Radka Petkova:
And now I want to talk about some characters from fairy tales, but not the usual ones that we were all attached to as children. Surely each of you thinks of the little mermaid, or the lead soldier, as well as many other fairy-tale creatures. Not a few of them have equally beloved illustrations, which were once imbued with the artists' handwriting, made with a lot of love. Some of the books, even wet with tears, remain wrinkled.
The paper, as if absorbed by our emotions, cannot be straightened, just as the traces of these vivid childhood memories cannot be erased.
And something remains in the child's mind, like an beacon of lessons that they can use in the future. But if we have to think about what tells the children whether a character is good or bad, it is usually a sense of justice. Which, as a rule, falls on the heads of these heroes.
And the good one wins.
Yes, but no.
It turns out sometimes that such a black and white reality in life does not exist. Then isn't it better for the kids to meet the bad guys too? Those who do not always win against fate, but are richer psychologically. The topic is very deep and not only because children have to get used to their shadow from a young age. They need to know the limits of a world where good doesn't always win in order to respond to it. For this, in defense of the not-so-good heroes, we talked with the author of children's books Vesela Flamburari. She was kind enough to talk to me about it from Greece.
Vesela Flamburari, a children's author who is at the heart of the boutique publishing house "Attelier for children's literature "The Upper Earth" on the topic of how unsympathetic the characters of children's fairy tales really are and whether we are harming the little ones by not reading them books. And more precisely, whether they are harmed when the worlds of adults in their real shades, even of gray, are not at least a little reflected in the books.
The child may be raised in a bubble, but it easily bursts when it is not confronted with taboo topics, says Flamburari.
Human imagination is the main weapon in children's lives, and it should be trained when it is young. It sounds very easy, but it really is not. In order for all of us to visualize our lives ahead, we need to fantasize about what would happen to us, several years, why not 30 in a row. Only in this way can we resist any attack on our spirit, on our soul, on our life.
Parents are often afraid to read scary stories to their children because they themselves are afraid of fear. But in the child's life the fear appears in real situations and the child can remain paralyzed. And in the stories, the bad heroes come to our aid, who oppose the good ones and thus help justice to finally prevail. Guided by both the good and the bad characters in his life, the child learns to cope with problems..