Real
Technical and Analytical Readings
- Anthony D. Pellegrini and Peter E. Nathan, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the Development of Play (Oxford University Press, 2010).
- Dorothy Singer, RobertaMichnik Golinkoff and Kath Hirsh Pasick,Play = Learning : How Play Enhances Children's Cognitive and Social-Emotional Growth (Oxford University Press 2006).
- Vivian Gussin Paley, A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play (University of Chicago Press, 2005).
- Stuart Brown and Christopher Vaughan, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul (Avery, 2009).
- David Elkind, The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally (Da Capo Press, 2006).
- Grant Peterson, Just Ride: A Radically Practical Guide To Riding Your Bike (Workman Publishing, 2012): “No matter how much your bike costs, unless you use it to make a living, it is a toy, and it should be fun.”
- Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson, The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture (Seven Stories Press, 2015): “. . . a collection of essays by a variety of academics, bloggers and independent game designers, also chooses for its theme how our ‘digital and real lives collide.’ Its editors . . . are interested in the way in which writing about the video game medium has grown from product criticism to social and political commentary.”
True Narratives
- Joe L. Frost, A History of Children’s Play and Play Environments: Toward a Contemporary Child-Saving Movement (Routledge, 2009).
- Howard P. Chudacoff, Children At Play: An American History (New York University Press, 2009).
- Sabine Frühstück and Anne Walthall, eds., Child’s Play: Multi-Sensory Histories of Children and Childhood in Japan (University of California Press, 2017).
Imaginary
Visual Arts
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Girl with a Hoop (1885)
Fictional Narratives
Foreign correspondent Arthur Ransome, who covered the Bolshevik Revolution but “found revolutionary fervor less exhilarating than taxing,” took up a new career at age 45, writing young adult novels in which “children on holiday in the Lake District of England and elsewhere occupy themselves sailing camping, fishing and playing at pirates.”
- Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons (1930).
- Arthur Ransome, Swallowdale (1931).
- Arthur Ransome, Peter Duck (1932).
- Arthur Ransome, Winter Holiday (1933).
- Arthur Ransome, Coot Club (1934).
- Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post (1936).
- Arthur Ransome, We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea (1937).
- Arthur Ransome, Secret Water (1939).
- Arthur Ransome, The Big Six (1940).
- Arthur Ransome, Missee Lee (1941).
- Arthur Ransome, The Picts and the Martyrs; or Not Welcome At All (1943).
- Arthur Ransome, Great Northern? (1947).
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Mozart, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute): links to performances conducted by Fricsay, Muti and Sawallisch.
Playful short romps on piano or, better still, a fortepiano of Beethoven’s era:
- Beethoven, 7 Bagatelles, Op. 33 (1802)
- Beethoven, 11 New Bagatelles, Op. 119 (1822)
- Beethoven, 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126 (1823)
Other works:
- Playful marches and other band pieces by Julius Fučík
- Fossa, Guitar Trios, Op. 18: being playful, with others
- Bax, In the Faery Hills (1909)
- Bizet, Jeux D'Enfants (Children's Games), Op. 22 (1871)
- Berwald, Symphony No. 2 in D Major, "Sinfonie Capricieuse" (1842)
- Gemmingen, Violin Concerti: No. 3 in D Major; No. 4 in A Major
- Raga Kirvani (Kirwani) (Keerwani) (Keervani), a Hindustani classical raag adapted from a Carnatic ragam, is “playful in nature” (performances by Sharma & Chaurasia, Parvez and Ali Akbar Khan)
Albums:
- Jane Ira Bloom, “The Red Quartets”
- Claude Bolling, “Toot Suite”
- Claude Bolling, “Picnic Suite”