• Nina Bawden's Critique (1980):

• Bawden criticized the trend of "problem novels" in the 1970s, which focused on
"fashionable social problems" (e.g., poverty, divorce, learning disabilities, racism) in
literature targeted at teenagers.
• She argued that while these issues were part of life, focusing solely on them for didactic
or therapeutic purposes did not make a book inherently good.
• Bawden emphasized that children’s books should provide an emotional landscape and be
judged for pleasure, style, and quality rather than didactic purpose.
• Problem Novels of the 1970s:
• Bawden’s critique highlights the fusion of realism (accurate depiction of life) and
didacticism (teaching moral lessons) in these novels, a combination which she found
problematic.
• However, historically, literature for children has long combined these elements. From the
17th century onwards, children's literature has often focused on ordinary children
learning to deal with everyday problems.
• Historical Context:
• Catherine Sinclair in the 1830s and 1840s criticized moral books for being overly
didactic, pushing "ready-made opinions" onto children.
• Charles Lamb criticized the 18th-century “Barbauld crew” (e.g., Anna Laetitia
Barbauld) for dreary didactic realism that overshadowed imaginative storytelling.
• Comparison of Realistic and Didactic Texts:
• A comparison of Judy Blume’s "Forever" (1975) and earlier moral tales shows a
consistent use of realism and didacticism across centuries.
• Blume's "Forever" is a teenage problem novel that explores sex and relationships. It
was controversial for its explicit content but also served as a medium to discuss issues
that parents and children typically avoided.
• Maria Edgeworth’s "The Purple Jar" (1796) similarly taught moral lessons through a
child's experiences and decision-making, reflecting a consistent theme of children
learning lessons through their own mistakes.
• Realism and Child Empowerment:
• Both Blume and Edgeworth wrote in a style that sought to reflect real life, especially
children's psychology, their desires, and the consequences of their actions.
• Edgeworth's Rosamond and Blume’s Katherine were portrayed with relatable flaws and
emotional struggles, anchoring their stories in realism.
• Realism in both authors’ works was designed to resonate with young readers, making
them feel understood and validated while subtly imparting moral lessons.
• Parental Authority in Moral Tales:
• Both Blume and Edgeworth depicted children learning lessons on their own, but parental
authority remains central.
• In "Forever", Katherine’s parents subtly guide her, even arranging her summer job behind
her back. Similarly, Rosamond in "The Purple Jar" learns through her decisions, but her
parents’ control remains intact.
• This dynamic of child empowerment balanced with parental authority serves as a
recurring theme in moral literature.
• The Role of Realism in Didactic Literature:
• Realism was a tool to smooth the way for didacticism, enabling young readers to connect
emotionally with the protagonists and internalize the moral lessons more effectively.
• Blume's "Forever" and Edgeworth's tales both use everyday experiences (shopping,
education, money) to ground their narratives in the real world, reflecting children's
concerns and allowing for more subtle moral instruction.
• Blume’s Legacy and Social Change:
• "Forever" is seen not just as a problem novel about teenage sex but as a broader reflection
of societal changes in the 1960s and 1970s, especially regarding sexuality and personal
freedom.
• The novel reflects the transition from traditional values to a more permissive society,
highlighting how young people and their parents navigate these changes.
• Bawden’s critique of problem novels is part of a long-standing debate in children’s
literature about the balance between realism and didacticism.
• While she argued that focusing on social issues alone does not make for good literature,
the historical tradition of moral and didactic tales shows how authors have used realism
to engage young readers and impart values.
 • From Edgeworth to Blume, children’s literature has consistently grappled with the need
to entertain while teaching, and the genre’s success often lies in how well it balances
these dual purposes.

CLASSIC MORAL TALES

The classic moral tales of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, though set in a
fundamentally conservative moral universe, often incorporated a progressive agenda. Many of
these tales, for instance, were anti-racist and anti-slavery, likely due to their association with
religious non-conformist writers. Some critics also argue that these tales could present a feminist
program. Mary Wollstonecraft's Original Stories from Real Life (1788), for example, promotes
a rational education for girls, which echoes the demands she would later make in her famous A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). According to Christine Wilkie-Stubbs,
Wollstonecraft was using her children's writing to challenge and question women's roles in
society.

Despite this, these early moral tales, like their successors in the late twentieth century, were
committed to realism and rationalism. They developed as a reaction against fiction with
supernatural elements, following the warnings of John Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning
Education (1693), which discouraged frightening tales designed to scare children into behaving.
One story that illustrated this was The History of Francis Fearful (c. 1774), which dramatized
the effects of superstition on children, where the protagonist becomes a laughingstock at school
due to irrational fears instilled by his nursemaid’s stories.

The commitment to realism in these tales was reflected in the principles of writers like Arnaud
Berquin, who, in his books, emphasized only events that occur within familiar settings—
families, domestic spaces, and daily life—thus grounding the didacticism in relatable contexts.
This naturalistic realism encouraged children to reflect on their own behavior by seeing it
mirrored in the actions of the characters.

