Synopses & Reviews
In
The Case for Make Believe, Harvard child psychologist Susan Linn tells the alarming story of childhood under siege in a commercialized and technology-saturated world. Although play is essential to human development and children are born with an innate capacity for make believe, Linn argues that, in modern-day America, nurturing creative play is not only counterculturalit threatens corporate profits.
A book with immediate relevance for parents and educators alike, The Case for Make Believe helps readers understand how crucial childs play is—and what parents and educators can do to protect it. At the heart of the book are stories of children at home, in school, and at a therapists office playing about real-life issues from entering kindergarten to a siblings death, expressing feelings they cant express directly, and making meaning of an often confusing world.
In an era when toys come from television and media companies sell videos as brain-builders for babies, Linn lays out the inextricable links between play, creativity, and health, showing us how and why to preserve the space for make believe that children need to lead fulfilling and meaningful lives.
Review
"A wonderful look at how playing can heal children, how in pretend-worlds” they can find their truest selves. [Linns] fierce advocacy for kids is on every page of this terrific book."
The Boston Globe
"[A] welcome addition to such books as D.W. Winnicotts Playing and Reality, Bruno
Bettleheims The Uses of Enchantment, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyis Flow."
Library Journal
"Linn brings invaluable expertise to this well-organized and straightforward exploration of a neglected subject."
Booklist
Synopsis
Building on the success of her previous book, Consuming Kids, Linn argues that children more than ever need the time, space, and tools essential for creative play. In modern America, creative play is under siege since it is seen as a threat to corporate profits. At the heart of the book are gripping stories of children at home, at school, and in a therapist"s office, using make-believe to grapple with real life issues from entering kindergarten to the death of a sibling. Explaining how and why we need to nurture make-believe, the book will appeal to parents, teachers, therapists, and anyone who cares about children"s well-being.
Synopsis
From the author of Consuming Kids, a clarion call for preserving play in our material world, a book every parent will want to read.In the nationally celebrated Consuming Kids, Susan Linn provided an unsparing look at how modern childhood is molded by commercialism. The resulting threat to children's play is the subject of her timely and fascinating new book. In The Case for Make Believe, Linn argues that, while play is crucial to human development, nurturing creative play in modern-day America is not only counterculturalit's a threat to corporate profits.
At the heart of the book are gripping stories of children at home, at school, and in a therapist's office using make believe to grapple with real-life issues from entering kindergarten to the death of a sibling. In an age when toys come from TV shows, dress-up means wearing Disney costumes, and parents believe Baby Einstein is educational, Linn lays out the inextricable links between play, creativity, and health, showing us why we need to protect our children from corporations that aim to limit their imaginations.
About the Author
Susan Linn, author of Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood (The New Press), is a psychologist at Judge Baker Childrens Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston. An award-winning ventriloquist internationally recognized for her pioneering work using puppet therapy with children, she was mentored by the late Fred Rogers.