Should Children’s Books Address Tough Stuff?

Being a publishing student, I had the privilege of experiencing The Children Booksellers Conference. The conference discussed a range of topics on publishing for children. One event I found particularly interesting was a panel titled – addressing tough stuff. The panel had a diverse range of authorities on the matter, there was author Adam Baron, publisher Sue Grabham and Pragya Agarwal a behavioural and data scientist, author, and professor of social inequities. Lastly, The Bookseller’s children’s previewer, Charlotte Eyre as the chair for the panel.

After all the panellists were introduced, the event proceeded to discuss the question of why is it a good idea to tackle tough issues ­– in children’s publishing? Agarwal began by bringing attention to the fact that, children form biases at a very young age from a variety of sources. Agarwal used the example of princess stories which promote women being viewed as weak victims and men as their needed saviour. Agarwal argued that by addressing these issues we would help children deal with both first-hand experiences, but also allow for better ally’s, teaching children not to ignore issues when they witness them. Grabham also agreed with this sentiment arguing that children need to be armed with information to both make a difference and ignore ignorant information.

The panellists then addressed why books is a good medium to address these issues. Baron argued that as people typically read alone, children are more immersed in books than other media, giving books more power to influence a reader. Grabham argued the format of books had more benefit, rather than its intention to distract, it has more information and structure, giving a clearer message. Agarwal believes that this format allows readers to critically examine or challenge what they hear, to articulate their ideas and question their surroundings, more than other forms of media.

Baron agreed that it was important to discuss tough issues in children’s books but introduced the added benefit for an author, that including tough themes makes a book better. Baron went on to say that

“Candidly, I don’t know why I wrote difficult situations, which all my books do, because I am empathetic, or represent a difficult time, or because it makes a good book.”

I find this statement of Baron’s to be extremely problematic, because despite tough issues being important to discuss, it brings into question if many authors are just attempting to make profit off social injustice and trauma? Adam goes on to comment that he tries to ensure a safe space within his book with humour, warmth, trust, and a sensitivity reader.

The panel finished with personal anecdotes of the panellists, the joy they have received witnessing the good that their careers have done for children. Watching this event, a clear argument is made that addressing tough issues is important to the welfare of children, to help them understand the difficulties they are likely to face in this world. The panel also makes a strong argument for why books is a good medium to do this. However, troublesome questions lie under the surface for the event. How do you ensure that the difficult situations authors are discussing don’t do more harm than good to the readers? As not all authors have things such as sensitivity readers, countless children’s books potentially promote the bias that good authors are trying to prevent. Especially, when the publishing business has other priorities alongside it as making their books both exciting and profitable.