Exploring sensation training in toyetic television: Lessons from Kamen Rider Saber

The Disney ‘Princess Bubble’ as a Cultural Influencer

Reviewed by: Mapping Fairy-Tale Space: Pastiche and Metafiction in Borderless Tales by Christy Williams Anelise Farris (bio) Christy Williams. Mapping Fairy-Tale Space: Pastiche and Metafiction in Borderless Tales. Wayne State UP, 2021. Although the fairy-tale genre is often identified as children's literature, it was generally not aimed at a younger audience until the mid-twentieth century. Its malleable nature, the ability to adapt to different audiences, cultures, and time periods, is a key component to the genre's longevity. Accordingly, Christy Williams suggests that instead of distinguishing between classic fairy tales and modern retellings, it is far more productive to approach fairy tales as an interconnected genre. As Williams points out, "The genre has always been about newness, variation, and retelling" (6). And it is this fundamental and persistent reworking of the genre that is at the center of Mapping Fairy-Tale Space: Pastiche and Metafiction in Borderless Tales—a work that seeks to recognize the increasing intertextuality of fairy tales. Due to the expansiveness of the fairy-tale world, Williams applies the metaphor of a map to the genre itself, arguing that the fairy-tale genre is its own landscape that operates in two primary ways: internally and externally. Internally, fairy-tale characters, symbols, and motifs are able to move beyond their prescribed narratives. Williams refers to this process as "pastiche" in which "motifs and fragments conjure up ideas about their fairy-tale contexts without necessarily referencing a specific tale" (8). For example, the wicked stepmother character brings to mind certain associations for the reader without the need for a specific story, like "Snow White," to be mentioned (8). The second method occurs externally: through familiarity and cultural osmosis, readers approach—whether consciously or unconsciously—fairy tales for directions, "as relevant to one's lived experienced" (21). Williams explains, "These self-reflexive texts directly engage fairy-tale narratives as models for behavior and elucidate problems with this approach while validating the desire for the fairy tale as a personal map" (21). To illustrate these dual map-like qualities, Williams offers a metafictional analysis of a selection of primary texts, including novels, short stories, and television series. With each text, she observes how twenty-first century audiences are responding to and reshaping the fairy-tale genre for a new era. These two key observations also form the basis for how the book is structured: two parts, each containing two chapters. Part one ("Mapping Fairy Tales") focuses on texts that utilize pastiche as a way to retell familiar fairy tales in novel ways. Fairy-tale pastiche involves the bringing together of [End Page 244] various parts of fairy tales, such as characters and motifs, and creating a new story out of these fragments. Part two ("Fairy-Tale Maps") addresses how fairly-tale characters (and metaphorically readers of fairy tales) encounter problems when they try to apply fairy-tale formulas to modern life—thereby questioning the relevance and purpose of the genre and retelling the tales accordingly. Throughout these two major sections, Williams does not so much establish an explicit thesis that sets out to defend an argument as she presents sets of observations. Like an anthropologist observing a culture, in these four chapters Williams observes the ways in which fairy tales of the twenty-first century continue to do what they have always done: be made new. The first chapter, "ABC's Once Upon a Time and the Mapping of a Fairy-Tale Land," examines how multiple fairy tales occupy a single landscape in the television series Once Upon a Time. This allows for new possibilities in terms of plot direction and character development, and Williams warrants that the survivability of fairy tales depends on the teller's ability to "make the stories do something new" (62). After establishing this central tenet, the second chapter, "Serialization and Hybridity in Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles and Seanan McGuire's Indexing," demonstrates how fairy-tale pastiche can take different forms in serial novels. In Meyer's series, each book centers on an individual fairy tale, a technique that Williams terms "closed borders" due to their singular focus on one fairy-tale narrative. Conversely, McGuire's series takes a...

