that originated between the late 1700s to the late 1800s Europe (more specifically, England and Germany.)  The pure economics is that these countries were actively investing in the telling of children's stories:  believing that it was beneficial to the value of childhood and served a didactic purpose.  Money was put into publishing houses to cater to the growth of children's stories specifically.  Charles Dickens, ETA Hoffman, and France's Jean-Jacques Rousseau were household names in children's literature and told stories featuring Caucasian children.

So the question is, in the modern world, where is this push for children's literature now?  Why aren't we creating stories that will be classics generations from now?  And, where are the stories of different ethnicities being represented?   Or will we still be reading the same stories 30, 40, 100 years from now?

There is something about these classic stories that are untouched right now, which is why so many 21st century stories are recreations:  Wicked, Snow White in New York, The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, and some feminist recreations of classic fairy tales.  These stories are structurally sound (following a clean, 3 Act structure), serve a didactic purpose, combines a fantastical world and the fight to "do the right thing."  They're complicated; the characters are worth rooting for (as in, they are an "active" part of their world and create dramatic action) instead of playing a passive role in their lives (where things are happening to them instead of making things happen for themselves.)  It is hard for me not to notice the lack of dramatic action in modern stories, the lack of the good structure, and just... immature writing.  The writers of children classics wrote for adults as well; they gave their children credit to grasp complicated themes and characters.  They wrote beautiful sentences, rather than a series of fragments.  I always try to read the stories to our students as they're written and give them credit to pay attention and put together what's going on.   

Don't get me wrong:  There are a few good children stories written today that represent different ethnicities, such as The Apple-Pip Princess, that follow the structure of the classics we love and we have here at Ballet Petite.  My students LOVE The Apple-Pip Princess, which, by the way, is just a great story told properly.  After reading it in my last class, one little ballerina sighed and said, "That was really good."  There's not enough of these, clearly. 

I think it's great we have stories we can share from generation to generation, but I also feel as though it's time for publishing houses to make a push for children's literature much like England did in the 1800s.  Times have changed; gender and racial issues have matured, and it's time for new, good, stories to arrive for the children in generations to come.

~ Miss Jenna

"If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." - Toni Morrison