Kids love fantasy. They do. We’ve all seen the queues at
Harry Potter launch night, or the little girls dressed as Katniss, or the
complete adoration kids have for Percy Jackson. From toddlers to teenagers,
fantasy has an enduring appeal.
So what exactly is so great about fantasy? (“EVERYTHING!” I
want to scream) Well, I’m no expert on child psychology, but I AM a fantasy
& sci fi bookseller with several years experience in children’s publishing,
so I’ll give it a go!
1. Fantasy is exciting.
Fantasy is almost always an adventure. Whether slaying
dragons, raising dragons, or riding off on epic journeys of discovery, there’s
lots of action and lots of things to see. Kids are full of imagination, and
fantasy taps into that, giving them gorgeous new worlds to explore and funny
new friends to explore it with.
2. Fantasy makes kids the heroes
In the real world, kids can’t go off on wild adventures or
save the day from the evil overlord. They have school; they have their parents.
And while they may love the lives they have, it’s nice for them to imagine
someone like them as the most important person – the chosen one with magic, the
one who falls into the secret world of unicorns. In these stories, people who
look like them, who are only as old or tall or strong as they are, get to save
the day. That’s a pretty set-up.
3. Fantasy is an escape
We like to think of kids’ lives as being happy and carefree,
but even the most well-adjusted kid has their own problems to deal with, problems
they sometimes can’t escape until they’re older. Bullies, teachers, older
siblings – sometimes they just want to go somewhere where these things don’t
exist anymore.
4. Fantasy is simple
And life often isn’t. Fantasy lets kids visit a world where
the bad guys cackle and plot and the good guys make speeches and save the day.
It’s all clear cut, white and black, good and evil. That can be really fun, and
a real relief.
5. ...but Fantasy is also complex
It’s a safe place to explore complicated ideas. Maybe the bad
guys are clearly bad and the good guys are clearly good, but there’s also
difficult concepts like racism, sexism, and broken families – even if these
take the form of elves, lady knights, and orphans.
Children's fantasy has a lot to offer. It can help kids grow in empathy and give them a safe space, and a more optimistic view of the world. And I for one know I wouldn't be the woman I am now if I hadn't grown up with Harry Potter, Lyra Belacqua, Bilbo Baggins or a myriad of other heroes. And I know that I will never stop loving those children's books, no matter how old I get.
Children's fantasy has a lot to offer. It can help kids grow in empathy and give them a safe space, and a more optimistic view of the world. And I for one know I wouldn't be the woman I am now if I hadn't grown up with Harry Potter, Lyra Belacqua, Bilbo Baggins or a myriad of other heroes. And I know that I will never stop loving those children's books, no matter how old I get.
*****
Victoria Boulton is the founder of Medusa Books (medusabooks.co.uk), a used Sci Fi & Fantasy online bookseller. She's also a writer and avid reader, when she can fight her cat out of her lap.
*****
Give-away
Today's prize is the book "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card by Ray Bradbury. If you are a signed-up member of ChaBooCha, all you need to do to be entered into the drawing for this book is comment on this blog post. Winners will be selected from a random number generator on March 31st at noon (GMT).
