O.Yu. Trykova

Children's Literature: Main Functions, Peculiarities of Perception, Bestseller Phenomenon

If the path, cutting through the father's sword,
You wound salty tears on your mustache,
If in a hot battle I experienced what is how much, -
So, you read the necessary books as a child.

This quote from Vysotsky's "Ballad of the Struggle" is the best way to define what a real children's book should be like. Literary criticism has long identified its main functions, but nevertheless, many of them are still either forgotten or ignored by adults (isn't this the reason for the extinction of children's interest in reading?).

So one of the most important functions of children's literatureis an entertaining function. Without it, all the rest are inconceivable: if a child is not interested, it is impossible to develop or educate him, etc. It is no coincidence that recently scientists have begun to talk about the hedonistic role of the book - it should bring pleasure, pleasure ...

All teachers rightly consider the educational function to be one of the most important. “What to do so that the pink baby does not become a cudgel?” - V. Berestov asked at one time. Of course, to read him "necessary books"! After all, it is precisely in them that the “alphabet of morality” is contained, of which in many respects the child learns, "what is good and what is bad" (V. Mayakovsky). And at the same time, as M. Voloshin paradoxically noted, “the meaning of education is the protection of adults from children” (!).

And excessive didactics, as you know, is always not good for artistry: in the best works morality for children folk tales, “it is not expressed openly anywhere, but follows from the very fabric of the narrative” (V. Propp).

Less popular, but no less important aesthetic the function of children's literature: the book should instill a true artistic taste, the child should be introduced to the best examples of the art of the word. AT Soviet times this function was often sacrificed to ideology, when schoolchildren and even preschoolers were forced to memorize aesthetically monstrous but “ideologically correct” poems about the party and October, to read stories about Lenin with little artistic value, and so on. On the other hand, acquaintance only with the best, in the opinion of adults, samples classical literature often violates the principle of accessibility, and as a result, the child retains a hostile attitude towards the classics for the rest of his life ...

And in this case, undoubtedly, the role of an adult is huge, it is he who is able to play the role of a guide in comprehending the treasures of world and domestic literature (even not originally intended for reading) by a child. An example of such subtle and emotional mediation was excellently shown by D. Samoilov in the poem “From Childhood”:

I am small, my throat is in a sore throat.
Snow is falling outside the windows.
And dad sings to me: "As now
The prophetic Oleg is going ... "
I listen to the song and cry
Sobbing in the pillow of the soul,
And shameful tears I hide,
And on and on I ask.
Autumn fly apartment
Drowsily buzzing behind the wall.
And I cry over the frailty of the world
I, small, stupid, sick.

Childhood impressions are the strongest, the most important, it is no coincidence that even S. Dali wrote: “Dead mice, rotten hedgehogs of my childhood, I appeal to you! Thank you! For without you, I would hardly have become the Great Dali.

At the same time, it is also important reverse process: reading children's literature, adults begin to better understand children, their problems and interests. “Sometimes she helps adults find the forgotten child in themselves.”
(M. Boroditskaya).

No doubt cognitive function of children's literature: scientists have found that up to seven years a person receives 70% of knowledge and only 30% - for the rest of his life! In relation to fiction, the cognitive function is divided into two aspects: firstly, there is a special genre of scientific and artistic prose, where certain knowledge is presented to children in literary form (for example, the natural history tale of V. Bianchi). Secondly, works that do not even have a cognitive orientation contribute to expanding the child's circle of knowledge about the world, nature and man.

Huge role illustrations in a children's book. Yes, for children. preschool age illustrations must be at least 75%. It is no coincidence that Alice L. Carroll said: “What is the use of a book if there are no pictures or conversations in it?”. One of the leading types of memory is visual, and the appearance of a book from childhood was firmly connected with its content (for example, it is difficult to imagine A. Tolstoy's "The Adventures of Pinocchio" or "The Magician emerald city» A. Volkov without illustrations by L. Vladimirsky). Even an adult reader, not to mention children, begins to get acquainted with a book precisely from its external design (which is now often abused by commercial book publishers, who seek to compensate for the wretchedness of the content with the brightness of the cover).

When working with a children's book, it is impossible not to take into account and psychological characteristics perception of children's (and not only children's) literature.

This is identification- identification with a literary hero. This is especially characteristic of adolescence, but not only: we see a peculiar example of identification, for example, in the finale of I. Surikov's poem "Childhood".

This is escapism- departure into the imaginary world of the book. Actively condemned in the era of socialism (“why go to a fictional world when you have to live in a real one, building socialism or communism ?!”), He received a completely different assessment in the statement of J.P.P. to return home? Or someone who, unable to escape, thinks and talks about something not connected with the prison and the jailers? By adding to his real world the world of the books he has read, the reader thereby enriches his life, his spiritual experience. Especially prone to escapism are fans of fantasy literature, and in particular J.P.P. , alas, cases of suicide among Tolkienists are not uncommon). So, here, in many respects, you need to know the measure, so as not to play too much completely.

