Seeing Past Z: Nurturing the Imagination in a Fast-Forward World - Tapa dura

As good parents we tend to think exhaustively about our children, even when we know that thinking is not enough. Beth Kephart illuminates how the stories we tell one another enable us to feel with-and for-our kids. We've been entrusted with the bright fires of imagination; words are our fuel. Thanks to Beth and her son Jeremy for making the soul sparks fly in my household once again.--Alyson Hagy, author of Keeneland and Graveyard of the Atlantic

In gorgeous prose and through personal stories, Beth Kephart resoundingly affirms the imagination as the heart of our ability to empathize with others, to appreciate the world, and to envision possibilities for the future. The star of her story is once again her son, Jeremy (as in her National Book Award-nominated A Slant of Sun), now fourteen years old--a child who at first resists storytelling, preferring more objective and orderly pursuits, but later leads a neighborhood book club/writing group and aspires to follow Steven Spielberg into moviemaking. Embedded in the text and appendices are examples of how to inspire children to read, write, and dream.