Winter Magic: A Spellbinding Collection of Christmas Animal Tales

A child has difficulty with, say, the idea that an oak is both an oak and a tree; he or she may well assume that in that case "tree" is a word for collection of oaks. The idea, then, that Big Bird no longer wants to be called Big Bird but instead wants to be called Roy is almost guaranteed to befuddle a preschooler. How can someone with one name decide to have another name? Big Bird is saying that Big Bird is merely a descriptive name of the type of animal he is, and that he wants a particular name. He doesn't want to be a tree. He wants to be an oak. But three- and four-year-olds don't understand that a tree can also be an oak. To the extent that they understand what is going on at all, they probably think that Big Bird is trying to change into something else — into some other kind of animal, or some other collection of animals. And how could he do that? There's a deeper problem. Sesame Street is a magazine show. A typical show consists of at least forty distinct segments, none more than about three minutes — street scenes with the actors and Muppets, animation, and short films from outside the studio ...»