Last summer I read a book called The Case for Make-Believe, by Susan Linn.  The book was about how important imaginative play is for kids in today’s world, with its increasingly commercialized messages.

For instance, the book talked about how so many little girls are lured into prescribed princess fantasies by Disney’s Princess line of merchandise, and how boys are limited in their play by what they see in, say, Star Wars movies.  In both cases, having prescribed scripts for play only serves to limit children’s imaginations.

The message of The Case for Make-Believe is that we should limit the so-called interactive toys that we buy for kids — for instance, toys that speak or do other interesting tricks — because this limits how a kid can play with the toy, thereby limiting their imagination in the process.  Linn says that the best toy is only 10 percent toy, and 90 percent imagination.  Therefore, kid and baby toys that encourage kids to “fill in the gaps,” so to speak, with their imaginations are better toys than those that talk, cry, move, etc.

This is a fantastic book for anyone who is interesting in improving the quality of their children’s play and combating the ill effects of commercialization.

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