Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood by Maria Tatar (PDF)

Description

Highly illuminating for parents, vital for students and book lovers alike, Enchanted Hunters transforms our understanding of why children should read.Ever wondered why little children love listening to stories, why older ones get lost in certain books? In this enthralling work, Maria Tatar challenges many of our assumptions about childhood reading. Much as our culture pays lip service to the importance of literature, we rarely examine the creative and cognitive benefits of reading from infancy through adolescence. By exploring how beauty and horror operated in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, and many other narratives, Tatar provides a delightful work for parents, teachers, and general readers, not just examining how and what children read but also showing through vivid examples how literature transports and transforms children with its intoxicating, captivating, and occasionally terrifying energy. In the tradition of Bruno Bettelheim’s landmark The Uses of Enchantment, Tatar’s book is not only a compelling journey into the world of childhood but a trip back for adult readers as well.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐*Enchanted Hunters* is a highly interesting discussion of the power of literature over children, by a professor teaching folklore — not psychology, per se — at Harvard University. Why, in fact, does literature have such a grip on us from our pre-literate days onwards? How do bookworms develop their fascinating power of concentration when absorbed, not only in narrative, but in books in general? Those are questions which have fascinated many people — not just bookworms! — over the years, and Prof. Tatar makes an excellent attempt to come to grips with the subject, covering as it does psycho-linguistics, education, and the old “nature vs nurture” questions confronting anyone who has watched children go from being fascinated listeners to thoroughly absorbed readers — and in some cases into full-blown academics…. The author and editor of a number of books on folklore and fairytales, Prof. Tatar’s work here is based in a thorough grasp of the literature of these fields, and will draw in parents as well as educators of children not only in early childhood programs but through elementary and into middle school systems (perhaps by high school it’s a bit late to begin drawing non-readers into the role of bookworms). Highly speculative in places, but with rich reference to the basic texts, this book is a fine demonstration of how to keep teachers reading about the minds and educability of children.

⭐It’s a very well written book, very informative and with LOADS of information to keep digging. It feels that the author has the reader in mind all the time, the style is clear and direct, but rigorous. The information is always engaging, establishing parallels and putting it in context, since nothing in Children’s Literature can happen separate from life, history, etc. Very, very good book.

⭐This is the best review of stories for children that I’ve read. Like all of Tatar’s work, it’s fluid, easy reading with rich, fantastic original insight.

⭐The subtitle, “the power of stories in childhood”, informs the reader not only about the subject of this fascinating book, it also suggests the significance the author attributes to the stories of childhood. Her analysis of children’s literature, “Let us, for a moment draw back the curtain to see exactly how the great wizards of the literary world have worked their magic”, as well as her many insights into the effects of that magic — whether experienced through bedside stories or childhood reading — are both insightful and informative. I found Enchanted Hunters to be an excellent and thought provoking book for anyone — including parents — interested in children’s literature, reading, and the impact on the young who enter this realm of the imagination.

⭐I bought this book because I had heard the author Maria Tatar interviewed by Krista Tippett at “OnBeing” public radio. What a marvelous book! I had no idea of the complex history of children’s literature or the gamut it ran from moral imperatives to pure wonder that actively inspired curiosity in a child. I think that instead of giving new parents a children’s book, I will first gift them with this one — they will then have the opportunity to more fully understand the power of what they read to their child.

⭐A valuable book for scholars and the intellectually inclined parent, “Enchanted Hunters” is Maria Tatar’s best offering to date. Sliding sideways from her solid scholarship on the fairy tales, Tatar has entered the field of Children’s Literature Studies by means of the topic of reading and done something original and precedent setting. Those ready to go beyond the orthodoxy of the Jacqueline Rose Cult will find here new ways of examining childhood experience, as well as the perfect pitch of an authorial voice that is warm and personal. In literary scholarship, this book is the equivalent of the perfect string quartet.

⭐I found this book very enjoyable, easily readable and quite educational. I’m a children’s recording artist, not a student of children’s literature, but I found this book most interesting. All parents of young children would benefit from reading this. Grandparents would too! Thanks Maria for this little gem!Maria Tatar has written an interesting book for those of us who believe in the importance of stories and are fascinated by folklore. Unfortunately, she doesn’t write very well. Quite repetitive and no voice to speak of. I was disappointed.

⭐This is a fascinating, informative and accessible read for anyone with an interest in children’s literature. I am mystified by the mean spirited one-star reviews. I found this book in my university library and decided I must have a copy of my own. This book taps into the magic that you feel as a child when you are wholly immersed in a great story, and that you can never quite recapture as an adult.

⭐This book is spectacular. It was exactly what I was looking for, a beautifully written history of Children’s Literature and a whole spectrum of human development and emotion. The author is as incredible as her work.

⭐Such a lightweight book, you will barely learn anything.Full of flowery phrases and literature-babble.If you think I’m wrong please tell me.

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