Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Are children's books too dark?

There's been talk recently about children's books, especially YA, being too dark, dealing with heavy issues, misery and violence. The Harry Potter books became longer and darker, stories about vampires, zombies and fiendish fairies abound and the bestselling book The Hunger Games deals with teenage kids fighting to the death. So how much is too much? Are we saturating our children's minds with death and violence, as some critics say, desensitising them so that fantasy blurs with reality, encouraging them to become more violent and aggressive? Should parents censor what children read and should children's authors write about dark themes?



I, like many children's authors, frequently visit schools and run writing workshops. I can guarantee that when we're making up a story in class the characters the children choose are nearly always monsters, vampires, witches or ghosts. The stories usually involve someone killing someone, blowing someone up or a battle of some kind. The children create the stories with relish and when I ask them if they think that's a bit scary they usually protest that it doesn't scare them at all. Is this a result of the books they read and the films they watch or is it part of childhood?


I don't particularly like horror stories myself but I think there's a place for them. They give children the chance to let their imagination run riot and to face their fears and nightmares in a safe setting. It's the same with the issue-led YA books that deal with drugs, self-harming, bullying, rape and other serious topics. Some youngsters today have to deal with these issues, perhaps reading books like this help them. Life isn't perfect, families aren't always happy ones, children face many problems. Do we try to discuss them, write about them, hope we help children deal with them or do we ignore them?

Personally, I believe that there's a place for all sorts of fiction, but it's important that there's a variety of books for children to choose from, funny stories, magical stories, exciting adventures and warm family stories not just the black-covered lurid ones. The world can be a dark place but it can be a fascinating, wonderful, funny and heart-warming one too and I believe that children's books should reflect that. What do you think?


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12 comments:

Linda Strachan said...

I agree, Karen. There should be all kinds of books, not just dark books, but not just light and cosy books either.
If all we gave children to read were books depicting the fantasy of living in a perfect world, wouldn't those whose lives and families did not match up to that perfect image feel as if there was something wrong with their lives?
If given the choice children, in the same way as adults, will pick up the kind of book they feel like reading at that particular time, so the choice they are offered should be as wide as possible.

Karen said...

That's how I feel, Linda, give them the choice. Books mean different things to different people so let children choose the book they identify with and enjoy the most.

George said...

In my eyes,books can be a mirror that reflects real world ,after all,authors are real human.So,we ought to give child a real world include dark but also light side of the real life.Don't forget,shadow comes with light.

grassmats.djibo said...

I know we don't live in a perfect world, but there is nothing wrong in raising the bar rather than lowering it or even maintaining a negative perspective on life. All media holds power to influences and I would rather our children's brains were washed in more wholesome material.

JO said...

I used to work with traumatised children, and so met some of their most alarming fantasies. The most terrifying of all - what if my parents die? I think that children's horror fantasies are 'practice' - ways of trying out how they would manage fear etc. just in case that really terrible thing should really happen. So it's not surprising that their stories are full on vampires etc.

But does that mean, as writers, we give them similar stories. I think there is a place for them - but we should make sure that order is restored in the end, so that children get the message that upheavals can have a good outcome.

Sue Purkiss said...

When I'd got beyond the children's library and moved on to the adult library (and that was in my early teens; maybe 14?)I read whatever I wanted to. Nobody policed my reading. The books I remember being most scared by were Dracula, and Arthur Macken's short stories, which were about ancient evil and the supernatural. Other than that, I read with interest a huge variety of books. Some of the books I read then, I would find too upsetting now.

I don't think books for teenagers should be policed. It's a different matter for younger children, perhaps, where there are hopefully parents, teachers, and librarians (well, I did say 'hopefully'!) who know the children and can steer them away from something they know will probably upset them.

John Dougherty said...

I entirely agree, Karen. Great post.

"grassmats.djibo", I think I understand what you mean about "washing our children's brains in more wholesome material" - but it's still brainwashing. Up to a point, we can protect our children, but beyond that point it's much better that they feel they can talk to us about the darkness. I think it was Chesterton who said something like, "Fairy tales don't tell children that dragons exist. They already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell them that dragons can be defeated."

Nick Green said...

A book like 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' is actually far more potentially disturbing than 'The Hunger Games'. The latter is simple violence, easily processed, there's nothing there to give you nightmares because it's all two-dimensional and ultimately (hate to be harsh) unconvincing. By contrast the dreamworlds of Lewis Carrol are scarily convincing, in that anything can and does happen, and even one's own identity is in doubt. Children's literature has moved away from that nightmarish realm into areas that are actually far safer, even if they appear on the surface to be more violent. Violence per se is not scary, in a book. Books scare in different ways. Was there ever a chapter more scary than 'The Dark Island' in C S Lewis's 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader'? Yet nothing really happens in it.

Nicola Morgan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nicola Morgan said...

Oops, sent before checked for typos!

Try again: This whole of idea that children's books are becoming more dark is frankly ludicrous. In Little Red Riding-Hood (the original version) the grandmother and the girl die. In Hansel and Gretel, the children are abandoned by the parents. For goodness' sake, children deal with dark stuff and books are the safest place to do it. I was terrified by the Teddy Bears' Picnic. It did me no harm. I knew it was creepy then; I know it's creepy now.

Sue Bursztynski said...

As a school librarian I am often asked for something depressing. I hand it over. There is plenty of well-written stuff that doesn't have a happy ending, though it doesn't appeal to me personally. Another thing: there are books about cyber-bullying, anorexia, self-harm, which I approve of, because they reflect the kids' lives or warn them or both, and usually show them that there are answers,without preaching. I couldn't write this sort of book myself, but I'm glad there are people who can.

Fairy tales weren't usually written for children, but those that were usually have warnings kids needed. Don't wander too far out into the forest. Don't trust strangers. And so on.

Miriam Halahmy said...

I was terrified by the picture of the Beast in Beauty and the Beast as told in Arthur Mees Encyclopaedia which we had at home and had to skip over the page every single time. Until I was about eleven. We can't predict what will upset readers but I am of the school of 'let's end on a note of hope' - probably for any age.