Many people marveled at the spectacular success of the Harry Potter books when they first came out in 1998.

“These books will really get kids reading again,” thought many educators and parents. It seemed like J.K. Rowling invented fantasy for a generation of children. But fantasy has been around for a long time. You might say that fantasy has been around since the very beginning of human existence.

Recently, renowned British author Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising sequence, The Magician’s Boy, The Selkie Girl, Victory, among other books) gave a lecture on Children and Fantasy, as part of a week-long author’s residency at the Cambridge Forum, in Cambridge, Mass. Ms. Cooper believes that fantasy literature relates life’s truths in a manner that is simplified enough for children, who have not yet experienced much of life, to understand. Stories are experienced as images in a child’s mind, and help to “unriddle the world.”

Long ago, humans needed to come up with ways to explain life’s great mysteries: life, death, good, evil and the passage of time. The Greeks invented Mount Olympus; the Norse peoples invented Valhalla; the Egyptians, Chinese and native peoples all over the globe conceived of mythologies to understand the natural world around them. The stories were the religion upon which people based their beliefs about what came before and what was yet to come.

Over time, religion departed from mythology, mainly in the forms of major religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The rules for adherence became more prescribed as the conventions of each way of thinking became stricter. Religion carved out distinct moral territories and determined who was in, and who was out.

Throughout the rise and spread of religion, storytelling persisted. And, with the rise of children’s literature around the beginning of the 20th century (think, E. Nesbit and George MacDonald), fantasy literature became an alternative for children in interpreting life’s mysteries. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien picked up the mantle of fantasy (because, as they complained to one another, “there’s too little of what we like [available to read].”) Although mythology and fantasy are not “real,” the messages they offer are true. Stories “stretch the muscles of our imagination” and allow us to solve problems that would confound us in real life.

Parents strive to teach their children the difference between good and evil. Fantasy and fairy tales can show the powers of good and evil, by exaggerating their intensity, making it clearer how to choose between them. For instance, in The Dark is Rising, the protagonist, 11 year old Will Stanton, is in a quest for his identity, and is confronted with unspeakable evil. He must choose between the Light – love and sacrifice; and the Dark – hatred and exploitation. The quest is very serious, and has echoes of British folklore and Celtic mythology.

The forces of good and evil in our real world are complicated. With fantasy literature as one of their guides, we can give our children models for confronting the good and evil in their own lives, without the unpleasantness of a wrong choice–for fantasy stories usually have a neat ending, no matter how intense the struggle.

New Paperback Series in Youth Room

Choose Your Own Adventure. Newly reissued mysteries, with secret online endings, for ages 9-12.
Encyclopedia Brown by Donald Sobol. Newly reissued mysteries, for ages 7 and up.
Fairy Chronicles by J. H. Sweet. Fairies, for ages 7-12.
Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew by Carolyn Keene. A new mystery series for ages 6-9.
Sister Magic by Anne Mazer. Adventure/fantasy for ages 5-9.
Time Spies by Candice Ransom. Time travel mystery, for ages 6-12.

Categories: Library News
Tags: fantasy literature, Susan Cooper, Youth Room