OF MAGIC AND MAKE BELIEVE STORIES

By Ichu Isla-Arcan

When I was a little girl, my mom bought me books which were made of not book paper but of very
thick and hard cardboard. They were about 10 pagers of colorful pictures of princes and princesses
and fairies. I learned to read through these books and they made me dream of a happily ever after
someday. My mom called these books fairy tales.

I realized that apart from reading, fairy tales taught me how to be a good person and most of all,
they taught me how to dream. The stories of Snow White and Cinderella showed me that a person
with a good heart will always win. The Frog Prince said it is not good to use people and not keeping
promises. Not to judge a book by its cover is what The Ugly Duckling was all about and I was
very much amazed by how beautiful the duckling truly was when it turned into a swan.

Countless stories of enchantment and fairies have been made into books and even movies that
children really look forward to bedtime story telling time with mom or dad. There have even been
different versions of each tale of magic and make believe.

I have often thought that even when they are make believe, fairy tales actually tell children of real
life situations made only magical by a “never unhappy ending.” Each fairy tale tells us that
everything is perfect. This is not actually meant to deceive but to let children think that life is truly
beautiful and worth all the magic.