SOURCE: Illick, Joseph E. “Telling Another Fairy Tale.” New Leader 73, no. 6 (16 April 1990): 20-1.

In the following review, Illick finds shortcomings in Lurie's generalized view of children's literature and lack of historical perspective in Don't Tell the Grown-Ups.

The most intriguing book on children's literature is Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment (1976). Arguing that an acquaintanceship with literature can give meaning to children's lives—not just any literature, not myths of superhuman feats or moralistic fables, but fairy tales that capture human development in symbolic terms—Bettelheim conveys the message evident throughout his writings: Life is a struggle (in the case of the child, a struggle to organize the chaotic unconscious) that can be won. For a youngster, who must win victory at the unconscious level without parental intrusion, fairy tales provide a means of gaining mastery over emotional turmoil and growing toward the achievement of rational decision-making.

The...