Inventing Imaginary Worlds: From Childhood Play to Adult Creativity Across the Arts and Sciences

Michelle Root-Bernstein's Inventing Imaginary Worlds is such a valuable book. Root-Bernstein has spent thoughtful and comprehensive time exploring a side of creativity not often examined - the frequency with which children and adults create remarkably complex parallel worlds to explore their ideas, dreams and experiences unencumbered by what the world around them dictates as the approved way to think and imagine. While Root-Bernstien is a careful researcher and at spends good chunks of the book digging into the 'proof' supporting her obervations, her writing in general is accessible and indeed at times beautiful, especially for a book that is likely to be narrowly shelved in the more academic section. It's well worth the read and more, the added thought about the broad implications of what she is sharing.

Imaginary play, often ignored in today’s emphasis on science and technology, is another process of learning. Root-Bernstein’s book shows how many of our most creative scientists and artists were making up expansive imaginary worlds when young, complete with landscapes, inhabitants, languages, history, and rules of behavior. This childhood wordplay lasts a long time and involves all sorts of creative strategies—problem solving, cultural components, training in craft or discipline, often which evolve in later work. These imaginary worlds can persist for long periods of time. Unlike many short-term games with a winner take all mentality, the creators have to work things out within the rules they have made.This worldplay is usually a private event that is seldom talked about when children become adults: yet often has proved to be seminal experiences for their adult lives. Root-Bernstein’s research has brought many of these worlds to light, demonstrating their value. The book also contains an appendix listing the childhood worlds of many productive people. She clearly shows how varied and useful their adult lives have become. In this day of stress on testing on small components of curriculum, it is a joy to see a book that validates childhood imagination. Know it is okay to let children play “outside the box.”