Touch Magic

We must equip our children with story in order to keep them linked with the past and ready for the future. "Our children are growing up without their birthright: the myths, fairy tales, fantasies and folklore that are their proper legacy." The essays in Touch Magic, Jane Yolen's classic call-to-arms advocating the use of fantasy and folklore in children's literature, echo that statement. Yolen argues persuasively that fantasy, folklore, and the realm of story provide children with the necessary tools for facing the world, understanding its ways and capriciousness, indeed, becoming truly human. "I believe that culture begins in the cradle," she writes. "To do without tales and stories and books is to lose humanity's past, is to have no star map for our future." August House now offers a richly expanded version of this seminal volume. With six new essays that tender fresh perspectives on the morality of fairy tales, time travel, the definition of story, and, of course, why such themes are essential to the development of today's children, Touch Magic heralds a new millennium of fantasy, myth, and storytelling. "Story is our wall against the dark," Yolen contends, and as adults, we must equip our children with story in order to keep them linked with the past and ready for the future. Touch magic, and pass it on.