Why Wicked Never Wins: An Examination of the Early Origins of the Evil Female Villain of the Fairy Tale Narrative

The importance of ages 0-3 years of child life is considered the cornerstone of all dimensions of health for the rest of the child’s life, which is the period in which children grow rapidly and there are many changes in every aspect of development. The purpose of this study is to learn the factors that are relevant to the design of toys for kids aged 0-3 years from development, behavior of children, and the characteristics of children’s toys that are suitable for the ages, including safety. The researcher studied the guidelines for the design of kid’s toys that were appropriate to the age range. This research is a combination that uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results of the study after trying playing toy sets from the study of toy design factors in kids aged 0-3 from 230 samples by observing behavior from a total of 80 children, then synthesizing the data for use in the design process, and evaluating by the parents of 150 children, found that it was at a good level, with average value (x̄= 4.17, SD = 0.39). When comparing with playing toy samples from the Toy Industry Association of Thailand, it was found that there was a moderate level of satisfaction with the mean of 3.42 (x̄= 3.41, SD = 0.61), and statistically significant at 0.05 level in all aspects. In conclusion, toys for kids in the age range of 0-3 years resulting from the study of 3 factors in toy design: development and behavior, playing methods, and safety are important links between each other. Development and behavior of children are consistent with the play methods because they affect the physical development of children by age, and safety in the design of toys is able to prevent the danger that could occur to kids.

Provide reference for relevant children's toy product design and application through analysis on necessity of toy pattern and statement of design key point of children's behavior in toy design from the five aspects of children's motion behavior, gender behavior, prosocial behavior, cognitive behavior and imitation behavior. With improvement of people's living standard, children's toy design is no longer a simple thing, but an artificiality designed from analysis on observation of toy pattern, research of children psychological and physical needs, imitation of children's service environment and exploration of children's consumption behavior. Children's toy design is closely related to children's growth and can bring comfortable, happy, healthy and reasonable life style to children's life and growth. home education pattern, children's product market has gradually developed and expanded. The market starts to falls into categories of daily necessities, furniture and toys which are relevant products of children. Parents pay more and more attention to children's growth, putting forward higher requirements for function, modeling, material and color of children's toy. When people buy products, their attention focuses on whether the product conforms to children's physical and psychological development and behavior pattern, and the product's safety, entertainment, education, experience and distinctness. These attentions bring huge opportunities into the market. This kind of focus effect motivates development of children's toy market and conforms to needs of consumer and market. B. Children's Toy Design Based on Behavior Pattern Should Conform to Physical and Mental Development of Children Children in different phases have different mental and physical development, necessarily resulting in different behavior pattern. Difference in toy pattern necessarily results in different children toys. Display of children's motion behavior, imitation behavior, cognitive behavior, spontaneous behavior and social behavior in children's toy design conforms to activity, intelligence and personality characteristics in different phases of children's mental and physical development and conforms to requirements of comprehensive development of children's mind and body. Action is an important sign of children's mental and physical development and it is also the basis of development of children's other skills. Development of children's motion behavior is under combined effect of brain, nervous system and muscle. Especially in infantile period, children's action development and mental development are positively proportional. Action development can reflect mental development. What's more, children's action development is not a temporary process, but a continuous and periodical development process.

Children's emotional attachments to toys foster trust and stability, impacting psychological growth. This study evaluates the concept of emotional attachments in children's toy designs. Employing a grounded theory methodology, it seeks to establish a conceptual framework for understanding the elements and principles of emotional attachments in toys. By shedding light on the factors that develop children’s emotional attachments with their toys, this research aims to inform the design and development processes of toys that promote healthy emotional development. The findings suggest that integrating a conceptual model of emotional attachments into the design processes can lead to the creation of toys that facilitate children's holistic growth and offer them positive experiences of emotional connection. Furthermore, the study proposes a conceptual framework for integrating emotional attachment into children's toy design and development processes. This has profound implications for toy designers, teachers, manufacturers, and education researchers aiming to enhance children's emotional well-being through play.

