Why In The World Are We Here? is not an ordinary children’s picture book. It is a philosophical text focused on raising questions about how values and beliefs give our lives meaning.
View what the author has to say about bringing ‘philosophy and magic’ to children in the following video. Just to be clear, though, her opinions do no ‘nail-down’ the purpose and meaning of the book. If we were to claim so, literary experts would say we would be committing an intentional fallacy.
(in literary theory) the fallacy of basing an assessment of a literary work on the author’s intention rather than on one’s response to the actual work.
Instead, we want Clare’s viewpoint about her work to be part of the conversations we have with parents, teachers and young people. In them, we can share where our past journeys have led us and where future journeys have yet to go.