A programme for children under five
Today Daphne Oxenford-' Dappy Oxon ' to one small listener in difficulties with the name-returns to the microphone to begin her second month as storyteller for our under-fives. One day this week she will tell again Ruth Simonis' story called ' The Foghorn.' This story of a ship's foghorn, which caught a cold, was a great favourite when she told it before, and many children have been eagerly waiting to hear it again. We agree with the children that it is a good story. It is about ships, and how many children, particularly boys, can resist that appeal? Then there are Daphne Oxenford's siren noises to be enjoyed, and, no doubt, imitated. And there are the emotional satisfactions of the tale-its kindly atmosphere, for example, and the fact that it is a little boy who finds out what is the matter and effects a cure. Thus Jim becomes a hero, and in imagination the listeners themselves can become Jim-and it is not unimportant for small children that they should feel useful and important in a world where they are often aware of, and frustrated by, their own limitations.
Elizabeth A. Taylor