Storybook Worlds Made Real: Essays on the Places Inspired by Children's Narratives ed. by Kathy Merlock Jackson and Mark I. West (review)

Any of us Fairytale and Fantasy aficionados know how well these tales burn into our hearts and provide us with countless hours of daydreaming material, but it is the potential of greatness that these stories open up for our often times limited waking life. Storybook worlds, as much as they are for our own nostalgia and connection to a natural world, serve as a money-making machine for industries that prey upon the scarcity of these literary spaces. With this book being released during a pandemic era, the impeccable timing allows for readers who have grown comfortable within the four walls of their home to travel through worlds that have been inaccessible during lockdowns and quarantines. The book allows for a strong sense of living vicariously through the eyes of the authors in the collections and takes readers through a journey of reflection and adventure that has simply not been an option for many of us post COVID-19. There is something for every reader in this collection, and in many ways some of the essays in this collection highlight the risk of these beautiful worlds being made into a media entity so far removed from the stories that taught empathy for all life, meaningful contemplation, and a deep respect for the natural world around us.