A huge role in the selection and perception of fiction is played by its compensatory function. By what kind of books a person prefers, it is perfectly clear what he lacks in reality. Children, and then teenagers and youth, trying to overcome the routine of the surrounding life, yearning
about a miracle, they choose fairy tales first, then fantasy and science fiction. Women, tortured by everyday life, children and family, reading women's romance novels, identify with the heroine, satisfy the dream
about the “handsome prince”, a bright and happy ending (despite the stereotyped plot, images, etc.). Thus, at the expense of literature, a person gets what is missing in life and thereby also enriches it!

The orientation of the personality affects the selection of books of certain genres: youth, aspiring
into the future, prefers science fiction; older people, on the contrary, are books about the past, historical genres, memoirs, etc.

Returning to children's literature, it should be noted that traditionally it is divided into children's literature itself (books written specifically for children) and children's reading, including works that were not originally addressed to children, but included in the circle of children's reading (A.S. Pushkin's fairy tales, books by J.P.P. Tolkien).

Is there a reverse process? Among the books addressed to children, we can name at least two that have become both a fact of adult culture, a source of inspiration, a subject of research and controversy. These are Alice in Wonderland by L. Carroll (a classic example) and the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling (a modern example).

I would like to say a little more about the phenomenon of the latter's success. The first of the novels "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is being built, but in essence, according to the same scheme as the legendary "Cinderella": an orphan, offended by everyone, humiliated, living in a dark closet and wearing cast-offs from his "native child", becomes " reasonable and great”, learning about his relationship with wizards, enrolling in Hogwarts school, etc.

Both plots are based on an initiation rite, a test for the truth of positive qualities, which lies
at the heart of many works of art. But with this archetypal property, which, in our opinion, largely ensured the success of the work, one cannot fail to note significant differences: if Cinderella-Sandrillon only uses magic spells to achieve quite earthly goals, then Harry himself studies as a wizard, that is, he takes a position much more active. One way or another, it was the initiatory complex underlying the Harry Potter books that contributed a lot to the global success of J.K. Rowling's works.

Among the components of the popularity of "Harry Potter", of course, one cannot fail to note the very thoughtful advertising campaign that was carried out all over the world, including in our country.

So, the appeal to images-archetypes plus well-calculated advertising is, in our opinion, one of the main components of the success of the modern world bestseller, even called "Potteromania".

It remains only to wish that modern domestic authors equally competently use these features in order to achieve success no less than J.K. Rowling's bestseller about Harry Potter ...

Topic 1. The specifics of children's literature. Genres of children's literature

The main criterion that makes it possible to isolate children's literature from "literature in general" is the "category of the child reader." Guided by this criterion, literary critics distinguish three classes of works:

1) directly addressed to children;

2) entering the circle children's reading(not created specifically for children, but found their response and interest);

3) composed by the children themselves (or, in other words, "children's literary creativity").

The first of these groups is most often meant by the words "children's literature" - literature created in dialogue with an imaginary (and often quite real) child, "tuned" to children's worldview. However, the criteria for selecting such literature can not always be clearly identified. Among the main ones:

a) publication of a work in a children's publication (magazine, book marked "for children", etc.) during his lifetime and with the knowledge of the writer;

b) dedication to the child;

c) the presence in the text of the work of appeals to a young reader.

However, such criteria will not always be the basis for singling out children's literature (for example, addressing a child can only be a device, dedication can be done “for the future”, etc.).

AT history of children's literature usually the same periods and directions are distinguished as in general literary process. But the imprint on the development of children's literature is left, on the one hand, by the pedagogical ideas of a particular period (and, more broadly, by the attitude towards children), and on the other hand, by the demands of the little and young readers themselves, which also change historically.

It can be said that in most cases (though not always) children's literature is more conservative than adult literature. This is due to its specific main function, which goes beyond artistic creativity: the formation in the child of a primary holistic figurative representation of the world (initially, this function was carried out through folklore works). Being so closely connected with pedagogy, children's literature, it would seem, is somewhat limited in the field of artistic search, which is why it often "lags behind" "adult" literature or does not completely follow its path. But, on the other hand, children's literature cannot be called artistically inferior. K. Chukovsky insisted that a children's work should have the highest artistic "standard" and be perceived as an aesthetic value by both children and adults.

