The importance of literature at the developmental age of children cannot be overemphasized. Through vivid pictures and fascinating stories, children are made to explore different worlds and worldviews, characters, scenarios, and experiences thereby expanding their knowledge and imaginative abilities. This paper investigates how Literature thrives as a tool for enhancing creativity and critical thinking in children right from the pre-primary and primary school. As a subject taught in schools and colleges, Literature is remarkably different from every other subject judging not only from its wide content or subject matter but from its method of expression and interpretation. The uniqueness of Literature in terms of its method of expression and delivery in the classroom is a combination of both creativity and objective evaluation which should be introduced to the child at the onset of formal education. In this study, we have identified some literary texts which are used in the primary school to constitute our sources of primary data. Vygotsky's theory of Creativity (1926, 1930) has been adopted as a tool of analysis for the generated data to enable us to uncover the relationship between imagination and reproduction on the one hand, and imagination and reality on another hand. The study exposed the usefulness of exposing the child to literature from early life, for a more imaginative and creative thinking abilities. It recommends that the government should place more emphasis on the development of Literature and draw support for literary writing. Keywords: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Education, Literature, Imagination
Jacqueline Flavian-Obasi (Mon,) studied this question.