The notion that fairy tales and fantasy stories stimulate and instruct the moral imagination of the young is, of course, not new. The Victorians certainly held to that notion when they brought the fairy tale into the nursery. In our day, we have seen a resurgence of interest in the fairy tale. The renowned psychiatrist [...]
We need a rally of the really human things; will which is morals, memory which is tradition, culture which is the mental thrift of our fathers.[1] That was the judgment of G. K. Chesterton some seventy years ago in an essay entitled “Is Humanism a Religion?” In order to rally the really human things, Chesterton [...]
Rereading the opening Little House book for the first time in probably half a decade, I was struck by the ways Wilder establishes the point of view for her protagonist—a four-year-old girl and second-born child. She expresses Laura’s thoughts about family members and fairness, for instance, with a simplicity that resonates with children, but with [...]