Contemporary Literary Tales: History and Politics in Children’s Reading

Abstract

This article researches the role of contemporary children’s historical fiction as well as fiction with social and political topics that use the elements of fairytales or fantasy to form historical and political (or civil) views of children. The use of artistic devices typical for fairytales is discussed in the article in a frame of the possibility of making historical information attractive
and understandable for a young reader, even in such difficult cases as wars, political repressions, or authoritarian governments. This way the authors of books discussed in the article are able to tell much more about the essence
of historical events and/or to create the conditions for understanding of the political organization of the society than if they would stay strictly with the realistic genres. For learning purposes, historical fairytales and fairytales discussing politics allow to meet very complicated educational challenges that satisfy a particular interest in history and/or politics natural for small children and to create the motivation to master the historical material.

Keywords: Fairytale, historical topics, perception of politics by children, motivation to study history or political organization of the society, children’s need to read