Reading Fantasy Helps Children in Critical Thinking

In this day and age, all generations, young and old, are bombarded with misinformation, advertisements, and brain rot. Mindlessly scrolling through social media and shorts, avoiding and/or encouraging conflicts and/or separation, marginalization, and hatred. A lack of empathy and literacy has run rampant. But, reading literature, whether fictional or nonfiction, can expand the reader's point of view, offering them the opportunity to learn lessons that would be hard to come across in life. With this, it could affect children and their wild imaginations, along with their simple view of the world and open-mindedness.

But what is literature? Literature is a form of communication and expression. Although non-fiction still does appeal to children, fictional narratives are particularly appealing, offering them exciting works and characters. In the article, Changed by literature? A Critical Review of Psychological Research on the Effects of Reading Fiction, Marco and Thom Van Duuren sourced from John Gibson, "… fiction heightens our awareness of the experiential values that are implicated in our everyday encounters with the world,". This offers an explanation as to how fiction improves our values towards the world around us and with people. Picture books, although generally tailored to young children's fiction, could introduce children to taboos like death and climate change, which could be considered a highly negative thing. García González and Macarena offer an example from The Color Monster, explaining the concept it uses to “[propose] a narrative about emotions in which recognizing them is linked to separating and containing them, and even possibly repressing them”. Proceeding to explain the importance of positive effect exposure to other cultures are to children, Rebecca A. Dore, Eric D. Smith, and Angeline S. Lillard explored how children would or wouldn’t adopt traits from their stories’ characters and how well they absorbed information.

In my own life, I experienced reading a taboo of sorts in the first books I’ve ever read within the Wings of Fire series, starting with one of its most shocking books, Wings of fire Legends: Darkstalker. It was entertaining for me due to how much more mature it was written compared to the previous books I had read at the time, and considering that it had dragons in it, I was sold. It used more complicated words and word-building, and I could recall most of the aspects of the book even well after a decade of not reading it. The book introduced me to complicated themes such as: What defines evil? Are we ever able to prevent bad things happening in the future? What is destiny? How does greed and power affect someone in their youth? Though murder is not a complicated theme per sé, these books introduced me to how a foolish mind could react to said power bestowed to them. Of course, I don’t think about doomsday or death every day, but it challenged my prior knowledge and gave me interest in delving deeper into what makes a character or person what they are in modern day.

Absorbing the information from their stories is a major part of a child’s development, increasing with a reward once the word is known, leading the children to reflect and grow their understanding about a subject on their own. It proves to be helpful for learning new concepts like natural selection, problem-solving, and new words. Though it does depend on information to be supplied, the alternative is brain rot. As Dore and company put it: “children paid more attention to the narrative after hearing [“Now I’m going to tell you something really important”], interesting them in a desire to pay attention to something important.”

Though children may adopt stereotypical views on things depending on what narrative they consume, Dore’s studies mention how distinct traits shown in a character could give the child the behavior to act more like the character that is stereotypically expressed. Yet children can still grow empathy despite the stereotypes that they might read or experience in their media (especially when there are so many books with diverse messages and characters) it should be a social agent according to González, “They relate this “safeness' to an art of hospitality, to a certain power of books in producing comfort, conversations, and meaningful ways of caring for each other.” (134). Yet, it is incredibly important for books to contain diversity, whether in race, culture, or experiences, with it being suggested that “children are more affected by the characters’ traits rather than their gender.” (Dore,12).

 Though with so many aspects to reading fiction, should children focus on it? Reading requires one to immerse themselves in the story or research and be able to “memorize terminology they never knew before” (Astreid, 263). This usually occurs when the children are highly engaged in a narrative (Dore 12). With how much children can learn from this, it should be clear that focusing on reading fiction is not a bad idea. Children also improve their own writing and creativity when they read more often, as observed in Astreid’s study. Becoming engrossed in a story encourages the use of local wisdom, to entertain, improve vocabulary, and grow in self-confidence. (Damayanti, 270).

In my own experience, reading fiction has encouraged me to do harder work. It’s inspired me to become more literate when I read. I can still recall the first book I ever invested in, where I learned lots of vocabulary and animals I wouldn’t have known about at my age. I found Dore’s findings relatable, where “local wisdom inserted in material will build character such as discipline, creativity, struggle, [and] being honest…” (Dore 270). As I drew inspiration from books such as Way of Kings I related to one of the main characters, Kaladin, who endures incredible hardships like slavery, banishment, deaths, and so many other hardships. He inspired me to endure and show more compassion and will for others, even though Kaladin certainly did not show much compassion for those he didn’t like. I was able to relate to the other characters similarly; it was rare that I found books I could grow inspired by and grow.

In particular, the local wisdom displayed in stories can create a closer connection to the reader. Especially when learning something new, children are generally more inclined to interact or analyze their readings easier in school settings and grow extra more familiar with the taught material. Dore found that “more than 50% of students thought local wisdom story stimulated their curiosity, enhanced reading skill, enriched vocabulary, enlarged knowledge and also motivated them to learn fiction.”

The dynamic between local culture and fictional writing creates a distinct connection between the reader and the writer. If the writer is successful in their writing, then they could possibly encourage children or those who have only a slight connection to the local culture to dive deeper into their history and cultures.

Should children be encouraged to focus their efforts on reading fictional stories? Absolutely, as it encourages children to grow more empathetic, knowledgeable, literate, and creative. Being able to understand other cultures and points of view from a young age will help them to grow up to as Dore put it, “[enhancing] the students’ reading, developing their vocabulary mastery and providing several components to be analyzed,” (Dore 271). The more one reads books, the easier it becomes to read even the most agonizingly dull things like textbooks.

In conclusion, children will grow more literate as they read and grow. By finding more outlets for their curiosity and creativity, children gain the opportunity to learn about the values that others hold.

Sources:

Anežka Kuzmičová, et al. “Children’s Perspectives on Being Absorbed When Reading Fiction: A Q Methodology Study.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 13, Oct. 2022. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.columbiabasin.idm.oclc.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.966820.

Astried Damayanti, et al. “Local Wisdom Story to Teach Extensive Reading on Fiction.” JEELS (Journal of English Education and Linguistics Studies), vol. 11, no. 1, Apr. 2024, pp. 261–75. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.columbiabasin.idm.oclc.org/10.30762/jeels.v11i1.2660.

Caracciolo, Marco, and Thom Van Duuren. “Changed by Literature? A Critical Review of Psychological Research on the Effects of Reading Fiction.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, vol. 17, no. 4, 2015, pp. 517–39. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5325/intelitestud.17.4.0517. Accessed 26 Nov. 2025.

García-González, Macarena. The Borders of Empathy in Children’s Fiction. Taylor & Francis, 2025. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.columbiabasin.idm.oclc.org/10.4324/9781003522225.

Dore, Rebecca A., et al. “Children Adopt the Traits of Characters in a Narrative.” Grantee Submission, vol. 2017, Jan. 2017. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.columbiabasin.idm.oclc.org/10.1155/2017/6838079.