''A Valley Grows Up'' is a history book for children, written and illustrated by
Edward Osmond and published by
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
in 1953. It features an imaginary English valley over the course of seven thousand years, from 5000 BCE to 1900. Osmond won the annual
Carnegie Medal, recognising the year's best children's book by a
British subject
The term "British subject" has several different meanings depending on the time period. Before 1949, it referred to almost all subjects of the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Dominions, and colonies, but excluding protectorates ...
.
[ In more than seventy years only a handful of nonfiction books have been so honoured.
]
Description
Ten full-colour double-page paintings and numerous black-and-white drawings combine with a simple, fluent text to tell the story of the changes in a valley's landscape and its gradual settlement from prehistoric to Victorian times. " uninhabited stretch of forest ... ecomesa hillside, a swamp, a village and eventually the bustling Victorian town of Dungate."[ The same bend in the river, rounding a hill, appears throughout, as on the cover.
]
Origins
Edward Osmond, a well known illustrator, was asked to help students with learning difficulties: "I illustrated on a blackboard my lectures by means of an imaginary village which, together, we created 'from scratch'."[ The educational effectiveness of the concept in seizing the imagination led to the idea for a picture book. The text was always secondary. ]Marcus Crouch
Marcus Crouch (12 February 1913 – 24 April 1996) was an English librarian, and an influential commentator on and reviewer of children's books.Sheila Ray. "Obituary: Marcus Crouch", ''Children's Literature Abstracts'', Issues 92-95, Internationa ...
describes the resulting book as "an imaginative interpretation of history".[Marcus Crouch, ''Treasure Seekers and Borrowers'', ]Library Association
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP, pronounced ) is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers in the United Kingdom.
It was established in 2002 as a merger of th ...
, 1962, p. 131.
See also
*History of the British Isles
The history of the British Isles began with its sporadic human habitation during the Palaeolithic from around 900,000 years ago. The British Isles has been continually occupied since the early Holocene, the current geological epoch, which sta ...
*History of England
The territory today known as England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk have indicated.; "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk" (2014). BB ...
References
External links
* – immediately, first edition
The Thames Flows Down
(1957 companion book) at WorldCat
*
Edward Osmond
at WorldCat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valley Grows Up
Children's history books
Carnegie Medal in Literature–winning works
History books about England
Landscape history
1953 children's books
Oxford University Press books
Children's books set in England