Fantasy is among the most popular literary genres used by authors to fulfill people's desire to read for fun and escape reality. According to Masterclass (2021), fantasy is a literary genre that exceptionally features supernatural and magical elements mainly imaginations that do not exist in the real world. Authors may juxtapose fantasy with real-world natural settings, but fantasy cannot be intertwined with reality or scientific facts. Technically, the element of fantasy exists in various scopes from adults to children. Young children are often perceived as incapable of differentiating fantasy from reality. However, children are equally capable of distinguishing fantasy from reality. Children can fundamentally entertain fantastical beliefs as well as engage in magical thinking. This paper seeks to critically analyze the existence of childhood fantasy, its goals, and its dominance using justifications from course readings, movies, and relevant articles to the concept.

Over time, children's ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy has been given little attention by most researchers due to varied methodological issues and overgeneralization of the ability of children to make decisions in circumstances where they have little control.

Actually, children's fantasies are endless due to their limited scope of knowledge and understanding of how the world works. As a result, there are various types of fantasy distinctions and cultural backgrounds that have the ability to impact children's fantasies. According to Mills (2000), children are capable of distinguishing real entities and fantasies when they have some sort of control over them. At times, the distinctions between fantasy and reality are very small confusing children in the process.

Most environmental surrounding often immerses children in fantasy subjecting them to the difficulty of distinguishing reality from fantasy. For instance, Santa Claus is a prominent figure among children of all ages. Most children have instilled the belief and evidence that Santa exists yet is a fictional character. They also believe in the existence of imaginary figures such as Eater bunny. They also tend to have imaginary friends whom they play pretend actions with them. This is proof enough that childhood fantasy exists.

Furthermore, movies such as Mickey Mouse monopoly from Disney movies elicit magical fantasies that are enjoyable to children encouraging them to be more creative and imaginative. The film presents a unique perspective on the presumed innocence of Disney films. It exposes certain traits employed by Disney through its cartoon productions directed and nurtured to influence children. Through this film, Disney created racial roles, gender roles, and white supremacy through their socialized motion pictures. Characters such as ''Snow White", "fantasia", and "the Little Mermaid" portray  females as obscenely beautiful,  flirtatious, and male-dependent creatures who could not save themselves from the Chinese finger trap. On the other hand, males are portrayed as perfect creatures and rescuers who can be lured by women.

These exaggerated roles somehow create a false perception for children which can lead to childhood fantasy.

The existence of childhood fantasy and its association with children and imagination is of great importance in children's literature. Beth Webb a British author for children argues that fantasy in children's literature helps in stimulating young readers' imaginations. Imagination is a gradual psychological process that will eventually help in the future as a coping mechanism that helps the little ones to fill in the gaps between reality, knowledge, and experience. Children tend to be frightened by regular things such as cracking sounds at night. The little mind is then filled with curiosity regarding the cause of the sound. As children are naive with little knowledge concerning a lot of things, hence they tend to engage with make-up imaginations to bridge the gap between knowledge and experience. As a result, children end up imagining or fantasizing there is a monster or a thief under the bed.

Additionally, childhood fantasy is a crucial component in the development of a child's brain as it fosters critical thinking and creativity. When children develop their imagination, they become more thoughtful and face challenges from various dimensions. For exam ple, the Bridge of Terabithia by Katherine Paterson is one of the most common child ren stories that a l most everybody is familiar with which showcases the imaginations of children prima rily and how powerful they are. Leslie Burke and Jess Aarons as the two main characters build their own imaginary world called Terabithia. It becomes their safe haven from pressures, bullies, and plain old simple everyday life. They imagine that they are powerful monarchs capable of prevailing through anything. It is through their imagination that they gained confidence which slowly began to thrust into real life.

Most of the fantasies that dominate childhood fantasy are supernaturals that give them the courage to face the day-to-day challenges of life. Childhood fantasies often involve some sort of supernatural beings such as Santa, the Easter bunny, and Terabithia as in the case of Jess and Leslie. Such powerful characters and places give children the courage and confidence to stay strong in challenging situations. It offers children a rehearsed exploration of the big and wide yet dangerous world that is getting closer and more real every day.

In conclusion, fantasy is a literary genre that features supernatural and magical elements that do not exist in the real world. It exists in children right from a young age as most of their surrounding immerses them in imagination. Childhood fantasy aims to create links between reality, knowledge, and experience becoming a vital coping mechanism as they transition to adult life. It also provides developing emotions with contextual frameworks that prepare them for real­ life challenges. Additionally, supernatural characters dominate childhood fantasies. These kinds of characters give children the courage to face real-life challenges as they develop into adults.