ABSTRACT
In Helicopter Stories, the child wants to tell as much as people want to listen. In the world today, children are largely powerless. When they dictate a story, a child visits a realm where they have control. Telling stories gives them power. It is their chance to put their mark on the world. A child chooses which characters or situations to include in their stories and which ones to leave out. The creative way young children tell their stories, their brevity with words often provides depth and pathos that wordier writing might miss. Any good writing course will say that one of the critical ingredients to make a story connect with people is by having a great opening line. Until the mid-1970s, when the first (MRI) magnetic resonance imaging machines were introduced, the primary way to study the brain was by removing it after somebody had died.
