Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood
by
Maria Tatar
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 ex...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
April 20th 2009
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published April 1st 2009)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,000)
Wonderful work so far...
I enjoyed this book a lot. I generally like Maria Tatar's writing. Because this is aimed at a general audience, the writing is even more stylish and satisfying. However, because of the intended audience, I also found myself questioning some of the assumptions and assertions she makes. She's a little too willing to generalize about children's essential nature from time to time (though to be fair, she often qualifies particularly sweeping statements). The first chapters about reading scenes and si...more
This author teaches folklore and children's literature at Harvard and some of her other books include annotated versions of classic fairy tales, so this is a rather scholarly look at some aspects of children's literature. She begins by connecting stories for children to storytelling for the whole family around the hearth at night. The kids were not off in a bedroom, but right there at their parents' elbows as the adults passed dark winter evenings listening to stories while doing dull chores. Th...more
This is an interesting, albeit flawed, work on the power that reading has for children. In particular, Tatar explores the mixed feelings adults have about children reading -- we all want them to do it, but then we worry that they're turning into "bookworms" and not socializing enough, or we worry about what they're reading, or whether they're reading at their age level, or whether they are reading too much of one type of book. Tatar also discusses the history of the concept of the "bedtime story...more
So, so, so disappointing.
I got the public library to buy this on Neil Gaiman's recommendation. Neil, this time, you let me down. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you. But I am going to be a bit more cautious next time.
I suffered through the first chapter, about how story-telling went from being a family or social activity to a smaller or solitary one. I got through Tatar's rather clumsy interpretation of a couple of paintings showing small children being read to. I got the point that reading...more
I got the public library to buy this on Neil Gaiman's recommendation. Neil, this time, you let me down. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you. But I am going to be a bit more cautious next time.
I suffered through the first chapter, about how story-telling went from being a family or social activity to a smaller or solitary one. I got through Tatar's rather clumsy interpretation of a couple of paintings showing small children being read to. I got the point that reading...more
Childhood tales are the first ones that we read, whether it’s the ones about Bemelmans’s red-headed Madeline in France or Rowling’s Harry Potter coming of age in Scotland. We might not think about them when we become adults but they are there, swimming around in our subconscious, informing the books we read today to our own children.
Ms. Tatar deftly explores these old stories and the significance they played in our distant youth and our adult lives. In doing so, she points out the emotional for...more
Ms. Tatar deftly explores these old stories and the significance they played in our distant youth and our adult lives. In doing so, she points out the emotional for...more
I've read a couple of Maria Tatar's books on fairy tales and enjoyed them very much but this book is just half-baked. In an attempt to break out of her scholarly box she has created a mishmash of observations on children's literature, child psychology, parenting, and the psychology of reading which are superficial at best and occasionally just completely offbase. She relies heavily on quotations and allusions which add little or no substance to her argument and are eclectic to the point of being...more
There's not much wrong with this book, and in all fairness, if I were more interested in children's literature than in fairy tales, I think I would've enjoyed the book more.
It is extremely well written and examines why children read what they do. I actually think I have discovered why Goodnight Moonwas not a favorite book. Along the way, you learn some interesting things about Dr. Seussand other authors. If you have read some of Tatar's other works, some of the information she has covered in var...more
Enchanted Hunters, Maria Tatar’s volume on “The Power of Stories in Childhood,” is enjoyable and informative for the reader of children’s literature, for the parent who reads to a child, and for the reader who enjoys fairy tales. She discusses children’s literature from a few different approaches, including literary criticism, history, and personal opinions.
Ms Tatar is obviously well read in not just children’s literature but adult classics and philosophers as well. Because of her wide-reaching...more
Ms Tatar is obviously well read in not just children’s literature but adult classics and philosophers as well. Because of her wide-reaching...more
Aug 31, 2011
Candy Wood
added it
Maria Tatar has published before on fairy tales, but this book explores the power of other kinds of stories as well, from older classics like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz (both book and movie) to newer ones like Goodnight Moon, Charlotte's Web, and the Harry Potter series. The introduction and first chapter raise questions about the popular impression of avid readers, cautioning parents and educators to watch for negative bias in the ways we talk about reading (bookworms,...more
Maria Tatar was teaching a course on children's literature at Harvard when I was a student there. When I first picked up this book, I wondered why I had not taken her course. After all, what could more perfectly suit my inclinations than a combination of literary studies with texts like Peter Pan, The Secret Garden, Alice in Wonderland, and The Chronicles of Narnia? Once I got a little ways into Tatar's book, I remembered my original rationale for NOT taking the course: I had wanted, back then,...more
Alright! I'm so glad I finished this book. I had to renew it at the library twice! But it was worth it.