The moral tales largely featured middle-class families and were often set in rural environments.
They encouraged middle-class virtues like sensibility, prudence, rationality, and obedience to
adults, especially parents. As seen in Mary Ann Kilner’s Jemima Placid (c. 1783), these stories
often depicted everyday children's faults, such as jealousy or selfishness, and aimed to encourage
repentance and reform. The goal was for children to identify with the characters’ misdeeds, feel
repulsed, and strive for self-improvement.

Many of these tales focused less on abstract morality and more on social and economic
advancement. Maria Edgeworth's tales, for example, were written to encourage industry and
practicality, teaching children how to thrive in the real world. Barbara Hofland’s novels, such
as The Son of a Genius (1812) and The Daughter of a Genius (1823), went even further by
presenting financial responsibility as a moral imperative. Her works emphasized the importance
of budgeting, keeping receipts, and practicing fiscal discipline, elevating commercial virtues to
the level of moral rectitude.

Ultimately, the moral tales sought to instill values of thrift, honesty, diligence, and prudence
in their young readers, making these traits synonymous with virtue. In this sense, piety and
economic responsibility became intertwined. Writers like Hofland framed business rectitude as
pious and virtuous, suggesting that to be negligent in financial matters was immoral.

While these tales might be read as attempts to indoctrinate middle-class values and encourage
children to prosper within the societal structures of the time, they could also be seen as
ideological tools of the bourgeoisie, promoting their principles over aristocratic indulgence and
lower-class fatalism. They rejected the supernatural stories that promoted a "lottery mentality,"
instead pushing for hard work, self-sufficiency, and rationality as the path to success.

However, some of these tales also promoted a conservative acceptance of life’s hardships, as
illustrated by the conclusion of Kilner’s Jemima Placid, which advises children to accept life’s
unavoidable disappointments without complaint.

The moral tale, with its utopian inclination toward shaping both public and private morality, is
exemplified by its comparison to children’s literature produced in the Soviet Union. Soviet
children’s books, like eighteenth-century British moral tales, had an overt ideological agenda.
After the 1934 Congress of Soviet Writers, socialist realism became the mandated mode for all
literature, ensuring that stories portrayed progress, cooperation, and the shaping of future
citizens. Soviet literature, driven by an ideal of societal reform through children’s narratives,
parallels the objectives of British moral tales which, although not forced by legislation, sought to
instill optimism in the ability of literature to improve both the individual and society.

Maxim Gorky’s declaration at the 1934 Congress, about writers' participation in "changing the
world," can be applied to eighteenth-century British authors of moral tales who aimed to
influence future citizens. Yet, modern realist children’s fiction from the late twentieth century—
like Judy Blume’s Forever (1975)—echoes this notion of personal improvement being linked to
societal betterment. Blume’s work, for example, is among those that shift adolescent fiction into
realms of politics by reflecting on everyday issues such as racism, sexuality, and family
problems.

A specific example of realism in children's fiction addressing racism is Bernard Ashley’s The
Trouble with Donovan Croft (1974), which deals with the adoption of a Black boy by a white
family, and Jan Needle’s My Mate Shofiq (1978), where racism is portrayed brutally in a
Lancashire mill town. The graphic realism in Needle’s book, especially in terms of racially
offensive language, reflects the tensions of the time, offering readers a direct, if uncomfortable,
engagement with the prejudices of society. A significant shift between these books and earlier
moral tales is the portrayal of children as agents of change, with figures of authority—often
parents or teachers—seen as part of the problem rather than the solution.

This shift is further exemplified in books like Berlie Doherty’s Dear Nobody (1991), which
juxtaposes teenage pregnancy and personal growth in a complex and unsentimental narrative.
Unlike the didactic simplicity of earlier works, Dear Nobody reflects the ambiguous and often
painful process of growing up. The focus is no longer on accepting adult wisdom but rather on
learning through personal experience, portraying the emotional complexities that challenge both
personal and societal development.

While it may seem that the moral tale disappeared by the Victorian era, it merely evolved,
particularly with the influence of Evangelical Christianity. Writers like Mary Martha Sherwood
infused their tales with religious messages, shifting from the rational morality of writers like
Maria Edgeworth to a more overtly Christian didacticism. Sherwood’s works, such as The
History of Susan Gray (1802) and Little Henry and his Bearer (1814), fused moral lessons with
religious orthodoxy, especially in colonial contexts. These tales were aimed not only at moral
improvement but at religious conversion, particularly in the context of British imperialism, as
seen in stories about young British children converting their Indian servants to Christianity.

However, later writers like Charlotte Yonge and Mrs. Molesworth sought to distance themselves
from the strict, fear-based religious moralism of Sherwood’s generation. Instead, their works,
while still moral in tone, introduced more sympathetic and realistic characters, allowing children
to see themselves in the stories and grow through relatable challenges rather than through direct
moral instruction. This evolution demonstrates the persistence of the moral tale in shaping
children’s literature, from its rational roots to religious didacticism, and finally into a more
realistic and emotionally complex genre by the twentieth century.