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.
About 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.