Fairies, Magic, Innocence, Wonderment, Joy

Bruce Coville’s introduction to ‘A Glory of
Unicorns’ states that ‘Unicorns represent
something lost, the ancient wonder of the
natural world, a sense of delight hard to
hold in modern times’

‘A longing for purity, memories of magic, a need
to recover innocence, unicorns carrying hopes
of healing, promises of grace’ – giving me
hope that I was on the right track in my
quest to revive trust in

Fairies, magic, innocence, wonderment, joy and
happiness; I studied grown-up books in my youth,
deeply shocked, ashamed about the state of the
world, deciding to give up on life, until returning
to children’s books

Enchantment, beauty and magic filling my life -
realizing the innocence we grew up without was
mine for the taking - the world is an artwork
in the making, we decide what to put in and
leave out – immediately reinstating

Alice in Wonderland, Tom’s Midnight Garden,
Thomasina, Love of Seven Dolls, The Secret
Garden, Pollyanna, The Little Princess – some
I got to know when I was already older than
twenty-five - trained

In the sadness of Western philosophy – a new
world of magic that I missed as a child became
mine; maybe all kids should read grown-up books
before tackling the eternal beauty and value of
children’s books, choosing their own values

The nature-versus-nurture argument have been
successfully solved by my having a twin sister
who, exposed to the same influences, made
different choices by predisposition, an inner
force guiding our steps

In opposite directions – if kids discovered values
for themselves according to natural predilection,
they would be faithful and true without coercion,
if they were taught to trust natural instincts, they
would choose positive things

Being forced into another’s choices, their instincts
squashed, there are left bereft without an internal
gyroscope, this is why so many criminals are
walking out there, they lost the ability to feel
for themselves what is

The difference between right and wrong…

Bruce Coville 'A Glory of Unicorns’ Scholastic Inc. 1998
Introduction: ‘A Gathering, a Glory’ p.viii