In fact, children's literature is a special way of artistic reflection of the world (the question of the status of children's literature was open for quite a long time; in the USSR in the 1970s, a discussion on this topic was held on the pages of the Children's Literature magazine). Functionally and genetically, it is connected with folklore, with its playful and mythological components, which are preserved even in literary and author's works. World children's work, as a rule, is anthropocentric, and in the center of it is a child (or another hero with whom a young reader can identify himself).

Using the Jungian classification of archetypes, we can say that the paramount in art picture the world of almost any children's work becomes the mythologeme of the Divine Child. The main function of such a hero is to “be a miracle” or to be a witness to a miracle, or even to perform miracles on his own. How a miracle can be perceived both the mind of a child, and the wisdom he unexpectedly manifests, and simply good deed. This mythologeme also entails a number of motifs that are repeated again and again in children's literature (the mysterious or unusual origin of the hero or his orphanhood, the increase in the scale of his image - up to external features; the child's ability to perceive what adults do not see; the presence of a magical patron, etc.).

As a variant of the mythologeme of the Divine Child, its opposite can be considered - a “non-divine” mischievous child who in every possible way violates the norms of the “adult” world and is subjected to censure, ridicule and even curses for this (such, for example, are the heroes of the edifying “horror stories” of the 19th century about Styopka-Rastrepka ).

Another variety of children's images, also originating in mythological plots, is the “sacrificial child” (for example, in biblical story about the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham); such images received special development in Soviet children's literature. By the way, the first child image in Russian literature belongs to this type - Prince Gleb from The Tale of Boris and Gleb (mid-11th century). The author even deliberately underestimated the age of the hero in order to “exaggerate” his holiness (in fact, at the time of the murder, Gleb was no longer a child).

Another mythology of no small importance for children's literature is the idea of ​​paradise, embodied in the images of a garden, a wonderful island, a distant country, etc. For "adult" Russian writers, starting from late XVIII century, a possible embodiment of this mythology is the world of childhood - a wonderful time when everything that exists can be perceived as paradise. The content of children's works inevitably correlates with the psychology of the child (otherwise the work simply will not be accepted or even harm the child). According to the observations of researchers, “children crave a happy ending”, they need a sense of harmony, which is reflected in the construction of a picture of the world in works for children. The child demands "truthfulness" even in fairy-tale fiction (so that everything is "like in life").

Researchers of children's literature note the proximity of children's literature to mass literature, which is primarily manifested in the formation of genre canons. There were even attempts to create "instructions" for writing children's works of various genres - just as, by the way, such instructions are quite feasible for creating ladies' novels, police detective stories, mystical thrillers, etc. - genres canonized to an even greater extent than "children's". Close in children's and mass literature and artistic means, drawn by one and the other from folklore, popular popular prints (according to one of the researchers, Chukovsky’s “Fly Tsokotuha” is ... nothing more than a “tabloid” novel, arranged in verse and equipped with popular prints"). Another feature of children's works - created for children by adults - is the presence in them of two plans - "adult" and "childish", which "resonate, forming a dialogic unity within the text."

Their artistic features each group of genres of children's literature has. Prose genres are transformed not only under the influence of fairy tales. Large epic genres of historical and moral-social themes are influenced by the classic story about childhood (the so-called " school story" and etc.). Stories and short stories for children are considered “short” forms, they are characterized by clearly drawn characters, a clear main idea developed in a simple plot with a tense-sharp conflict. Drama for children practically does not know tragedy, since the child's consciousness rejects the sad outcomes of conflicts with death. goodie, and even "really" presented on stage. Here, too, the influence of fairy tales is enormous. Finally, children's poetry and lyrical epic genres, firstly, gravitate towards folklore, and in addition, they also have a number of canonical features recorded by K. Chukovsky. Children's poems, according to K. Chukovsky, necessarily "should be graphic", that is, they can easily be transformed into a picture; they should have a quick change of images, complemented by a flexible change in rhythm (as regards rhythm and meter, Chukovsky noted in the book From Two to Five that chorea predominates in the work of the children themselves). An important requirement is "musicality" (first of all, this term means the absence of clusters of consonant sounds that are inconvenient for pronunciation). For children's poems, adjacent rhymes are preferred, while the rhyming words "should bear the greatest weight of meaning"; "each verse must be a complete syntactic whole." Children's poems, according to Chukovsky, should not be overloaded with epithets: the child is more interested in action than description. The playful presentation of poetry is recognized as the best, including the play of sounds. Finally, K. Chukovsky urged children's poets to listen to folk children's songs and to the poetry of the children themselves.

Speaking of a children's book, one should not forget about such an important part of it (no longer literary, but in this case practically inseparable from it) as an illustration. A children's book is, in fact, a syncretic unity of picture and text, and in illustrating children's books there have also been and are their own trends related both to the development visual arts as well as literature.

