Special Storytelling Helps Kids

Annie Stories by Doris Brett (Workman Publishing; paper, $5.95).

Bedtime stories may be a lost art in many American families, but their importance as a psychological tool should not be overlooked. However, many books written for young children today often seem namby-pamby, while the “classical” fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen, with their scary plots and supernatural happenings, could well inspire nightmares.

Clinical psychologist Doris Brett has developed a “special kind of storytelling” that evolved from stories she told to her daughter, Amantha, to overcome the child’s irrational fear of a neighbor’s dog. Later she turned to other problems. Each story begins with the reassuring phrase: “Annie was a little girl who lived in a brown brick house with her mommy and daddy and a big black dog.” Readers are urged to substitute their children’s names, or approximations, and vary details in order to make the story relevant.

Brett casts Annie in stories suitable for children 4-8. The episodes show her overcoming nightmares and bad dreams, coping with a new baby’s arrival, understanding and accepting a beloved aunt’s death, and finally, dealing with physical pain and hospital visits.

And Brett’s keen ear for realistic dialogue makes for honesty and touches of humor.

Meaningful stories, Brett emphasizes, serve as a safety valve. A child can find relief from fears, achieve a sense of relaxation and find means of “exploring different feelings about an event.”

The child learns that though the world isn’t perfect, things generally turn out all right. Brett, in her intelligent series of fables for our time, strikes just the right note.