I read the classics as a kid. But I read great gobs of other stuff, too--science fiction, Westerns, Nancy Drew, you name it.

Grown-ups tried to tell me the classic books were somehow better, nobler, because they had "stood the test of time." I didn't buy that. I liked some of the classics, sure, but I liked pulp fiction too, and I saw no difference. If a book grabbed me, why should I care what my descendants would think of it? The only test that mattered to me was Right Now. We judge a cake by how it tastes in the mouth, not how long it lasts on the shelf. Why should literature be different?

Well, I've grown up, and now I've switched sides.

Popularity v. durability
Today, I do see different kinds of "good" in literature. There is blockbuster quality and there is classic quality. There is wide appeal and there is long appeal. I don't know that one is "better," but the two are different, like space and time.

That's not to say they're mutually exclusive. A popular book can also be durable. But blockbusters don't necessarily become classics; and classics don't have to go through a blockbuster phase.

And yet...

Defining a classic strictly as a book that "survives the test of time" bothers me. I'm thinking that the qualities of a classic don't get added later; they're not like that stuff that slowly turns bronze statues green. Whatever is great in a book must be in there from the start. But if time is the only judge, you can't tell if it has those qualities except by waiting a hundred years.

Better? Or just older?
By then, it might be hard to know if the book is really appealing to readers or surviving on clout. Would modern readers get all the way through War and Peace if they didn't know it to be a classic?

The question applies particularly to children's literature, because kids don't get to pick from all the books ever written. They must choose from what adults give them. So kids play only a small part in canonizing the literature meant specifically for them. The major players are grown-ups--parents, school boards, librarians, teachers, curriculum experts, award committees, and others.

Let's take a look at this process.