FAIRY-TALE THERAPY: SCIENTIFIC AND METHODICAL ASPECTS

Fairy tale characters have a special status for children, as they become the bearers of values and emotions with a major impact on the development of the young viewer in whose universe anything is possible. Children often place the action at a subordinate level of their brain and the text loses its value to the character construction, which they remember at the expense of the actions the characters perform. Young audiences’ conclusions about a character can boil down to two simple characterizations: GOOD or BAD, but their subconscious picks up complex information that can affect the core values and influence future decisions or actions. This assessment of the moral character that a fairy tale character has is only valid because the fairy tale is used for an educational purpose and is supposed to contribute to the development of cognitive and affective processes in the formation of fundamental character traits. The aim of the critical approach of this research is to identify the real values of a character through behavioural analysis in order to render it scenically.

The article discusses the trends in the development of modern children's literature on the basis of literary fairy tales. Taking the literary fairy tales of the modern Kazakh children's writer B. Suleimenov as the subject of the study, the function of the fairy tale genre in the children’s upbringing is scientifically analyzed. The writer wrote for children the fairy tales like “Zhanaikai”, “Gorilla Adam”, “Tugan kuninmen, Aitumsyk!”, “Zhyrtkysh balyk zhaily khikaya”, “Alabai-Dalabay”, “Africany arkalagan Kaka”, “Kyrannyn kanaty zhylaidy”, consisting of two stories “Khan Shatyrdan – Kun shatyrga sayakhat!”. By grouping, systematyzing, analyzing the writer's fairy tales, it was established that the vast majority of his works were about animals. While analyzing the literary fairy tales, the issue of continuity of centuries-old traditions and innovation in children's literature received an attention. Content searches in the writer's fairy tales are evaluated within the framework of traditions and innovations in national literature. In the differentiation of literary and aesthetic achievement in modern children's prose, the writer's fairy tales on animals were analyzed. The author, based on the opinion of domestic and foreign scientists on the fairy tales genre, came to a conclusion about the similarity and difference between traditional fairy tales and author's fairy tales. The searches of the modern children's writer B. Suleimenov in choosing a theme serve to complement the content of literary fairy tales. From the fairy tales about animals, the cognitive function of a literary work was revealed, and the contribution to the upbringing of future generation was emphasized by the author's position. Key words: children's literature, prose, fiction, fairy tale, fantasy fairy tale, household fairy tale, author's fairy tale.

