“Britain’s pagan religions and the stories that form their liturgy never really disappeared…”
Britain’s pagan religions and the stories that form their liturgy never really disappeared, the...
Tag Archives: British children’s literature
“Landscape matters: Britain’s antique countryside…lends itself to fairy-tale invention. … America’s mighty vistas, by contrast, are less cozy, less human-scaled, and less haunted”
Landscape matters: Britain’s antique countryside, strewn with moldering castles and cozy farms, lends itself...
“It turns out that fantasy – the established domain of British children’s literature – is critical to childhood development”
It turns out that fantasy – the established domain of British children’s literature –...
“Popular storytelling in the New World instead tended to celebrate in words and song the larger-than-life exploits of ordinary men and women”
Popular storytelling in the New World instead tended to celebrate in words and song...
“American fantasies differ in another way: They usually end with a moral lesson learned…”
…the British have always been in touch with their pagan folklore, says Maria Tatar,...
“If British children gathered in the glow of the kitchen hearth to hear stories about magic swords and talking bears, American children sat at their mother’s knee listening to tales larded with moral messages…”
If Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn were each to represent British versus American children’s...