Apocalypse. A big scary word. Defined as ‘the total destruction and end of the world’, it’s one we would very much like children never to have to learn. Whether it’s the destructive power of climate change, the impending doom of global war, or even the smallest personal apocalyptic event, e.g. losing a family member, or the threat of financial ruin, no adult wants to encounter these events, never mind a child. But isn’t it our responsibility to have tough conversations with children to ensure they’re better prepared for possible doom?
This exact topic was addressed at The Bookseller Children’s Conference 2022 on a panel called ‘Addressing the Tough Stuff’, marshalled by Charlotte Eyre, Children’s Previewer at The Bookseller, in conversation with children’s author, Adam Baron, Weldon Owen children’s publisher Sue Grabham and data scientist Pragya Agarwal. Each brought a fascinating take to the conversation in regards to children’s publishing, discussing that books are used to educate, so why not educate children to be prepared and better able to confront issues facing them?
It’s impossible to argue that children will not be the most affected by climate change. They will be the ones who will be living in a world assaulted by rising sea levels and frequent freak weather events. As Pragya stated throughout the panel, ‘developmental psychology shows that kids form biases from as young as 6 months’. There’s nothing more important than ensuring our children are well educated and have all the facts from a young age.
“Children’s literature enables ‘children to process difficult emotions…'”
Charlotte Eyre, Addressing the Tough Stuff
It can come across as nihilistic, cynical and some may even view children’s books published about climate change to be fear-mongering. I will admit, there is a very fine line between frightening children and educating them, but as Sue put it, we want children to be ‘armed with the knowledge… [about] very scary topics’ and that ‘when they need to debate the issue, [that] they are armed for the information… to debate with deniers.’
Sue emphasised that they weren’t aiming to scare children, but to give ‘permission to [kids to] have all the different emotions’ and to ‘give them practical solutions’ so whenever they’re older, ‘[they] can go into this field’ to try and combat the changing climate. It might seem pointless to rally children to care for the environment and to enact change as they are so young, but let’s not forget one of the biggest climate activists of modern times, Greta Thunberg. As a young child, Greta discovered how climate change was affecting the world and decided to take a stand against it. At first she was overcome with depression and felt hopeless, but her age didn’t hold her back and soon enough she rallied herself to educate other children, becoming a voice admired the world over. The world came to see her passion and bravery regarding tackling the difficult subject.
One of the words that came up frequently throughout the panel was ’empowerment’. By being empowered with knowledge, all panellists felt that children would be stronger to deal with trauma. As Adam put it, the ‘trauma children experience is new to them.’ Charlotte backed this up by stating children’s literature enables ‘children to process difficult emotions.’ So instead of sugar-coating issues or bubble-wrapping kids, we should encourage them to learn and prepare themselves for events that’ll affect them for the rest of their lives. We never know, we may even be educating future politicians, scientists or activists who will stand up to these problems and tackle them with inspiring enthusiasm.
MSc Publishing – Industry Accredited Postgraduate Degree 