The Brightening Glance: Imagination and Childhood [Hardcover]

Ellen Handler Spitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2006

In this original, richly illuminating study of the aesthetic development of children in their primary learning years, Ellen Handler Spitz returns us to the vibrant experience of childhood to explain how the imagination emerges and develops. She looks at how children feel, sense, and relate to what is around them, and she examines the unlimited imaginative dimensions of their everyday experiences.

Spitz makes clear that in a young child’s mind there are no distinctions between art and nature, between reality and make-believe: every encounter—looking at a blade of grass, watching Bambi, decorating a bedroom—is experienced in both a child’s private world and a domain of shared adventure. By exploring the sensory, perceptual, and imaginative lives of children, Spitz shows how this aesthetic growth intersects with emotional development and how, by carefully observing what holds their attention, we can not only promote children’s growth but also learn from them, rediscovering our own world through their wide-open eyes.

This remarkable book will be required reading for parents, child-care professionals, and educators—for anyone interested in the seeds of the young imagination and the life of the young mind.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spitz, who teaches arts-related interdisciplinary seminars at the University of Maryland, is a passionate advocate for the aesthetic imaginations of young children. She wants adults to tune in to their toddlers' ways of seeing, and by responding to what they're experiencing, find ways to extend the experience. If a toddler looks at his mashed potatoes and says, "Tuh-tuh," Spitz says, Mom should observe those potatoes from the child's point of view and respond with "turtle." Mothers might attend special music classes with their little ones; whole families might get together to stage home productions of operas that the toddler's going to be attending. Spitz's own rather imaginative view of contemporary child-rearing may strike some as a throwback, with nuclear families collaborating on homemade birthday parties complete with puppet shows. Her text, which reads like a collected lecture series, is sprinkled with obvious suggestions (parents should visit preschools and meet teachers before enrolling children) and concludes with a set of scenarios imagining different careers for one's "little fellow"—musician, mathematician, scientist—each usefully enriched by an imaginative childhood. Even if parents want "aesthetic rather than anesthetic children," Spitz's program seems rather ethereal. (Feb. 21)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Spitz, an artist, dancer, writer, parent, and scholar, explores children's imaginative lives and how their sense of the aesthetic influences their emotional development. Drawing on childhood recollections, her experiences as a parent, observations, and stories by other parents, she illustrates how children learn and navigate life with their imaginations. The book is not organized by age categories, though Spitz focuses on toddlers through adolescents. Instead, Spitz investigates certain themes: the room as a stage, sanctuary, and refuge; treasures from books to favorite toys; scary stories that reveal much about children's aesthetic sense. Spitz parallels the imaginative process for children with the creative process for artists of all kinds and offers parents advice on when to be quiet and listen and when to participate in the imaginings. Engaged parents offer "the boon of mental stimulation and energetic participation in their games." This is an absorbing look at imagination and how parents--of whatever creative abilities--can encourage their children's flights of fancy and revisit their own childhoods. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon; 1St Edition edition (February 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375420584
• ISBN-13: 978-0375420580
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,170,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ellen Handler Spitz writes the Children's column for The BOOK at
"The New Republic" website online.

To read her reviews, please go to:
www.tnr.com/book/reviews/children's

Her own website is:

www.ellenhandlerspitz.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treat for parents hoping to enhance creativity, subtlety, and imagination in their chldren, February 21, 2006

By 

Mother and psychotherapist (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Brightening Glance: Imagination and Childhood (Hardcover)

The Brightening Glance opens a path into the world of children in a unique and delightful way. Parents and other interested adults are treated to the secrets of tuning into a child's perspective on the world, and then see how to enrich the child's outlook in subtle and supportive ways. This book parallels the noted child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan's ideas of reciprocal interaction in "floor play" - but it is concerned with a more elaborated version of developing children's interactions and creativity.

Parents are under so much pressure today that they often rush through the time they spend with their children. The Brightening Glance can help them to slow down and absorb the richness of the world, for their own benefit as well as for their children's. Those who are familiar with Dr. Spitz's earlier work, Inside Picture Books know already what kind of pleasure awaits them in reading this new book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Every Parent Should Read, February 26, 2006

By 

naomi siegel "Naomi Siegel. M.S, Parent Educator" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Brightening Glance: Imagination and Childhood (Hardcover)

Parents tend to smile inwardly as they read Ellen Handler Spitz's books.....they are both enjoyable and challenging....and open the eyes of parents to new dimensions in their children's lives.  I recommend reading Inside Picture Books as well as The Brightening Glance to parents that I work with.  Both books reveal the depth of children's minds and feelings to their parents and help them to understand how to help their children develop greater emotional and imaginativecapabilities.