Charity and Children's Literature

Abstract

This special issue on charity and children’s literature emerges out of my current research on how children are encouraged to see themselves as charitable beings. In this historical project, I examine a range of children’s magazines from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to analyse which children are inducted into habits of philanthropy while other children are depicted as the recipients of good will and material benefits. This research has shown that children have been understood to have the potential to act as charitable agents for hundreds of years. Yet it also reflects the complex interaction between children and charity in children’s literature, where sometimes the charitable children are not only the recipients of charity, but are also inspired to help others as well.