That's the question posed by Slate.
From the piece...
Kids still read Andersen's oeuvre, but very few pre-Andersen children's stories remain popular. What did children read before the era of Hans Christian Andersen?
Epic poems, religious literature, romances, and Aesop. Scholars argue
over when children's literature—that is, books written exclusively for
and read exclusively by children—came into existence. But it's largely a
debate over definitions. Even in ancient times, certain types of
stories were considered appropriate for children. Archaeologists have
unearthed a children's version of the labors of Hercules from the third
century written in simple language with large, spaced-out text and color
pictures of the lions and the mythical hero. Greek and Roman teachers
selected passages from Homer or Virgil that were learner-friendly. And
there was always Aesop, the (possibly fictitious) freed slave who
supposedly composed fables to illustrate a moral or ethical message. He
didn't write his works down, and we'll never know whether children were
his intended audience. We do know, however, that Aesop's fables were a
crucial part of the education of a Greek or Roman child. Such eminent
writers as Plato and Aristophanes referenced Aesop, obviously expecting
that their audiences would have come across the fables during their
formative years.
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