There is a specific kind of magic that happens at bedtime. The lights go down, the world gets quiet, and for a few minutes, anything is possible.

I’ve loved fairy tales and fantasy adventures since I was a little girl growing up in Israel. Back then, my friends and I didn’t wait for a prince to show up. We were too busy dreaming up our own adventures in the orange groves near Petah Tikvah. But as a mom, I started to notice a gap in the stories we read. Too often, the girls were waiting to be saved while the boys were expected to be fearless alone.

I wanted something different. I wanted stories where bravery is a team sport and kindness is a superpower available to everyone.

As psychologist Bruno Bettelheim argued, stories are the primary way children make sense of the world and their place within........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)