The subject of children's literature can be considered knowledge and ideas about the surrounding reality, depicted in a form accessible to children's perception. Knowledge about the world reflected in children's literature should be of a special nature and take into account the specifics of the reader. Childhood is a period in which a personality is formed and on which the future fate of a person largely depends. In childhood, the foundations of the future are formed. At the same time, it is a natural, extremely important and absolutely independent part of life. This is the preparation for adulthood, and a time full of impressions, bright, colorful events, when a person discovers the world for himself. His character is formed, the structure of spiritual values ​​is created, which determine the inner image of the personality.

In order for a child to willingly turn to a book, its content must captivate the reader. Therefore, when creating a children's work, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the interest of children, which affects the subject of content. In addition, it should be borne in mind that the child is constantly developing under the influence of external conditions and these conditions affect the formation of personality. And therefore, when publishing children's literature, it is necessary to take into account the educational effect of the publication.

Thus, the subject of children's literature implies the educational and educational impact of the book on the reader.

But even this is not enough to characterize the subject matter of the content of children's literature. The psychology of children is different from the psychology of adults. Children, especially preschoolers, believe in the inviolability and openness of the world, in kindness and justice, in the fact that positive, good things that cause the approval of adults are correct and should exist in exactly the state that is most preferable for their understanding and perception.

This observation allows us to identify another important aspect of the subject area of ​​literature for children. As a rule, works of children's literature are optimistic, in them good triumphs over evil, truth triumphs over lies.

We emphasize, by the way, that a person in childhood is closely connected with the text. Children communicate with adults and with each other primarily through texts. Acquaintance with the outside world is also carried out through the text - after all, a child learns a lot not from his own experience, but from the explanations that others tell him, i.e. from oral texts. Apparently, this is why the book is organic for children's perception. Behind it for the child is, as it were, a conversation with adults, because at first the book is read by parents or older brothers or sisters. This consideration must be kept in mind when the question arises of the effect of a book on the reader. Due to the constant, active interest of children in the environment, the impact of the content of the book on the child can be quite strong, and the perception of the content of the book can be reliable and natural.

What can become the basis of the content of children's literature? Obviously, almost any phenomenon, any object of reality. However, the interpretation of events, the actions of people, the properties of animals must acquire a special sound - a sound determined by the subject area of ​​children's literature.

One hundred thousand "how", millions of "why" is ready to ask small man. And the content of the book is intended to reveal, show, explain those facts that fall into the field of view of the child. Draw his attention to those that do not fall. Literature for children is devoted to history and modernity, nature and human society, culture, sciences, arts. Therefore, the subject of children's literature is characterized by a wealth of problem-thematic composition. Literally all aspects of human life and activity are reflected in literature.

However, we must not forget that the thematic focus reflects the cognitive and educational potential of literature for children. Moreover, its subject is determined by the social order, the educational ideals of society. The subject reflects various aspects of the life of society, moral positions, the prevailing social ideal, which affects the nature of the subject of literature for children.

In addition, the specific interests of the children's audience are taken into account, and in the content, priority is given to childhood, the period of growth and maturation of children, and the tasks that they face. Therefore, the subject of children's literature covers the life of the school, summer holidays, acquaintance with the city and country, episodes from the life of historical heroes, scientists, cultural and art figures.

But the subject and selection of the factual material of the works do not exhaust general characteristics content. An important indicator subject area of ​​children's literature is the problems of works. It is clear, therefore, that the subject of children's literature is a social, historical, developing quality.

In the process of formation, children's literature has deepened significantly, and contemporary literature are attracted by the eternal questions of mankind: how a personality develops, from what and to what a person and humanity go. In this literature, childhood is seen as the beginning of a person's journey into the future.

The subject of literature for children is realized by the subject area of ​​publications, which will be discussed in detail below.

Children's literature is singled out as an independent complex on the basis of the reader's address, and the category of the reader's address is organically linked to the category of the purpose of the work of literature.

Literature for children has its own specifics - but it also obeys the laws that apply in literature in general. Polyfunctionality is inherent in the very nature of the word, however, different cultural and historical epochs from a variety of functions put forward one or the other in the first place. A feature of our era, which is already called the era of the XX-XXI centuries, is that literature, as one of the oldest arts, has been placed in extremely difficult conditions for survival by such powerful information systems as television and computers with their seemingly unlimited possibilities of "machine", mechanical creativity.

