Fantasy Childrens Books Entertain And Inform

Conflict pops up its head as a continuous theme in a great deal of fantasy children’s books. Walt Disney knew this when Cinderella was at odds with the evil stepmother or Sleeping Beauty had her run in with the evil queen witch. Fantasy children’s books present a myriad of conflict and other social interactive themes that help children cope with life’s challenges. After all, how else would you know how to defeat a dragon when you meet one?

Seriously, folks, fantasy childrens books offer young readers the opportunity to travel to worlds far removed not only from their daily lot, but most likely from any daily reality they’ll ever encounter. Where authors like Robert Louis Stevenson and Mark Twain penned adventures in places far removed from the familiar neighborhood, others like C.S. Lewis or L. Frank Baum allowed young readers to travel to destinations they’d never really encounter. Thus, fantasy children’s books act as vehicles for escapism, transporting participants to wondrous lands made believable by use of one’s imagination.

Children seemed to naturally possess vivid imaginations, capable of inventing a lot of strange creatures and places all on their own. It is possibly this penchant for investigating the non-real that has led to fantasy children’s books as a popular literature genre.

Every culture on the planet creates fantasy tales that start with the oral tradition of storytelling. Each incorporates such exotic elements like magic and other non earthlike realities that not only bend one’s ability to accept, but challenge notions held of what is really real. In fantasy childrens books, there are no rules. Although the common themes of good versus evil, personal achievement and acceptance, as well as the search for fame, fortune and love can be readily found in any fantasy children’s book, the twists that either bend our known reality or travel far beyond it creating different “universes” or greatly changed realities become the dominant elements in any successful fantasy.

After all, the word is derived from the Greek, phantasia, meaning an idea, notion or image.

The bedtime stories told to generations of children became written tales with the invention of the printing press in the late 1500s. Every culture had its mythical tales about magic and witchcraft, dragons and other demons, and even super-powered heroes who fought evil and won. The cultural presentations of what are known as “fairy tales” lay the foundation for fantasy children’s books and, in effect, were the first types published when printing became widespread.

Although most children did not gain the ability to read until late in the 19th century and, to a greater degree, well into the 20th century, fairy tales, or folktales, about witches, goblins, giants, and enhanced creatures of all varying sizes and forms, began to find their way into popularly acceptable children‘s literature.

Furthermore, cinematic efforts to translate these whimsical, fantastic stories such as The Harry Potter series or the big-screen depiction of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, has led to a resurgence in published works for fantasy children’s books.

Today’s generation o young readers is discovering long-held favorites like Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as well as J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, the original depiction of the adventures of Peter Pan.

 

 

 

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