A Field Guide to the Eccentric Creatures of Classic Children’s Literature from Huffington Post
The Role Of Children’s Stories In Managing Childhood Fears And Promoting Empowerment, a paper by M.A. Taylor
The Greatest Monsters In Children’s Literature according to Flavorwire
Picture Books With Monsters, a Goodreads list
Monsters Are Living, Breathing Metaphors
Must Monsters Always Be Male? at The Guardian
There are a lot of picture books with the message for preschoolers: Don’t be scared of the dark. The monsters you imagine are benign. We’ll then read a book about a terrible monster under the bed who turns out to be an adorable fluffy creature who befriends the child protagonist.
Here’s what I’d like to know: Do all children imagine monsters? Or is the idea of a monster introduced by the very media designed to assuage their fears? If we were to bring up a child sans media, sans Grimm, sans terror, would that child still conjure up the worst?
I doubt anyone has managed that experiment, but I do know that for our part, the resident toddler didn’t start being afraid of the dark until she started watching more sophisticated television and listening with some comprehension to picture books.
The Greatest Monsters In Children’s Literature from Flavorwire
Goodreads List of Picture Books About Monsters. (Can you guess the book at number one spot?)
Why Were There So Many Giant Insects In The 1950s? from io9
Mythical Beasts and Modern Monsters from Brainpickings
This List of Legendary Creatures From Japan will open your eyes to the wonderful, wacky world of Asian mythology and folklore and you may realize Grimm Brothers’ fairytales were text bundles of joy by comparison.
The Best Monster Movie Posters, Ever from IndieWire