Reviewed by: Hans Christian Andersen: The Journey of His Life by Heinz Janisch Elizabeth Bush Janisch, Heinz Hans Christian Andersen: The Journey of His Life; tr. from the German by David Henry Wilson; illus. by Maja Kastelic. NorthSouth, 2020 [48p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780735843882 $18.95 Reviewed from digital galleys R 5-8 yrs Janisch employs an engaging and largely effective framing story in this picture book biography of the beloved Danish writer. Seven-year-old Elsa boards a coach with her mother and, bored by the long journey, strikes up a conversation with their aged fellow passenger, who introduces himself as a writer and is happy to entertain her with a requested story. She's soon immersed in his tale of a poor boy named Hans, whose father read him fairy tales and then died from war injuries, leaving the boy with no clear path to pursue his dream of becoming a performer. By fourteen Hans had struck out on his own for the big city, and through talent and perseverance and more than a little annoying assertiveness, found the mentors and benefactors who launched his career as a writer. Elsa handily figures out Hans' connection to her companion and asks Andersen to explain whether he is also the source of the main characters in his authored fairy tales, and he observes how his own life influenced themes in some tales but played no real role in others. In her art, Kastelic melds the [End Page 25] text layers, shifting among soft watercolors of the coach ride, sepia-toned memories of Andersen's childhood, and vividly hued compositions recalling vintage fairy tale illustration for references to Andersen's stories. Tales featured are those likeliest to have reached this picture book's young audience, such as "The Ugly Duckling," "The Princess and the Pea," and "The Emperor's New Clothes," making this title a welcome extension for readers in the know or a guide to further reading for children starting to explore the classics. An author's note is included. Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Are fairy tales outdated to a modernised 21st century society? In 1976, clinical psychologist Professor Bruno Bettelheim wrote a book examining the power and utility of fairy tales in childhood development. Forty years later, his work maintains its importance. Through a Freudian lens, Bettelheim examines the emotional and symbolic facets of traditional children’s fairy tales alongside contemporary developmental child psychology. Bettelheim believes that when children find meaning within these socially evolved stories, they engage in emotional growth and transcend their self-centred natures. This would allow them to attain a greater sense of meaning and purpose to their own lives, which would prepare them better for their own futures to be in a position to contribute significantly to others. Through the fairy tale narrative, the child makes sense of life’s bewilderment. The imagery in fairy tales (such as personified animals, adults represented as giants and allegorical magic vegetables) allows the child to explore their fears in remote and symbolic terms (Fig. 1). The child is able to sort through their inner pressures and moral obligations in an environment that is not belittling to them. Should parents still recount these tales of make believe to the children of today or are they passe? Unlike myths, which tend to be detailed historical tragedies inaccessible to a child’s mind, fairy tales are a screenplay of adversity, quest, struggle and acceptance – with a happy ending. They tend to be universally translatable and are edited and embellished with every generation. The emphasis is on choice of action rather than the title of the characters themselves. Hansel and Gretel were so named because these were the prevailing children’s names at the time. Fables demand the reader to choose a moral outcome. Fairy tales allow the reader to explore each virtue and path of action through the different characters’ fates. The child decides their own personal stance after deliberating each consequence. Through the telling, the child is exposed to ethical reasoning without being preached at. The little pig who worked hard building his house out of bricks was safe, while the pigs that used the easier straw and sticks and went off to play got gobbled up. Without being explicitly told so, the child learns that hard work pays off and that sometimes delayed gratification is necessary. Fairy tales provide answers to what the world is really like and the child’s place within it. Numbers play an important part in the world and fairy tales are no exception. Here, the magical number is three: three bears, three little pigs, three wishes, etc. Apart from religious connotations to the Holy Trinity, the child sees their place in the mother, father and child triad. As in the fairy tale, the child usually chooses the third path from the other two characters: their own. Many fairy tales follow a set pattern similar to ‘rite of passage’ stories. A poor vulnerable child loses a parent, and then must set off on an arduous journey testing their courage and outwitting their foes, before realising their true place in the world, usually by bonding with another (‘Prince Charming’). This simplistically echoes the process of adolescence, whereby a child emancipates from their parents, forms a self-identity and vocation, and begins to enter into mutually exclusive adult relationships. Cinderella typifies this with the glass slipper fitting only the right person. The child realises that their potential spouse must suit them wholly and not just be wealthy, attractive or popular. Goldilocks tries out the porridge and the beds to find the right one. Teenagers traverse many phases of fashion, music, friends and hairstyles before finding their ‘home’. Correspondence: Dr Anthony Zehetner, Department of Adolescent Medicine, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Corner Hawkesbury Road and Hainsworth Street, Locked Bag 4001, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia. Fax: +61 298452517; email: anthony.zehetner@health.nsw.gov.au

<i>Paola Bottalla</i> and <i>Monica Santini</i>, What Are Little Boys and Girls Made Of? Gender Issues in Children's Literature<i>What Are Little Boys and Girls Made Of ? Gender Issues in Children’s Literature</i>. Edited by Paola Bottalla and Monica Santini. Padua: Unipress, 2009. Pp. xvii+149.

