Unseen Worlds
Looking Through the Lens of Childhood
by Kate Adams
Paperback
Price: £19.99
Publisher:Jessica Kingsley Publishers from Gardners Books
Published:15 July 2010
ISBN:978-1-849-05051-7
GoodBookStall Review:
How much of your childhood do you remember? This book is not just a fascinating account of the results of research that has attempted to document and analyse the often unrecognised reality inhabited by young children, but it is also a vehicle for simulation of a reader’s own memories. This is obviously a difficult field, but Adams brings to it a creditable academic rigor, whilst at the same time producing a readable and well organised text.
We are reminded that adults can often dismiss the experiences of childhood as simply ‘It’s just your imagination’, the title of one chapter. Though childhood only found a life of its own in the fifteenth century, it has been transformed a number of times since, to be today very much a product of this age. Fear has taken our children off the streets and into our homes, offering in exchange all that can be accessed though TV and the internet. Adams provides a timely critique of how this has affected children’s dreams and other imaginings. Each chapter concludes with a summary that may give recommendations for those who wish to attempt a more enlightened response with their own children. The book also offers us the opportunity to peep through the lens of childhood, something that may well also illuminate our later life.
Reviewer: Paul Scott (30/03/11)
How much of your childhood do you remember? This book is not just a fascinating account of the results of research that has attempted to document and analyse the often unrecognised reality inhabited by young children, but it is also a vehicle for simulation of a reader’s own memories. This is obviously a difficult field, but Adams brings to it a creditable academic rigor, whilst at the same time producing a readable and well organised text.
We are reminded that adults can often dismiss the experiences of childhood as simply ‘It’s just your imagination’, the title of one chapter. Though childhood only found a life of its own in the fifteenth century, it has been transformed a number of times since, to be today very much a product of this age. Fear has taken our children off the streets and into our homes, offering in exchange all that can be accessed though TV and the internet. Adams provides a timely critique of how this has affected children’s dreams and other imaginings. Each chapter concludes with a summary that may give recommendations for those who wish to attempt a more enlightened response with their own children. The book also offers us the opportunity to peep through the lens of childhood, something that may well also illuminate our later life.
Reviewer: Paul Scott (30/03/11)
