ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the history of childhood with a complex view of the competent child found much earlier than what is recognized by most studies on childhood and children's literature. The competent children depicted in children's literature act as autonomous, active, robust, and responsible figures, taking care of animals or younger siblings, or playing outdoors on their own and mastering nature alone without adult supervision. The Nordic child is considered competent as a family member, a pupil, a consumer, and a citizen. The chapter presents some questions about the relationships between adults and children and about the responsibilities of children and adults in any period, including today. The connection between child and nature has been an important concept in Norwegian children's literature from the beginning, in which childhood was linked to the conception of childhood in the countryside, in a close relationship to nature.