Enchanted is a trip through the height and depth of Children's Literature. From horrifying tales told to stop children from sucking their thumbs (if you have a strong stomach Google Struwwelpeter.) to Harry Potter, Tatar analyzes them through the academic eye. It's a treatment I'm more accustomed to seeing Shakespeare put through.
The first chapter was quite a slog. It's a lot of looking at...more
view 1 comment
Maria Tatar explores the history of storytelling for children and the reasons why the books we read as children have such a profound and lasting impact.
While the book is admittedly more of an exploration than an explanation, it felt a bit loose in many places where I would have preferred more focus. That said, Tatar's close readings of Dr. Seuss, Alice in Wonderland, Goodnight Moon, and many other beloved children's stories are thought-provoking. Defintely a must-read for anyone who loves childr...more
While the book is admittedly more of an exploration than an explanation, it felt a bit loose in many places where I would have preferred more focus. That said, Tatar's close readings of Dr. Seuss, Alice in Wonderland, Goodnight Moon, and many other beloved children's stories are thought-provoking. Defintely a must-read for anyone who loves childr...more
Thought I might use this in my class. It's really more of an investigation of a handful of classic children's books and the patterns they share, rather than what I expected it to be, which was the influence of fairy tales on a child's development. A good read for parents or teachers who are waxing nostalgic over some of their childhood favorites.
A certain book from my childhood left me with memories I will never forget. It was a moment in childhood when my imagination must have been at its peak, the tale was more alive and real than any story I’ve come across since. In remembrance of the story and the influence it had on me I set out to explore children’s literature. This book achieves in explaining the culture of children’s literature, the charm and lure of bedtime stories, why from a child’s point of view the world makes more sense up...more
I like books, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed reading a book about enjoying reading books. Made me wish that I was taking an English class this semester; my writing tends to be easily influenced by the books I read, and it would have been useful to have some academia rub off on me.
A delightful and eye opening book. It brought me back to reading some of the childhood favorites that I never read but only saw on TV as a boy. It opened my eyes to perspectives regarding children books that I had not previously considered as a professional storyteller.
The last half contains quite a bit of golden literary analysis, when Tatar hits her stride and focuses on the literature as opposed to the psychology or attempts at cultural study. It's intriguing, thought-provoking, and will doubtless stir up some nostalgia for the reader's own favorite stories from childhood. If the reader can make it that far, of course. Unfortunately, the first half is terribly, unbelievably, choke until you die dry, and her superficial, grossy generalized, and rather misinf...more
If you were a child who loved books, you should read this. If you grew up into an adult who loves books and still likes the stories marketed to children, you should read this. If you have children who you want to give the magic of books to, you should read this.
It's a literary analysis of what makes children's literature so appealing to children that the stories stick with them through adulthood. It looks at the stories, the society, and the difference between how kids and adults need to view th...more
It's a literary analysis of what makes children's literature so appealing to children that the stories stick with them through adulthood. It looks at the stories, the society, and the difference between how kids and adults need to view th...more
pleasant, thought-provoking reading about stoires, but, it really is hard to break down The Story to find the magic in it...an attempt at the impossible...
This book was too dry for my kind of reading. I do agree that most of the bedtime stories for children can induce nightmares or can wind the little ones up when they need to be winding down. I don't know if the author comes up with an alternative to the usual stories because I only got through the first 3 chapters.
Scholarly, readable essays on the emotional fascination that stories -- particularly fantasies and fairy tales -- have for children.
An intriguing examination of what children get from a book, and what adult authors mean for them to get. With a title that comes from a quote from Lolita, no less.
Nov 25, 2011
Misty Dahl
marked it as to-read
I love Maria Tatar. Her book The Classic Fairy Tales taught me a lot. I can't wait to check this one out.
Nice to read but the scholarship was somewhat forgettable since I can't say I've retained much of it.
The earlier chapters present an interesting look at the development of children's literature (particularly bedtime reading) from its roots storytelling, while the later chapters focus primarily on children's fantasy, which Tatar, an expert on folklore and fairytales, seems to see as a direct descendant of that genre. The individual analyses are interesting, while the books as a whole, though it does not have one strong thesis, makes a powerful argument for the importance of fantasy lit for child...more
Nice for children's lit aficanados
Someday I'll come back to you!
neil gaiman rec
Wow. More fun to read than many a novel I've encountered. I'd definitely recommend Enchanted Hunters to anyone who has children, writes for children, or was a child who loved--I mean loved--reading. Also, at the end of the book Tatar includes a compilation of blurbs from writers talking about their childhood reading experiences. Fun to look through those pages and find the reminisces of some of my favorite authors.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Lolita Reference | 3 | 78 | Oct 10, 2009 02:28pm |
Maria Tatar is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures. She chairs the Program in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University. She is the author of Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood, Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood and many other books on folklore and fairy stories. She is also the editor and translator of The Annotated Ha...more
More about Maria Tatar...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
