The National Collection of Children's Books exhibition is entitled 'Come Closer: The Darker Side of Children's Books' and runs at Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street, from 28 September to 14 November 2015. Admission is free.

Children's literature became a well-established category of its own in the 18 th century. Today, the term is used to refer to a wide range of forms and genres: picturebooks, illustrated texts, novels, poems, Young Adult fiction, folktales, fantasy, school stories, and so on. For hundreds of years, many of the books written for children have dealt with complex and seemingly dark themes, yet the popular myth persists that such themes cannot be found in children's literature, or that they are somehow inappropriate topics for child readers. This exhibition offers a glimpse into some of the sophisticated and complex ways in which writers and illustrators of children's texts have engaged with controversial subjects.

The exhibition was launched on 28 September by Timothy Young (Yale University). He delivered a lecture entitled 'Happy Deaths and Urban Dangers: The Darker Side of Children's Literature'. Young is curator of the Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection of American Children's Literature, housed at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University. 

001.2015 - 09 - 28 Come Closer NCCB Exhibition Opening Dr Keith O'Sullivan Introduction

003.2015 - 09 - 28 Come Closer NCCB Exhibition Opening Dr Timohty Young Lecture - Happy Deaths

The National Collection of Children's Books exhibition is entitled 'Come Closer: The Darker Side of Children's Books' and runs at Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street, from 28 September to 14 November 2015. Admission is free.
Children's literature became a well-established category of its own in the 18 th century. Today, the term is used to refer to a wide range of forms and genres: picturebooks, illustrated texts, novels, poems, Young Adult fiction, folktales, fantasy, school stories, and so on. For hundreds of years, many of the books written for children have dealt with complex and seemingly dark themes, yet the popular myth persists that such themes cannot be found in children's literature, or that they are somehow inappropriate topics for child readers. This exhibition offers a glimpse into some of the sophisticated and complex ways in which writers and illustrators of children's texts have engaged with controversial subjects.

The exhibition was launched on 28 September by Timothy Young (Yale University). He delivered a lecture entitled 'Happy Deaths and Urban Dangers: The Darker Side of Children's Literature'. Young is curator of the Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection of American Children's Literature, housed at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University.

NCCB Ireland