Metafiction for Preschoolers

Been doing a lot of story-reading at bed time these days, and it strikes me that Grant Morrison is considered a genius, in part, for breaking the fourth wall and inserting a metafictional component into his comics like Animal Man and Invisibles. Meanwhile, thanks to Jon Stone and Liz Smollin, we’ve been feeding the same concepts to four-year-olds for years in The Monster at the End of This Book. The whole story relies on the main character realizing that he is a character contained within the physical object of a book and trying to interact with the world of the reader. Deep stuff, man.

And an excuse to read with funny voices.

Author: Dave Thomer

Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.