Why reading fiction should be prioritised among children!

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“You should read stories of real-life heroes and get inspired from the same, fiction is imaginary and is a sheer waste of time.”

One of the few things we have heard while reading a magical book of our choice. The way people get engrossed with day-to-day situations makes us feel that enjoying some time might be illegal. But, how far is it right to push children into the same sphere? Often we come across parents or guardians who strictly restrict their children to autobiography books of freedom fighters or bizarrely intelligent men around the globe, it’s not the worst-case scenario but things need to be balanced for their growth.

Children or teenagers are fascinated or most appropriately in complete awe of the perspectives and ideas different from the ones in front of their eyes. “Avada Kedavra?” Tell me honestly, what came into your mind, none other than the wizardry world of Harry Potter. But, what if I tell you that the visuals you see through your screen are just a bare minimum of what you would imagine if your mind is engulfed with the texts describing the vast arena of that unseen world. The more books you read, the more reaction pulsates your brain to be much more creative. From creatures of mythology, pointed ear faes to defeating blood demons with the power of your wings, fiction takes you through the world you haven’t seen but definitely, you live in that world through the lines of the book. People tend to realize the significance of fiction books at a later stage in life where one needs to be creative not just with your ideas but play with the words too.

Let’s go through the journey to know how fiction helps an individual:

You become naturally creative

No one can emphasize enough this point, your creativity just levels up in comparison to your peers. You imagine things that are unrealistic but derive basic realistic expressions through these ideas. When you start writing a piece of content your creativity flows naturally and you need not push your thoughts vigorously to complete your perspective.

Learn to play around with words

Your vocabulary improves with time because when one reads a book, one is attentive throughout else you might miss the plot! (And, buddy who wants that?) Through this process, the words we read subconsciously get imprinted on our mind, maybe not a hundred of them but definitely a twenty, I bet! If one practice integrating these words in regular life, you improve your overall performance and the impact it creates cannot be measured.

Yes, you might be a grammar nazi

It becomes a bit frustrating at times, but your inner-soul would not be able to ignore those silly grammar mistakes you see around yourself. Even if you manage to ignore the verbal ones at times, a page with written blunders is the perfect poison to kill you. Just try to hold onto yourself a bit.

Trains you to control emotions

When you are emersed in reading while one character will be able to catch your heart, there will be numerous others who will push you to just throw around things. But you got to control yourself because “a water king with the tail of the whale” cannot just be killed with your exterior actions, and here, you await the hero to take over the job and you travel each step of the journey with him. You learn to control your thoughts, action, and emotions in accordance with the character development indirectly prepping up for the real world.

Just for the sake of happiness and health benefits

Sometimes without thinking of any logical reason you should indulge yourself in the world of fiction and other aspects might fall in line one after the other. Reading fiction will relax your mind as it traverses through the lanes where the character eloped, build your universe instead of the world, and take it easy for a while. With time it improves your sleep schedule, as well as your thoughts, are organized and aligned with your goals.

Your imaginary friends help you

As far as this point might seem vague to most of the people who will point out the importance of making real human friends, at times this cannot be helped. Children who go through trauma, irreversible situations, or live in an unfriendly environment tend to put up barriers closing off the valves of the emotional part of the brain. Here, fictions books play a pivotal role in supporting them in difficult times. They find a friend or a similar character to empathize with running along with their steps and realizing that their emotions are valid equally and they should speak up, for there is always an ear to hear.

Creativity cannot be stamped or tattooed onto a person’s humane self, one needs to cultivate it gradually over time for at instances you look through and use one of the grains, which then reaps as a whole. It cannot be pushed out from the minds of people be it writing the inevitable thoughts of the sea maiden awaiting the boatman for a century or the satirical wicked taunt of the lead character to the villain. You need to let the child wander into the unknown, for each time they stumble upon they learn to raise on their own may be holding the hands onto the long branches of the tree they read about the other day. (Check out the books by Inkfeathers at the Inkfeathers Bookstore, click here .)

About the Writer

Preeyashree Mallick, Blog Writer, Inkfeathers Publishing

Connect with her on Linkedin, here.

A finance under-grad from XIMB who isn’t fine with just ‘finance’ and is a ‘crazy content writer’ helping brands connect with the audience using punny language!