There's No Place Like Home(land) in American and Soviet Fantasy Cinema of 1939: <i>The Wizard of Oz</i> and <i>Vasilisa the Beautiful</i>

Searching for Grace in Children’s Fantasy Donna R. White (bio) John Goldthwaite. The Natural History of Make-Believe: A Guide to the Principal Works of Britain, Europe, and America. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. The words “Oxford University Press” on the title page of a book promise quality, depth, and insight in the work attached to that page. Oxford’s recent publications in children’s literature have lived up to the promise: the 3rd edition of Only Connect (with all new essays), Peter Hunt’s Children’s Literature: An Illustrated History, and Jill May’s Children’s Literature and Critical Theory: Reading and Writing for Understanding. Now Oxford has published John Goldthwaite’s literary history, The Natural History of Make-Believe: A Guide to the Principal Works of Britain, Europe, and America. This book compromises the Oxford promise in a small way. Goldthwaite is like the little girl with the little curl on her forehead: when he is good he is very very good, but when he is bad he is horrid. When he builds his arguments on solid evidence, his analysis is sharp and insightful, but too often he veers off into baseless speculation and ad hominem attacks on canonical authors. In his introduction Goldthwaite explains that he is writing a literary history of make-believe, which for his purposes consists of nursery rhyme, fairy tale, beast fable, and the modern literature descended from those three genres. He defines make-believe as “miracle stories.” For Goldthwaite, the goal of make-believe is to demonstrate the workings of grace in the world. The book of Proverbs, he claims, is the world’s oldest surviving children’s book—a Hebrew version of Aesop’s Fables that leaves out the stories but retains the morals. The presumed audience of Proverbs is a person addressed as “my son,” which to Goldthwaite suggests a young adult audience being instructed in right behavior. All make-believe descends from Proverbs, thus it is by nature didactic at some level. Children’s literature that comes closest to capturing a kind of numinous harmony, which Goldthwaite terms “allsense,” is the best kind of make-believe. [End Page 288] All three classes of make-believe involve fantasy. Goldthwaite posits four narrative strategems of fantasy that have developed in a loosely chronological manner: open fantasy, in which magic is a natural part of the world, as in fairy tales; circular fantasy, a kind of there-and-back-again narrative that is framed in our natural world but locates the fantastic in a realm beyond; closed fantasy, which is set completely in a Secondary World; and broken fantasy, a postmodern metafictional kind of fantasy that calls attention to its own fictionality. Because of his conviction that the true purpose of make-believe is to exhibit grace at work in the world, Goldthwaite disapproves of closed fantasies such as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings; only a fool or an apostate sets up his or her own creation in competition with God’s. Closed fantasies are merely escapist and cannot project “allsense.” Goldthwaite presents accurate historical facts in his discussions of the literary development of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and beast fables, and he offers intriguing theses about literary influences and connections. For instance, he traces the figure of the feminized Wisdom in the book of Proverbs through Perrault’s fairy godmother to the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio and George MacDonald’s North Wind, arguing that these and similar female characters represent the Holy Spirit. His most persuasive thesis is that all animal fantasy is descended from the Uncle Remus tales; he marshalls a host of credible witnesses to prove this argument. The books discussed in this literary history include both classics and works of popular literature, but the list reflects a Eurocentric and, more specifically, Anglocentric bias. The “Principal Works of Britain, Europe, and America” mentioned in the subtitle comprise one title each from Italy, Finland, Denmark, and Germany; four titles from France; twelve titles from the United States; and thirty-six titles from Britain. (Apparently the only principle work of children’s fantasy published in Germany was the folk-tale collection of the Grimm brothers.) Of course, no single...

Fairy tales rely on conventions that perpetuate heteropatriarchal ideals, which makes this an apt genre for deliberate modification to better represent queer perspectives. This article surveys queer reimaginings of the fairy tale published between 1997 and 2010, identifying several problems with representations of queerness and sexuality in existing literature. This canon often works to distance and marginalise those who do not fit the dominant stereotype of a monosexual identity. Further, the frequent depiction of explicit sexual acts, violent and unhealthy relationships, and inappropriate language has worked to exclude young adult audiences. In this article, I identify a growing but still relatively small field of new queer fairy tale literature directed at young adults since 2015: texts that tend to posit the importance of self-identification. Nuanced representations of queer characters in recent young adult fiction make space for the lived experiences of queer youth and have the potential to influence future queer reimaginings of fairy tales, as well as to challenge heteropatriarchal conventions in other genres.