Teachers, leaders of children's reading, by virtue of their social role put in the first place educational and cognitive functions that have always been considered the fundamental basis of any teachings.“Teaching with pleasure” often seems to be nonsense, a combination of incompatible, since next to the concept of “teaching”, the word “labor” appears by association, and with the word “pleasure” - “rest”, “idleness”. At the same time, those who insist on the paramount ™ of these functions believe that the teacher, who determines priorities in this way, takes care of the development in children of such a property as diligence. However, diligence is also diligence, which presupposes a love of work. Is it possible a priori, knowingly, without "trying" a thing, to fall in love with it? Love abstractly, theoretically? To kid? One may very much want to learn what others already have. And cool down to this, because neither the process nor the result brings that pleasure which is expected. In fact, "learning with pleasure" is a synonym for "learning with passion." Modern era forces teachers to reshuffle overt and covert goals.

Let's ask ourselves a simple question: do we like it when we are brought up? Do they teach persistently? Practically such people do not occur in nature. Why, then, do we, writers, teachers and, in general, leaders of children's reading, put at the forefront what we ourselves are at least unpleasant, and at most - causes rejection. It's not that the functions are outdated, it can't be. It’s just that when we turn to reading with a child or teenager, we should take care of the conditions of psychological comfort, which is due to age, psychophysical data, the degree of social preparedness, inclinations, etc. The book, of course, teaches and educates, but this happens not because the leader of reading declares that what teaches and what educates - this happens organically and naturally, without the special efforts of the teacher.

The time of an imaginary overload with communication systems makes us discover in a fiction book for a child interlocutor, co-author, visionary of human thoughts. Update communicative functions will attract the child to the book, help him better understand himself, teach him to express his thoughts and feelings (and here the computer is not a rival). A teenager reading "Ivanhoe" by Walter Scott invariably experiences pleasure, because in the book he finds answers to the questions that sound in it, but in ordinary life he cannot find the answer to them. Someone, reading the stories of Lydia Charskaya or Anatoly Aleksin, will pass psychological training understanding oneself in difficult family circumstances, but having delved into the story “Barankin, be a man!” Valeria Medvedev will begin to educate himself, not relying on others and not torturing them with his disobedience.

Undoubtedly, with an abundance of low-quality literature, the education of aesthetic taste, a sense of beauty, an understanding of the true in fiction is the task of classical children's literature. aesthetic the function reveals the properties of literature as the art of the word. The beauty of the world, the beauty and accuracy of the word that captures the surroundings, especially the awareness of the artistic value of the work, no matter what side of life it touches, the syncretic value, which is recognized by both the mind and the heart, feeling. The aesthetic inherent in the work resonates in the reader if this aesthetic feeling is developed in him, otherwise he is deprived of one of the possibilities of spiritual, spiritual, moral and aesthetic pleasure.

Function hedonistic(enjoyment, pleasure) enhances each of the above functions. Singling it out as an independent one forces the leaders of reading to fix in work of art components that allow you to achieve a "heuristic" effect. Without taking into account the function of pleasure, the young reader becomes a slave and eventually turns away from this activity. French educator and writer Daniel Pennac teaches today's parents, teachers and children themselves how to love reading. If we put at the forefront the reader's enjoyment of reading (which has nothing to do with the satisfaction of purely physiological instincts, which is often called for by the media) - and it is expressed both in the pleasure of the process of reading and getting answers to pressing questions, and in creating joyful acceptance of the world, and on the way to ourselves, the best, together with the author and the heroes of the work, we will be able to solve almost all problems, regardless of what the leader of children's reading would like to set as exclusively defining.

In connection with the foregoing, another function should be borne in mind - rhetorical, separating it from a communicative function into an independent one. The child, while reading, learns to enjoy the word and the work, so far he unwittingly finds himself in the role of a co-author, co-writer. The history of literature knows many examples of how the impressions of reading in childhood aroused the gift of writing in future classics. It is no coincidence that great teachers put the process of teaching literacy in interdependence with children's writing. On the way from a read work to one's own composition, a colossal invisible work is being done.

Summing up, we note that, like fiction that is not addressed to children, children's literature performs the following functions:

• - cognitive;
• - educational;
• - communicative;
• - aesthetic;
• - hedonistic;
• - rhetorical.

Mastering the content of a literary-artistic, or popular-science, or scientific-artistic work does not occur at once. The content of a work of art is complex: it contains socio-moral, socio-psychological, possibly legal or philosophical content, it can touch upon private issues of the inner life of the individual and society, the relationship between adults and children, teachers and students. However, these individual "contents" are not yet artistic content. A teacher, a policeman, a student can tell about the same life collision, but this story is not identical and not synonymous with what is written, for example, by A. A. Likhanov or V. II. Krapivin. To read technically does not mean to understand a work in all its versatility and multifunctionality.

Thus, four main stages of acquaintance with the book can be distinguished.

• 1. Reading-perception.
• 2. Reading and reproduction, reproduction.
• 3. Reading and producing according to the model.
• 4. Reading and creating an original work.

