A kindergartener’s line—“She had salty lollipops”—opened a new window into how children make meaning. Drawing on the Artist-in-Residence Reading Project, this post proposes dreams as a natural form of literature and a living root of literacy. It shares how children illustrated, told, and acted dreams to build symbol-making, voice, and trust.
When I asked a kindergartener in one of my literacy workshops how she knew the witch in her dream was mean, she softly replied, “She had salty lollipops.”
That moment changed how I understood imagination and symbol making.
In the 1970s, while leading the Artist-in-Residence Reading Project in inner-city Los Angeles, I began to explore dreams as a natural form of literature, and the children loved to share.
I had noticed that when I wrote well, it felt like dreaming.
When I read deeplyl, the same.
Imagination—not memorization—was an important key to engagement and comprehension.
As a children’s writer, I wanted to understand the stories already forming inside kids—their spontaneous, inner literature.
My task was twofold: to give them stories, and to help them trust their own.
From moments like that one, we created a Dream as Natural Literature Curriculum where children explored their imaginations as one foundation of literacy.
Children told, illustrated, and acted out their dreams.
It wasn’t something to memorize—it was an inner world to explore.
One small discovery: before sharing, we had each child illustrate their dream. That visual step helped them externalize their thinking and preserve originality before hearing others.
Dreams remind us that imagination and literacy spring from the same deep source: our human capacity to build meaning through symbol and story.
Even now, as AI offers new ways to explore dreams, I remember that child who met a witch who offered her salty lollipops—proof that before algorithms, scrolls, or books, our imaginations were already eloquent.
Try inviting your students to share their dreams, stories, or imagined worlds. You may find, as I did, that imagination isn’t just an add-on to literacy—it’s the living root.
Jon Madian is a poet, educator, curriculum designer and psychologist focused on integrating imagination and literacy for identity.
What a 5-year-old taught me about imagination and literacy
Jon Madian
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November 04, 2025
| Post Type: Short Posts
Drawing on a kindergartener’s dream image and an arts-based literacy project, this post argues imagination is a living root of literacy, helping children build voice, symbols, trust, and meaning.