The Boy on the Beach by Vivian Gussin Paley is an exceptional book that takes a unique perspective on children’s play and makes a significant contribution to the early childhood sector, particularly in understanding children’s play from a compassionate and humane perspective.  The book is written by the widely acclaimed author Vivian Gussin Paley. Paley is an experienced kindergarten teacher and an early childhood education researcher, particularly well known for her exploration of the field of storytelling and fantasy play.

The book comprises of nineteen chapters and, interestingly, is punctuated with correspondence between the author and her pen pal, a teacher from Taiwan, who comments on her stories and contributes to the storyline by sharing her observations of children’s play in preschool classrooms.

In the opening chapter, while observing one child’s solitary play on the beach, the author notes the boy taking on different roles – a fireman, a lifeguard, a father, and a “surfer seeking a perfect wave” (p. 8). These roles bring him on a journey of freedom, giving him the agency to make his own choices and revel in the changing roles he has embraced. The author sets up the tone for the following chapters to unfold noting, “I want to know why children play as they do” (p. 3). The boy, Eli is later joined by a girl named Marianne, both of whom the author will return to later during her observation of a kindergarten classroom.

The following chapters represent a mix of observations of children’s play, as their powerful imaginations create fantastic “scenes of hurricanes, howling wolves and butterfly sisters…” (p. 60). As the writer relays this to her pen pal in Taiwan, they engage in a critical analysis of the children’s play whilst also introducing the perspectives of other teachers. What is notable throughout these recounts is the author’s respect for the children and their stories, whether it draws in the whole room of children or the focus is on the child playing alone. Throughout the book, the reader is provided with vivid descriptions of the children’s play, the imaginative and colourful characters, and the way in which the children view the experience as being both joyful and very serious. Through these narrations, the writer reveals the mystery of play.

While the writer recognises the power of the children’s imagination, the role of the teacher in facilitating and extending children’s play is an important theme for practitioners to note. In particular, the tension between teachers providing children space to explore whilst recognising opportune moments to intervene to both support and scaffold the children in their constructions. This question becomes particularly relevant when children attempt to resolve their own narrative conflicts and problem-solve ways to include their friends in their stories.

Reflecting a deeply humane and compassionate image of the child that is a motif throughout Paley’s books, the author introduces the idea of “creative kindness” and ‘finding a new way of being a friend as a supreme act of kindness” (p. 58). Paley’s focus during the observations is seeing and interpreting children’s subjectivity, their emotions, feelings and thoughts, as well as their reasons for changing roles, creating new characters and inviting (or not) others into their play world. The reader is reminded that adult judgments and perceptions of childhood experiences may not necessarily match children’s intentions and their play outcome. One of the curious examples of this is described in Chapter Seventeen where children pretend to be wild animals: “Oddly enough, both children, with their growls and roars, along with the less threatening meowing kittens, barking dogs, and buzzing bees, somehow humanize the classroom”. Reminding the reader of the significance of a child-centred perspective, Paley notes that “[c]learly, children hear the sounds in a classroom differently than we do” (p. 84).

One of the professed aims of this book is not to offer answers or invite academic debate related to children’s play, but to celebrate and honour children’s unbounded imagination that permeates their everyday experiences. The author’s initial question – why do children play the way they do – is answered by the child in the concluding chapter: “Because we are friends of everybody in the story”, and, added by Paley herself, “And when you tell someone your story, that person enters the story and becomes your friend too” (p. 90). This is an important book for practitioners for extending children’s literacy in fun, practical and ethical ways.

References

• Paley, V. G., (2010). The boy on the beach: Building community through play. University of Chicago Press.