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The Magical Age of Twelve
Being alone is a newness to a twelve-year-old child. He is so used to people about. The only way he can be alone is in his mind. There are so many real people around, telling children what and how to do, that a boy has to run off down a beach, even if it’s only […]
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Scarecrows In Children’s Stories and Horror
The best horror objects and settings are those you’ll also see peppered throughout cosy stories for children: Circuses, playgrounds, chants and lullabies, hide and seek… scarecrows.
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Rumpelstiltskin Analysis
The tale of Rumpelstiltskin asks a moral question: Who is the worst of the three men? The lying father who gives away his own daughter, the greedy King who threatens death, or the proto-men’s rights activist dwarf? Or is it the daughter herself? This is my all-time favourite fairy tale because it’s so twisted. It’s […]
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Badjelly The Witch by Spike Milligan (1973)
“Badjelly The Witch” is better known as a radio play than as a picture book, at least to any New Zealand child of the 80s. There wasn’t much in the way of media entertainment back then, and I looked forward to Radio New Zealand’s Sunday morning children’s show with Constable Keith and Sniff the German […]
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The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake
For fans of Into The Woods by John Yorke, The Enormous Crocodile is an example of a story which mirrors itself perfectly. PARATEXT The Enormous Crocodile is incredibly hungry-and incredibly greedy. His favourite meal is a plump, juicy little child, and he intends to gobble up as many of them as he can! But when […]
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Must Fictional Heroes Be Likeable?
Short answer: Main characters don’t have to be likeable. But they do need to be interesting.
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Storytelling Tips from Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman
Northern Lights is a young adult story with broad appeal for adults. The plot follows mythic structure.
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Teachers In Children’s Literature
Teachers in children’s stories can be mentors, opponents, fake opponents, or very much background characters. In young adult literature, teachers can (problematically) be love opponents. Why is it that English, drama and music teachers are most often recalled as our mentors and inspirations? Maybe because artists are rarely members of the popular crowd. Roger Ebert […]
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The Ideology Of Work Ethic In Children’s Literature
Good children work hard. Lazy children lose out. Working hard has an apotropaic effect on your fate. (So long as you keep working, bad things won’t happen to you.) Tyler Durden was wrong, you are your job. Career Advice This view of work ethic is so ingrained throughout children’s stories that it’s hardly noticed. However, there is speculation these […]
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Father Tropes In Fiction
Turn Out Like His Father – A character has charge of a child (usually her son) and is desperate to keep this child from imitating another relative (usually his father). This is a fear of history’s repeating itself for his fate, which may be turning evil and usually ends with being dead. Harry Potter isn’t allowed to […]
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Storytelling Tips From Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (1958)
A descendent of The Secret Garden, sibling of The Chronicles of Narnia and ancestor to The BFG, Tom’s Midnight Garden is an influential and much-loved book which won the Carnegie Medal. In Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce the moon is heavily symbolic. Night = day as the fantasy world = the real world. This […]
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Storytelling Tips From Anne Of Green Gables
Revisiting Anne Of Green Gables as an adult reader, several things stick out: Listen to Anne of Green Gables for free at Librivox THE INFLUENCE OF CINDERELLA In real life, the character of Anne Shirley would be a lifelong social workers’ project. Her parents died of ‘the fever’ when she was an infant and since […]
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What Is Magical Realism? Is It Fabulism?
Magical realism is when the world is about 95% normal, but 5% magical/mystical and that magic is a totally natural part of the world.
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The Rule Of Three In Storytelling
The rule of three in storytelling has several uses. The first works like this:
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The Big Honey Hunt by Stanley and Janice Berenstain
The Big Honey Hunt by the Berenstains is an Odyssean mythic journey. Our hero (heroes, actually) leave the house to achieve a mission and encounter various opponents along the way. They come up against nature and end up back home, ending with an outcome that is neither wonderful nor terrible. Unlike the ‘straight’ myths, this […]