This research concerns itself with making the imagination work; with developing, in university playwrights, a freedom to fantasy; and with encouraging them to give artistic form to their fantasies. (Author/RK)

Encouraging children to create imaginary worlds through writing provides them with ways of coping with the world in which they live, gives them the satisfaction of creating order and experiencing success, and prompts their natural inclinations to plan for a better future. In addition, such planning for utopias can both improve the quality of…

Introduce students to this tall-tale character, plus other fantasy folk and forms. (Editor)

Written to encourage imaginative approaches to teaching writing, this paper contains ideas for developing writing skills by encouraging creative writing, formal analysis, and criticism despite the traditional lack of literary analysis in the creative writing classroom. In addition to including teaching techniques for practicing literary skills…

This book provides the general reader with an introduction to the field of imaginative fiction. The first two chapters describe the growth of science fiction from Aristophanes to Asimov and give the history of its parent literature, fantasy. The rest of the book affords the apprentice writer an overview of skills necessary for creating imaginative…

Writer of fantasy novels discusses the origins of her heroines and characterizes them as strong, passionate women who determine their own fate. (ARH)

This book contains comments by ten authors of children's literature concerning the influences they feel account for the particular qualities that define their books and about creative writing and children's literature in general. In the first article, P. L. Travers stresses the importance of fairy tales, myths, and legends in shaping her work,…

Reading fantasy literature to children proved to be an effective way to limber up their creativity. (JH)

A theory of teaching creative writing that involves preconscious learning is presented in this paper. Following a review of the literature on methods of developing writing ability, the paper describes a three-step creative process of preparation (the gathering and study of appropriate materials), incubation (the preconscious absorption and shaping…

Relates the author's experiences in a year-long creative writing workshop with a third-grade class, focusing especially on working with one child with a remarkable narrative imagination. Describes how it slowly dawned on the author and the classroom teacher that the boy was not sorting out the real from the imaginary in his descriptions to them of…

Reexamines Maurice Sendak's first children's book, published in 1956. Finds it to be filled with the characters, themes, and psychological concerns that were to become hallmarks of the writer-artist's mature works. (NKA)

This collection of 52 articles reprinted from the "Horn Book Magazine" (1949-66) is intended to stimulate discussion on all aspects of children's reading and children's books. The articles are collected under seven headings: "Inspiration--How It Comes;""Goals and Guidelines for Writers and Illustrators;""Re-creating Other Times;""The Matter of…

Children's writings seem to elicit a somewhat narrow range of adult responses. More often than not, the adult tendency is to read children's fictional writings as autobiographical. The adult critic can, that is, think of the child author as a collection of biographical facts, a series of life experiences with an end point marked by the production…

Discusses ways to use mythic literature to teach children about themselves and to help them write their own stories and legends. (SRT)