Writing, writing is another of the motives for reading.

the main objective children's literature - to give the child a decent upbringing and education, to prepare him for adulthood. K. D. Ushinsky believed that “education itself, if it wants a person to be happy, should educate him not for happiness, but to prepare for the work of life ”, that the child, while reading, must learn the basic rules of adult life and pacify his unbridled desires. A. Schopenhauer argued that a happy person is brought up by restrictions.

When it comes to educating with a book, it should be noted that when forming the circle of reading for boys and girls, a natural dominant for them, different for both, should be indicated. We are not talking about creating two mutually exclusive lists of literature, but parents, educators, and teachers of literature should educate the reader's taste and develop reader preferences, taking into account the coming "adult" life. “For women, wax is for a man copper: / We only get a lot in battles, / And they are given, guessing, to die,” Osip Mandelstam once concluded aphoristically. Boys prefer adventure, fantasy, historical stories, artistic battles, and girls prefer lyrical poems, fairy tales, melodramatic stories with a good ending. And it's natural. Literature is designed to educate a man strong and courageous, a defender of his loved ones and the Fatherland, and in a girl - a wise woman, mother, keeper of the family hearth.

The multifunctionality of children's literature makes it necessary to coordinate the goals of teaching this subject at a pedagogical university, and then project these goals onto the guidance of children's and youth reading at home, in preschool institutions, primary school, basic school and graduation, in grades 10-11. In addition, the oblivion of all the components of literature as the art of the word sometimes leads to the "invention of the bicycle", when one of the functions, torn from the whole complex, determines the genre beginning in fiction for kids.

Children's literature at the university not only gives an idea of ​​the history of an extremely important department of world literature, addressed to childhood (from early infancy to adolescence), it is also intended to give an idea of ​​the evolution of the most characteristic genre and style formations, thus outlining linear-concentric reading principle generally. A child turns to the same works both as a preschooler, as a schoolchild, and as a young man, but the level of his reading abilities grows with him. So, as a child, he will know famous work R. Kipling as a fascinating children's book called "Mowgli", but then he meets her more than once in the form of "The Jungle Book" and begins to pay attention to places in the text that said little to his mind in childhood, when he was completely absorbed amazing adventures of Mowgli. For example, this:

He grew up with the wolf cubs, although they, of course, became adult wolves much earlier than he was out of infancy, and Father Wolf taught him his trade and explained everything that happened in the jungle. And therefore, every rustle in the grass, every breath of the warm night breeze, every cry of an owl overhead, every movement bat, on the fly caught on a tree branch with its claws, every splash of a small fish in the pond meant a lot to Mowgli. When he did not learn anything, he dozed, sitting in the sun, ate and fell asleep again. When he was hot and wanted to freshen up, he swam in the forest lakes; and when he wanted honey (he learned from Baloo that honey and nuts are as tasty as raw meat), he climbed a tree for it - Bagheera showed him how it was done. Bagheera stretched out on a bough and called:

Come here, Little Brother!

At first Mowgli clung to branches like a sloth animal, and then he learned to jump from branch to branch almost as boldly as a gray monkey. On Council Rock, when the Pack met, he also had his own place. There he noticed that not a single wolf could withstand his gaze and lowered his eyes before him, and then, for fun, he began to stare at the wolves.

Here R. Kipling makes one of those observations of his, which should be really noticed and appreciated by an adult (or already maturing) reader, and not a kid who loves and understands the event-adventure side of his story. Then for a while - again "narration for everyone":

It happened that he pulled splinters out of his friends' paws - wolves suffer greatly from thorns and burrs that dig into their skin. At night he would come down from the hills into the cultivated fields and watch the people in the huts with curiosity, but he did not trust them. Bagheera showed him a square box with a trap door, so skillfully hidden in the thicket that Mowgli almost fell into it himself, and said that it was a trap. Most of all, he liked to go with Bagheera into the dark, hot depths of the forest, fall asleep there for the whole day, and at night watch how Bagheera hunted. She killed right and left when she was hungry. So did Mowgli.

Then a stroke follows again, the symbolic depth of which the child may not yet realize, but the teenager or young man is already able to think about it:

But when the boy grew up and began to understand everything, Bagheera told him that he should not dare to touch the livestock, because they paid a ransom for him to the Flock by killing a buffalo.

All the jungle is yours, said Bagheera. “You can hunt any game you can, but for the sake of the buffalo that ransomed you, you must not touch any cattle, young or old. This is the Law of the Jungle.

And Mowgli obeyed implicitly.

He grew and grew, strong as a boy should grow up, who casually learns everything there is to know, without even thinking that he is learning, and cares only about getting his own food.

It is in such places of a long-familiar book that a young man and an adult discover something new, starting to see in interesting also wise.

