Introduction

Abstract

To heavily paraphrase Wallace Stevens, we might begin by saying that among sundry chilly psycholinguistic analyses, the only moving thing was the sparkle of the children’s narratives. We hope that our readers, too, will not be so overcome by the pains-taking details of our three analyses that they lose sight of the fresh­ness, the creativity, the unpredictability, the amusement, the raw edge of ordinary life to be found in the children’s narratives that are the basis of this book.