Secret Spaces of Childhood

Rating:
Summary: Captivating reflections on childhood & imagination
Review: First, a bit about the book:
"Secret Spaces of Childhood" presents essays, poems, artwork, short stories, and memoirs dealing with the secret mental lives of children--how, as children, we all create or seek out secret places, and how memories of those spaces stay with us and shape us as adults. A "secret space" can be an actual physical place (a treehouse, a fort made of blankets, the woods behind school, etc.) or a mental escape (reading, play-acting, imaginary friendships). Children seek out these spaces for any number of reasons, from the usual motivators of curiosity and mental development, to more practical reasons of self-protection (such as escaping violence in the home or bullying at school). Some of the book's contributing authors tell their own stories of childhood, and some write about the idea of secret spaces and the importance of secret spaces from a more academic or theoretical standpoint. With such renowned contributors as novelists Joyce Carol Oates and Jim Harrison, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, poet Philip Levine, and children's author/artist Gerald McDermott, the book is a treasure-trove of thoughtful and thought-provoking pieces.

Next, my reaction:
I could not put this book down. I read it in one sitting. It was absolutely riveting! Each time I read one author's story, I was transported to my own childhood, and I thought about how my mental and physical world when I was a kid compared to the one described in the story or essay. So many memories (both happy and sad) returned to me as I read the book, thoughts that might never have been evoked without the gentle prompting of the pieces in this anthology.

One of the most important aspects of the book is its discussion (from many angles) of the inherent vulnerability of children. All over the world, children are subjected to domestic violence, war, random predatory assaults by strangers, poverty, and environmental destruction. This last point--the effects of commercial & industrial development on the physical landscape--was especially interesting to me. As adults we acquire views (pro or con) about saving, say...the rainforest and the Arctic wildlife refuge--views that are informed by politics, economics, and various other ideologies. But for a child, when a previously untouched landscape is developed, it makes the child's world smaller. It is one less place the child can explore, escape to, inhabit. The impact of a shrinking physical landscape on a child's life can be dramatic and dire--especially for children whose psychological or physical safety is at risk to begin with, in situations of abuse, neglect, war, or poverty.

It's bad enough to think of endangered species that are displaced or made extinct by human endeavors, but suddenly to realize that children are a kind of endangered species, too--one that we are failing to protect in so many ways--is sobering.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who cares about children, has children, knows children, or remembers being a child. Perhaps more importantly, for anyone who has forgotten what it was like to be a child. The selections are at turns funny, poignant, sad, light-hearted, and disturbing. This is a very important book, one whose ideas will stay with you long after you've finished reading.