Opinion
Has a book resonated with you, gotten so inside your head, that you had to talk to someone? Kids make such striking connections, notably after reading “intense and disturbing” books, finds recent research.
The world can be a hard and terrible place, and the world can be a fantastically whole and enlivening place. It’s both, and it’s where we live. We can survive the first, and even grow. We can rejoice in the second, and practice empathy.
Are nerds having a moment? You might say that.
It’s important to address topics of death and loss in middle grade because children do go through those experiences.
I think the best stories are a reflection of life, with all of its messiness, pain, and beauty.
Kids don’t grow up in a vacuum; they are terrified and confused and experience great loss, too. If we want our children to feel safe and to grow into emotionally intelligent adults, they need to know that death is a part of living.
They say to “write what scares you,” and I often use my own fears and anxieties as a guide of urgency for determining what topics people need help starting conversations about.
The truth is we need books that tackle tough topics because kids are already tackling them—whether they’re going through the issue themselves, supporting a friend, or just trying to understand how the world works.
One afternoon when my fifth-grade class was at the library for our weekly visit, my friend Jessica handed me a purple paperback book. “I just finished this,” she said. “It’s SO good. You have to read it.”
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