The Way Things Work

Children's literature as such probably started in the 17th century; it is generally believed that before then books were written mainly for adults.... Additionally, most printed works were hard to come by due to their cost and were mostly available for purchase only by upper class society. Scholarship on children's literature includes professional organizations, dedicated publications and university courses. There is some debate on what constitutes children's literature. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as "a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". Some books written for children, such as The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford or the juvenilia of Jane Austen, written to amuse brothers and sisters, are also written by children. Anne Frank wrote a novel and many very short stories in addition to her diary . Barbara Newhall Follett wrote four books, beginning with a novel called The House Without Windows at the age of nine; when the manuscript was destroyed in a fire, she rewrote it from memory.
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