But already in childhood, such a linear-concentric approach, repeated reading of one text, allows the child for the first time to draw an extremely important conclusion: a literary word, like a work, is a living organism, growing, opening up to sensitive perception.

An artistic pedagogical book is a concept, on the one hand, basically synonymous with the concept of "children's literature" (it is difficult to imagine a work written for a child, addressed to him and devoid of a pedagogical - upbringing and educational - trend), but this concept is already the concept of "children's literature". ”, and more broadly, since a pedagogical book, albeit an artistic one, is addressed to two subjects pedagogical process: both to the teacher and the child, to both sides of education and training - and puts the pedagogical meaning of the artistic whole at the forefront.

Without canceling what has been said above, let us add that children's literature cannot but strive to arouse in the child a thirst for discovery. vast world outside and, perhaps, the same cosmos in itself - moreover, it is called upon to awaken sense of mother tongue, which is perceived not only as something that allows you to satisfy the most primitive, or even not primitive, but pragmatic needs, as a means of achieving everyday comfort, but also as a Divine Verb, the path to the soul, word, possessing strength, energy, a precious word that stores the wisdom of ancestors and reveals the incomprehensible secrets of the future hidden in itself.

• Pennak D. Like a novel. M.: Samokat, 2013. (Daniel Pennak. Comme un roman. Paris, 1992.)
• Ushinsky K.D. Man as a subject of education. Experience of pedagogical anthropology. M .: ID Grand, 2004. S. 532.

