Most children need to read more than nonfiction and the poor quality fiction that often appears on school reading lists. Here’s a good explanation of why:
“Practical books with facts in them may be necessary, but they are not everything. They do not serve the imagination in the same way that high invention does when it allows the mind to investigate every possibility, to set itself free from the ordinary, to enter a world where paradox reigns and nothing is what it seems. Properly engaged, the intelligent child begins to question all presuppositions, and thinks on his own. In fact, the moment he says, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if …?’ he is on his way and his own imagination has begun to work at a level considerably more interesting than the usual speculation on what it would be like to own a car and make money.”
Gore Vidal in Homage to Daniel Shays: Collected Essays 1952–1972 (Random House, 1972). The illustration shows the cover of Natalie Babbitt’s modern classic, Tuck Everlasting, an example of high-quality imaginative fiction that encourages children “to enter a world where paradox reigns and nothing is what it seems” and also appears on many school reading lists.
One-Minute Book Reviews 
I can often tell which adults read such books when they were children, for they still have an imagination and they don’t ask me “how can you possibly think of things like that?” when I make wild comments.
Those who didn’t read such books act dead and machine like unless something got to them and transformed them later on.
Malcolm
Comment by knightofswords — June 6, 2009 @ 1:53 pm |
Most of the children wants high-quality fiction because some of them believe that they can also do this, not by fact but it’s in thier imagination. As we know that most of the children love so watch or read some fiction movies and books because it inspire them.
Comment by Mario Mendoza — June 17, 2009 @ 6:49 pm |
As the world’s continues turning to old, technology also evolves. Most of the things that we don’t expect before that might happen will exist today. So, children love to watch or see some interesting high-quality fiction because that might inspire them a little.
Comment by Joshua Caleb — June 17, 2009 @ 6:54 pm |