The article is to present J. Noge´s contribution to the study of Slovak children´s and young adult literature, which he dealt with alongside his main scientific interest almost all his professional life. As almost two thirds of his articles were only published in magazines, the research could not be carried out without detailed examination of all the editions of the magazine Zlatý máj including the discussions. Thus it was not only the reviews, studies, and analyses written by J. Noge that served as research material but also contributions of other writers whose opinions he shared or opposed. The result is a piece of writing, which tracks J. Noge´s work, from his first „encoutners“ with children´s books (mostly reviews), to comprehensive studies and analyses published in magazines, to complex scientific works such as monographs Próza Kláry Jarunkovej (Klára Jarunková´s prose,1979) and Literatúra v literatúre (Literature in literature, 1988). The main focus of attention is Noge´s hypothesis, which he formulated in the late 1950s and thirty years later finally confirmed in his work Literatúra v literatúre. It is about the relationship between children´s and young adult literature and adult literature, to put it simply, between „small“ and „big". Noge was an enthusiastic promoter of those two being inseparable and mutually conditioned. Tracking his activities in this area helps form a complex picture of Noge´s scientific work.