Have you ever wondered what’s so great about children’s fantasy? Have you ever asked, Why bother writing or reading about stuff that isn’t real? Have you ever had some strange imagination-less person ask you one of these questions? L. Frank Baum gave us the answer in his introduction to the 1903 edition of The Magical Monarch of Mo. No better words were ever said.

“This book has been written for children. I have no shame in acknowledging that I, who wrote it, am also a child; for since I can remember my eyes have always grown big at tales of the marvelous, and my heart is still accustomed to go pit-a-pat when I read of impossible adventures. It is the nature of children to scorn realities, which crowd into their lives all too quickly with advancing years. Childhood is the time for fables, for dreams, for joy.

“These stories are not true; they could not be true and be so marvelous. No one is expected to believe them; they were meant to excite laughter and to gladden the heart.

“Perhaps some of these big, grown-up people will poke fun at us—at you for reading these nonsense tales of the Magical Monarch, and at me for writing them. Never mind. Many of the big folk are still children—even as you and I. We can not measure a child by a standard of size or age. The big folk who are children will be our comrades; the others we need not consider at all, for they are self-exiled from our domain.”

L. Frank Baum. June 1903.