This book had a lot of interesting things to say about animals especially. Although the staunch atheistic and sometimes even anti-Christian point of view disappointed me there is still a lot to recommend in this analysis of animals, fantasy, and children's literature. Le Guin is consistently an excellent, personably writer with a unique perspective that, I believe, accurately reflects the thoughts of many readers of SF&F. ( )

Very interesting thoughts on writing fantasy. ( )

Wait? What? Me giving another five star rating to a book by Ursula K. Le Guin? You're all surprised, aren't you?

If you have the slightest interest in fantasy or Young Adult literature, don't let my vaunted fannishness get in the way of reading this book. It's a masterpiece of cogent analysis, of wise observation, of deep and abiding love and respect for the classic works of what Le Guin insists on calling Kiddilit. She touches on some of my own favorites here, including works by Kipling, Tolkien, Anna Sewell and Felix Salten.

She also discourses in an entirely satisfactory fashion about the evolution of the Earthsea Cycle.

It's a wonderful book, made more wonderful by the authorial voice. A few quotes:

"The Jungle Books contain stories that one may read happily at ten and understand with a hard jolt at forty-five."

"But careless reading of carefully written fantasy will not only miss nuance, it will miss the whole nature and quality of the work."

( )

This was more like a quick skim than a read when I discovered it was due and on hold by someone else. It is a book of essays about fantasy. I enjoy Le Guin's essays very much. I've read some of her other books of essays with similar subject matter, and found this one enjoyable as well as a good source of information. It mostly seems to deal with the lack of serious criticism given to fantasy since it was relegated to a status of being for children. It included a longish essay about animal tales - which made me want to read Bambi, apparently very different from the Disney version. That is the one I remember, but she also mentioned other books that I had not heard of before that sounded good. Among the books she mentioned were some by Kipling, The Jungle Book of which I've read at least part - maybe only Riki tiki tavi, Just So Stories, which I haven't and Kim which I haven't. She was decrying that these books are treated by critics/scholars as not worthy of the consideration given to his "adult" works. She especially holds Kim in high regard and I want to read it now. ( )