The Case For Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World

Description

Gripping stories of children at home, school and in the therapist's office using make-believe to grapple with real-life issues from entering nursery school to the death of a sibling. In an age where toys come from television shows and dress-up means Disney costumes, Linn lays out the inextricable links between play, creativity and health, showing why society should protect children from corporations that aim to limit their imaginations.

Susan Linn, author of Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood (The New Press), is a psychologist at Judge Baker Children's 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.

"A wonderful look at how playing can heal children, how in "pretend-worlds" they can find their truest selves. [Linn's] fierce advocacy for kids is on every page of this terrific book." The Boston Globe "[A] welcome addition to such books as D.W. Winnicott's Playing and Reality, Bruno Bettleheim's The Uses of Enchantment, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow." Library Journal "Linn brings invaluable expertise to this well-organized and straightforward exploration of a neglected subject." Booklist