Tales to dispel fears

On different occasions we have talked to you about those childhood fears that make children suffer and that they are different at each age. A formula to help children dissipate their fears is children's stories, because they rationalize the feeling and try to explain it.

There are stories like "Blue Beard" or "Juan Without Fear", traditional stories explicitly related to fear, but most stories arise from that attempt to explain what is evil, darkness, monsters, ignorance, madness ...

The Germán Sánchez Ruipérez Foundation has an interesting publication that can be read online and that constitutes a reflection on fear in children's stories and a practical bibliographical selection of stories classified by themes.

The text, titled "Childhood fears in children's literature"In this way, he offers parents a guide to find the story that can help the child overcome his fear. The works are presented in eight sections, due to the most outstanding aspects they address:

  • Fear of the night, darkness and storms: threat of shadows, noise and natural phenomena.
  • Dreams broken by nightmares: fear of bad dreams, stifling awakening and drowned screams.
  • Fear of monsters and other imaginary beings: disturbing presences that haunt and stalk us.
  • Fear of animals: fears of four or even eight legs, which unleash panic and anxiety.
  • Fear of the unknown: vertigo before unexplored worlds and encounters beyond the known.
  • Intimate and personal fears: that accompany us and nest in our internal recesses.
  • Fears in society: threats in our relationship with the world and with others.
  • Conjure fears: face the fear that grips and break your paralysis.

In each section the works are sorted alphabetically by author, and next to each reference are included indicative keys on the recommended reading age or languages ​​in which the story can be found.

These are more or less popular, more or less classic works (most are modern), and most are easily found in the market or in libraries. Each section contains a good number of stories for each topic, so we have where to choose.

In short, the document aims to offer a representative sample of children's and youth literature works that address the issue of fears, the stories that help dispel childhood fears. A very interesting and practical text because this is a topic that our children face sooner or later and which we have all faced.

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