You Can't Say You Can't Play

By Vivian Gussin Paley,

Book cover of You Can't Say You Can't Play

Book description

Who of us cannot remember the pain and humiliation of being rejected by our classmates? However thick-skinned or immune to such assaults we may become as adults, the memory of those early exclusions is as palpable to each of us today as it is common to human experience. We remember…

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Why read it?

1 author picked You Can't Say You Can't Play as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Vivian Paley was the only classroom teacher to win a Macarthur “genius” grant.

Her particular genius was deeply understanding the inner life of young children, and creating innovative ways for them to reveal and explore that inner life.

She listened carefully to children, told stories to reach them at the heart, and encouraged them to share their stories and act them out.

It was hard to pick one book by Paley to highlight, since I also loved her respect for children’s dramatic play in Molly is Three and Bad Guys Don’t Have Birthdays, and I loved her recognition of…

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