Child language is a subject in which everyone is an expert. All parents study their children's language carefully, if undeliberately, and every family has its precious memories of the unique verbal improvisations of childhood. For writers who continually struggle with and revel in the mysteries of language, the language of children holds a special attraction.
Everyday Magic looks at the way Canadian writers have written through, as distinct from for or about, children, at the ways they have used 'child language' and children's models of perception to achieve various literary effects. It describes how texts might be shaped by child usage and speculates that adult artists often find themselves surprised and informed by the child language they seek to create.