Jackie French, amazing and popular Australian author of many books which include children's historic ones, said "History can give kids a sense of empowerment and perspective." History, to Jackie, "gives us a sense of being part of that great continuum". She was referring to the time when several generations lived together, when children could see more easily the pattern of life.

Myths and legends, particularly from the Greeks, have provided a large number of traditional stories for thousands of years.Some of these traditional fables are the foundations for modern movie characters. A small number of them have even been found to be based on facts, but they are rich in content no matter what their source.

 

What we know as the written fairy tale didn't come about until the 17th century, when French writers created this form to entertain  middle class adults who were becoming more literate. Australia copied these fairy stories rather feebly until the 1900s when Ethel Pedley wrote Dot and the Kangaroo and May Gibbs created her delightful gumnut babies and wicked Banksia men in Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. These were far more appealing and successful in this country and enchanting to young and old alike. 

     

Both these types of stories provide an educational insight into the past, while at the same time supplying a beautiful landscape of allusion into another world which is particularly exciting to children. Fairies, unicorns, damsels in distress from dragons as knights come to their rescue, all make for exciting, enjoyable escapes for any child, but particularly those with a white European heritage. 

Sometimes the stories can almost seem spiritual, like the wonderful Australian Aboriginal  stories of the Dreamtime or Dreaming, and the native American Indians legends and folklore, although the fairy stories or fables are not usually about our beginnings as the Aboriginal and Natives' ones are, nor part of our beliefs, but just a 'good yarn'.