Literature for children has its own specifics, but it also obeys the laws that apply to literature in general. Multifunctionality is inherent in the very nature of the word, however, different cultural and historical epochs, out of a variety of functions, put forward one or the other in the first place. A feature of our era, which over time will be called the era of the turn of the 20th-21st centuries, is that literature, as one of the oldest arts, has been placed in very difficult, almost unbearable conditions for survival by such extremely powerful information systems as television and a computer with their seemingly unlimited possibilities of "machine" creativity. Teachers, leaders of children's reading, by virtue of their social role, put the educational and educational functions in the first place, which are the fundamental basis of any teaching. “Teaching with pleasure” often seems to be nonsense, a combination of incompatible things, since next to the concept of “teaching” the concept of “labor” arises by association, and with the concept of “pleasure” - “rest”, “idleness”. In fact, "learning with pleasure" is a synonym for "learning with passion." The modern era forces teachers to make a "castling" of explicit and secret goals. The time of imaginary overload with communication systems forces us into art book for a child to introduce an interlocutor, a co-author, a seer of human thoughts. Actualization of the communicative function will attract the young reader to the book, help to better understand himself, teach him to express his thoughts and feelings (and here the computer is not a rival). Undoubtedly, the education of aesthetic taste, a sense of beauty, an understanding of the true in fiction is the task of classical children's literature. This is especially important today with the influx of pseudo-fiction. The aesthetic function reveals the properties of literature as the art of the word. The hedonistic function (enjoyment, pleasure) enhances each of the above functions. Singling it out as an independent one also forces reading leaders to fix “components” in a work of art that allow achieving a “heuristic” effect. Without taking into account the function of enjoyment, the young reader becomes a reader by compulsion and, over time, turns away from this occupation. In connection with the foregoing, one more function of children's literature should be mentioned - rhetorical. The child, while reading, learns to enjoy the word and the work, so far he unwittingly finds himself in the role of a co-author of the writer. The history of literature knows many examples of how the impressions of reading received in childhood aroused the gift of writing in future classics. It is no coincidence that great teachers found a mutual relationship between the process of teaching literacy and children's writing. On the way from a read work to one's own composition, a colossal invisible work is being done. Thus, three main stages of acquaintance with the book can be distinguished. 1. Reading and reproduction, reproduction. 2. Reading and producing according to the model. 3. Reading and creating an original work. Writing, writing is another of the motives for reading. The main goal of children's literature is to give a decent upbringing and education, to prepare for adult life. According to K. D. Ushinsky, it is necessary to prepare a child not for happiness, but for the work of life, a child, while reading, must learn the basic rules of adult life and pacify his unbridled desires. (" happy man they bring up limitations ”- Arthur Schopenhauer.) If it comes to education, it should be noted that when forming a circle of children's reading for boys and girls, a natural and different dominant for both should be indicated. We are not talking about creating two mutually exclusive lists of literature, but parents, educators, and teachers of literature should shape the reader's taste and develop reader preferences, taking into account the future "adult life" young man . “For women, wax is for a man copper: / We only get a lot in battles, / And they are given, guessing, to die” (O. Mandelstam) - the poet once concluded aphoristically. Boys prefer adventure, fantasy, historical stories, artistic battles, and girls prefer lyric poetry, fairy tales, melodramatic stories with a good ending. And it's natural. Literature is called upon to educate a man in a boy, strong and courageous, a defender of his loved ones and the Fatherland, and in a girl - a wise woman, mother, keeper of the family hearth. The multifunctionality of children's literature makes it necessary to coordinate the goals of teaching this subject at a pedagogical university, and then project these goals onto the guidance of children's and youth reading in the family, preschool institutions, elementary school, middle school and graduation classes. In addition, the oblivion of all the components of literature as the art of the word sometimes leads to the "invention of the bicycle", when one of the functions, torn from their integral complex, determines the genre beginning in fiction for children. Children's literature at the university not only introduces the history of an extremely important department of world literature, addressed to childhood (from early infancy to adolescence). It is also intended to give an idea of ​​the evolution of the most characteristic genre and style formations, thus outlining the linear-concentric principle of reading in general. A person turns to the same works both as a preschooler, as a schoolchild, and as a young man, but the level of his reading abilities grows with him. So, as a child, he recognizes the work of R. Kipling as a fascinating children's book called "Maugyi", but then he meets it more than once as with the "Book of the Jungle" and begins to pay attention to such places in the text that said little to his mind in childhood when he followed with concentration and enthusiasm the amazing adventures of Mowgli. Here are some excerpts from the text. “He grew up with the cubs, although they, of course, became adult wolves much earlier than he was out of infancy, and Father Wolf taught him his trade and explained everything that happens in the jungle. And therefore, every rustle in the grass, every breath of a warm night breeze, every cry of an owl overhead, every movement of a bat, on the fly caught on a tree branch with its claws, every splash of a small fish in the pond meant a lot to Mowgli. When he did not learn anything, he dozed, sitting in the sun, ate and fell asleep again. When he was hot and wanted to freshen up, he swam in the forest lakes; and when he wanted honey (from Baloo he learned that honey and nuts are as tasty as raw meat), he climbed up a tree for it - Bagheera showed him how to do it. Bagheera stretched out on a branch and called: - Come here, Little Brother! At first Mowgli clung to branches like a sloth animal, and then he learned to jump from branch to branch almost as boldly as a gray monkey. On Council Rock, when the Pack met, he also had his own place. There he noticed that not a single wolf could withstand his gaze and lowered his eyes before him, and then, for fun, he began to stare at the wolves. Here Kipling makes one of those observations of his, which an adult (or already maturing) reader should really notice and appreciate, and not a kid who loves and understands the event-adventure side of the story. Further, for some time, again, “narration for everyone”: “It happened that he pulled splinters out of his friends paws - wolves suffer greatly from thorns and burrs that dig into their skin. At night he would come down from the hills into the cultivated fields and watch the people in the huts with curiosity, but he did not trust them. Bagheera showed him a square box with a trap door, so skillfully hidden in the thicket that Mowgli almost fell into it himself, and said that it was a trap. Most of all, he liked to go with Bagheera into the dark, hot depths of the forest, fall asleep there for the whole day, and at night watch how Bagheera hunted. She killed right and left when she was hungry. So did Mowgli." Then again follows a stroke, the symbolic depth of which the child cannot yet realize, but a teenager or young man is already able to think about it. “But when the boy grew up and began to understand everything, Bagheera told him that he should not dare to touch the livestock, because they paid a ransom for him to the Flock by killing a buffalo. “All the jungle is yours,” said Bagheera. “You can hunt any game you can, but for the sake of the buffalo that ransomed you, you must not touch any cattle, young or old. This is the Law of the Jungle. And Mowgli obeyed implicitly. He grew and grew - strong, as a boy should grow up, who casually learns everything there is to know, without even thinking that he is learning, and cares only about getting his own food. It is in such places of a long-familiar book that a young man and an adult discover something new, beginning to see the wise in the interesting. But already in childhood, such a linear-concentric approach, repeated reading of one text, allows the child to draw an extremely important conclusion for the first time: a literary word, like a work, is a living organism, growing, opening up to sensitive perception. An artistic pedagogical book is a concept, on the one hand, basically synonymous with the concept of "children's literature" (it is difficult to imagine a work written for a child and devoid of a pedagogical - educational and educational - trend). At the same time, the concept of "pedagogical book" and already the concept of "children's literature", and is wider, since a pedagogical book, albeit an artistic one, is addressed to two subjects of the pedagogical process - both a teacher and a child, is aimed at two sides - education and training, and at the head angle puts the pedagogical meaning of the artistic whole. To the above, it must be added that children's literature seeks to awaken in the child a sense of native speech, which is perceived not only as something that allows you to satisfy your most pressing needs, as a means of achieving worldly comfort, but also as a Divine Verb, as a path to the soul, as a word. , possessing strength, energy, keeping the wisdom of ancestors and revealing the incomprehensible secrets of the future contained in it.