A.P.C. "Children's Story-Books"
The author, noted only as “A.P.C.” writes in Bow Bells magazine about the pivotal importance of choosing what children read very carefully. A.P.C. draws on a discussion about the relevance of sensational works for older children to discuss issues with what society read young children. Written in 1890, this work shows an increasing concern but also an acknowledgment that what Victorians read and gave their children had a profound effect on what they learned.
I see this as a foundational piece to the work of this anthology and the questions this anthology seeks to answer. In what ways was literature working in the period to instruct children, and how were Victorians questions the morals and lessons of that literature? When we get at this we gain a further insight into the ways Victorians sought to reconsider childhood in juxtaposition with social changes at the time. This juxtaposition belies the ways society redeployed childhood to address socio-cultural anxieties of the time period.