Modern Fantasy is a chapter from the book Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature: A Brief Guide written by Barbara Kiefer and Cynthia Tyson (McGraw-Hill Education, 2018). This chapter of the book focuses on the theme of the modern fantasy genre of literature, the types of fantasy literature for children, and whether they are helpful for the child’s development. The authors address the common misconception of fantasy literature being unrelated to real-life issues and, therefore, unhelpful for children. According to the authors’ suggestion, fantasy allows more space to discuss evil and the good, “life and death”, humanity, morals, and values in contrast with realism literature (Kiefer and Tyson 142). The main idea of the chapter is to explore different types of fantasy literature and define how each type can contribute to the children’s understanding of themselves through expanding their view of the real world.
First, one of the authors’ significant contributions to the theme of the importance of fantasy literature for children is the descriptive chart of various types of fantasy literature. The authors defined eleven types of fantasy: fairy tales, animal fantasy, fantasy about toys, “eccentric characters”, incredible worlds, magical powers, supernatural forces, time-shift fantasy, alternative realms, and science fiction (Kiefer and Tyson 146). In describing each type of fantasy literature and its general characteristics, the authors provided an example for each category of fantasy to clear the differences between each type. Moreover, each example features a brief summary of the story’s plot to establish the reader’s understanding of the main differences between the types.
However, one should understand that literature pieces are not limited to a certain theme; thus, fantasy literature pieces often could be presented by an intersection of various genres, such as the Harry Potter book series. Moreover, according to Kiefer and Tyson’s statement, a significant portion of modern fantasy seems familiar as the fantasy genre is dependent and often inspired by the same sources, such as folklore motifs (142). Therefore, to support and illustrate the purpose of such a thorough analysis of modern fantasy literature for children, the authors featured the story of Bree, a fifth-grader. Bree just finished reading one fantasy book and wants to find something similar to read, using the previously read book as a “measuring stick” (Kiefer and Tyson 140). The chapter suggests that it might be helpful to understand the basic type of modern fantasy literature to determine which type of fantasy Bree likes to provide her a good recommendation. Alternatively, the text suggests that the teacher could offer Bree something that is close to the type of fantasy she prefers but also features other elements to develop her interest in reading literature.
Thus, in this chapter of their book, the authors addressed the wrong misconceptions about fantasy literature and emphasized the role of a careful approach towards reading recommendations for students interested in fantasy literature. The text in the chapter explained how fantasy literature helps children understand the concepts that are not presented or fully disclosed in realism literature, such as morals and good and evil intentions. Moreover, the authors suggested that fantasy literature could help students learn something new about themselves and develop imagination skills. To support their suggestions, the authors provided a detailed guide to common types of fantasy with detailed characteristics and examples illustrating how good fantasy literature is beneficial to children’s development.
Work Cited
Kiefer, Barbara, and Cynthia Tyson. Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature: A Brief Guide. 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2018.