The well-known Italian writer Gianni Rodari, it turns out, not only composed fairy tales for children — he also wrote a book on how to compose fairy tales with children. Offering a whole scattering of language games born from a random neighborhood of two words, from a grammatical error, from turning an old fairy tale inside out, Rodari makes an invaluable gift to parents and everyone who works with children.
The well-known Italian writer Gianni Rodari, it turns out, not only wrote fairy tales for children — he also wrote a book on how to compose fairy tales with children. Offering a whole scattering of language games born from a random neighborhood of two words, from a grammatical error, from turning an old fairy tale inside out, Rodari makes an invaluable gift to parents and everyone who works with children. A children’s holiday, a rainy day that you have to spend at home, a long road — in all these circumstances, the «Grammar of Fantasy» is simply irreplaceable. Delving into the theory of children’s fantasy, the author reinforces his experience as a teacher with the ideas of poets, linguists, psychologists, folklorists — on the pages of the book are the names of Novalis, Viktor Shklovsky, Roman Yakobson, Sigmund Freud, Vladimir Propp. Rodari is convinced that everyone needs a free, creative use of the word and should be the basis of democratic education. «Not that everyone should be an artist, but that no one should be a slave.» But it is important to remember that Rodari’s ideas are not just technical tricks, they only work in the hands of a thinking and observant adult who treats the child with respect and does not hesitate to learn from him. The Grammar of Fantasy was published in Russian in 1978 and has long since become a bibliographic rarity; this time it comes out with a preface by the children’s poet Vadim Levin.
SCOOTER, 240 p.