Why children need picture books that explore difficult issues
Published on: 03 October 2024
At BookTrust, our research shows the long-term benefits of reading together with children. One of these is giving children space to talk about tricky subjects.
We asked author and bookseller Sara Stanley to elaborate on why adults should embrace this opportunity.
There are some picture books that truly stand the test of time. For many of them, it's because they deal with the challenges of childhood and life whilst embracing the intelligence and perceptive nature of children.
"Children know a lot more than people give them credit for and are willing to deal with many dubious subjects that grown-ups think they shouldn't know about."
Maurice Sendak, 1998
Sharing picture books with children is a joyous experience. Humour, silliness, comfort, and familiar happy endings are very much a requirement of reading for pleasure.
However, children also need books that present difficult issues. They need text and/or images that reflect real and imagined worlds to help them make sense of their own realities.
We observe children exploring strangeness through play. I once had a nursery class who insisted on playing dead unicorns and cut-throat hunters at every opportunity. In play, we recognise that children deal with injustice, violence, death, sickness and sadness with the same enthusiasm as they leap into the joyous fantastical. Why then does it feel harder to deal with raw, often painful, subjects when choosing or reading picture books for these same children?
Adults have an unspoken duty to protect children from what we, as adults, perceive as difficult subjects. Yet, like children, we also seek reassurance through communication to help us understand the unfamiliar or complicated.
Narrowing the gap between child and adulthood
Sharing picture books with children can serve to narrow the gap between child and adulthood where it exists. We can challenge ourselves to remember our own childhoods. To think back on the books, films, TV shows and adverts we were exposed to and the affect they had on us.
I was a seventies child, brought up with frequent Public Information Films about the danger of going off with strangers, playing near train lines, and what to do in the event of nuclear war. I have vivid memories of feeling horror at watching Oliver Twist being beaten and extreme sadness when the Little Wooden Horse was lost and broken. I am also told I screamed and sobbed aloud for my dad to make Baloo the Bear 'undead' at my first experience of the cinema.
Listening to children matters in the same way we listen to other adults. In my experience, to learn from and with children is a privilege. To be challenged in what one sees as one's own 'knowledge' is both humbling and exciting.
A 7-year-old child asked me once how we can prove that humans actually want to live in peace. This question, raised in a discussion of Tusk Tusk by David McKee, has stayed with me for over 20 years and driven me to work with refugees and in places where conflict is a way of life for children.
Using humour to tackle difficult subjects
Despite their content, challenging texts do not have to be approached with a morbid seriousness. Often these texts deal with serious issues through humour and present a way into discussions with children.
For example, a book that deals with alienation or loneliness could instigate deep discussion when an adult asks, 'What would happen if everybody was born and lived inside a sealed cardboard box?' Or if, when thinking about difference, children are encouraged to imagine a scenario where they wake up with purple skin and three eyes!
In my experience, engaging with serious issues with children builds group or family relationships. Children see that we value their questions and ideas, and we learn how capable they are of bringing hope and imagination to seemingly overwhelming complexities.
Choosing books to share
Libraries and independent bookshops are the best place to look for books that address difficult issues. Look for recommendations from BookTrust. Thinking about how a book affects us as an adult reader is important. Does it provide a space for thinking? What questions might you ask, and does it leave room for many thoughts that stay with you?
A moralising text can rarely provide a one-size-fits-all solution. Children don't always want fiction to offer an explanation. They seek mystery and discovery in language and imagery that satisfies and engages their curiosity. Texts that cause puzzlement or empathic reactions invite open questions and leave gaps for deeper thinking. This form of engagement leaves room for slower exploration of issues, helping children stand in the shoes of others.
Where there is no obviously "correct" answer, children are given opportunities to discover what others think too. Discussion allows children to agree or disagree, and justify or change their opinions. Even in books that raise issues of mischief, subterfuge, humiliation, and power, we see children capable of protecting each other.
Thoughtful and challenging books have longevity; they yearn to be revisited frequently. The thinking that happens in the process of personal understanding stays with the reader and travels with them into and beyond other books and a love of reading.
One-Button and the Sea by Sara Stanley, illustrated by Viviane Schwarz, is out now.
Topics: Features
