The Brightening Glance Imagination and Childhood by Ellen Handler Spitz
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Book Description

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.

About the Author

Ellen Handler Spitz, Ph.D.

Ellen Handler Spitz is a professor in the Honors College and Department of Visual Arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The author of Inside Picture Books, she has written and lectured extensively on children's aesthetic and psychological development. A visual artist and dancer, she has taught at Columbia, Stanford, and New York University, among other academic institutions.

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