BiblioVault - Books about Imagination in children

Flights of Fancy, Leaps of Faith

Children's Myths in Contemporary America

Cindy Dell Clark

University of Chicago Press, 1995

Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy—is there still a place for these imaginary creatures in today's skeptical society? More importantly, is it appropriate to encourage children to believe in these myths? In Flights of Fancy, Leaps of Faith, Cindy Dell Clark went straight to children and their parents for the answers. Using their insights, she offers fresh, new interpretations of the cultural and psychological roles these figures play in children's lives. Complete with children's vivid testimonies and colorful illustrations, this book is a revealing journey into a child's mind and world.

"A very enjoyable read, this book is a seriously researched record of children's myths, written with the observant accuracy of an anthropologist."—Nadja Reissland, Common Knowledge

"Clark posits some novel interpretations as well as intriguing glimpses for parents, teachers, and psychologists into the ways children shape our culture rather than merely being passive inheritors of it."—Booklist

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The House of Make-Believe

Children’s Play and the Developing Imagination

Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer

Harvard University Press, 1990

In the most thorough attempt to cover all aspects of children’s make-believe, Dorothy and Jerome Singer examine how imaginative play begins and develops, from the infant’s first smiles to the toddler’s engagement in social pretend play. They provide intriguing examples and research evidence on the young child’s invocation of imaginary friends, the adolescent’s daring, rule-governed games, and the adult’s private imagery and inner thought. In chapters that will be important to parents and policymakers, the authors discuss television and the imagination, the healing function of play, and the effects of playfulness and creativity throughout the life span.

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Imagination and Play in the Electronic Age

Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer

Harvard University Press, 2005

Television, video games, and computers are easily accessible to twenty-first-century children, but what impact do they have on creativity and imagination? In this book, two wise and long-admired observers of children's make-believe look at the cognitive and moral potential--and concern--created by electronic media.

As Dorothy and Jerome Singer show, violent images in games and TV are as toxic as many observers have feared by stimulating destructive ideas and troubling aggression. But should all electronic media be banned from children's lives? Calmly and authoritatively, the Singers argue that in fact some screen time can enrich children's creativity and play, and can even promote school readiness. With guidance from parents and teachers, empathy, creativity, and imagination can expand and intensify in the electronic age.

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Imagination in Teaching and Learning

The Middle School Years

Kieran Egan

University of Chicago Press, 1992

It is widely believed that a child's imagination ought to be
stimulated and developed in education. Yet, few teachers
understand what imagination is or how it lends itself to
practical methods and techniques that can be used easily in
classroom instruction. In this book, Kieran Egan—winner of
the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for his work on
imagination—takes up where his Teaching as Story Telling
left off, offering practical help for teachers who want to
engage, stimulate, and develop the imaginative and learning
processes of children between the ages of eight to fifteen.

This book is not about unusually imaginative students and
teachers. Rather, it is about the typical student's
imaginative life and how it can be stimulated in learning,
how the average teacher can plan to achieve this aim, and how
the curriculum can be structured to help achieve this aim.
Slim and determinedly practical, this book contains a wealth
of concrete examples of curriculum design and teaching
techniques structured to appeal specifically to children in
their middle school years.

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Let's Pretend

50 Start-To-Finish Preschooler Programs for the Busy Librarian That Foster Imagination

American Library Association

American Library Association, 2010

Teaching as Story Telling

An Alternative Approach to Teaching and Curriculum in the Elementary School

Kieran Egan

University of Chicago Press, 1989

"I am very impressed by the practicality of [Egan's] introduction of the use of story-forms in curriculum for young children. His model is fascinating, and its various possibilities in a range of fields makes it worth a good look by many kinds of teachers."—Maxine Greene, Teachers College, Columbia

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