We’ve written a fair bit lately about what kids should not be reading. How about what they should read? Commentator Catherine Salgado says it should be fantasy fiction.

Albert Einstein once said, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Why? Because a belief in the miraculous, a well-developed imagination, and a sense of childlike wonder are all key components for a healthy and innovative person and a healthy and innovative culture.

It is a serious problem in our modern culture that we no longer believe in either magic or miracles. Yes, those are connected. The 11-year-old child who believes in fairies is more likely to be the 26-year-old who believes in the parting of the Red Sea. I am not saying that magic is part of religion or faith, but that a belief in the mystical, miraculous, and inexplicable helps form an excellent young mind — or any mind. Santa Claus is merely St. Nicholas in a different suit; if your first grader scoffs at the existence of Santa Claus, it will not be long before he doubts the existence of St. Nicholas.

I’m not the only one with that opinion. The late, great GK Chesterton wholeheartedly believed that a sense of wonder and a credulity about fairytales were connected to faith. Much of his “Orthodoxy,” for instance, is taken up with discussing the ethics and impact of fairyland. Part of modernity’s problem, he argued, was our warped rejection of fairyland and its philosophy.

Salgado rightly notes that “fairytales are very important for teaching good morals.” Identifying with the hero’s struggles, choices, and victories is critical for kids. That, she adds, is why Jesus told parables and did miracles. She notes other reasons imagination is important, manifested in the success of things like Disney Parks, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings.

American history is replete with it, too:

American artists sculpted Washington as a mythical Roman figure and sketched Jesus handing Thomas Jefferson the Declaration of Independence not because they thought Washington was a deity or Jefferson had the Declaration chucked to him from Heaven. They knew that a society HAS to have its myths and mysticism. Romans had Aeneas, England had King Arthur, Americans had our Founders. All those men really did do heroic deeds, and for all we know weird and wonderful events occurred around them too. The point is that self-righteous cynicism about all these men undermines not just the men themselves, but whole national identities.

Salgado concludes:

Tell your children fairytales. Read fantasy novels. Expect to find a dwarf in every cave and a nymph in every stream. If you do, you will find that the world becomes bigger, better, and more wonderful. You will again recapture the marvelous excitement and joy of the toddler who shouts in delight at the sight of Snow White or Cinderella — and learns thereby that she must be a good woman to become a beautiful princess.

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