Mysteries of Life in Children's Literature

'Fairy tales clear the way for sanctity. They are the child's first morality play, clear-cut, no-nonsense black and white, good and evil, life and death - with a bit of fun thrown in to alleviate the pain.' -Ethel Pochocki The wonders found in fairy tales and myths have enriched childhoods for centuries. In between 'Once upon a time' and 'happily ever after' we embark on adventures that seem an eternity away from our everyday lives, and yet through these adventures we are brought back to the innocence and beauty of the truth. In The Mysteries of Life in Children's Literature, journey through a treasury of well-known fables and folk tales, as well as others not so well known, and discover the wisdom hiding within them. In an age that rejects the moral absolutes and repudiates the whole idea of intrinsic evils, children's literature restores the meaning of good and evil, beautiful and ugly, and normal and abnormal, helping us see the nature of our world more clearly than we ever have before.