"Let the Kids Get Weird: The Adult Problem With Children’s Books"

[Lenona]

https://lithub.com/let-the-kids-get-weird-the-adult-problem-with-childrens-books/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Excerpt:

“People in publishing often talk about ‘child-friendly’ books, which suggests something consoling, sweet and kind of nostalgic. But that’s a smokescreen, because those qualities attract parents and teachers more than children,” says Natalia O’Hara, author of Hortense and the Shadow and other books with her sister, illustrator Lauren O’Hara (of the forthcoming Madame Badobedah and the Old Bones). “Children like sweet and safe stories but they also like dark, bleak, unsettling or horrible stories. Children are like everyone else, they want stories that reflect the whole contradictory tangle of their lives.”

[Arkalen]

Post by Lenona
https://lithub.com/let-the-kids-get-weird-the-adult-problem-with-childrens-books/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
“People in publishing often talk about ‘child-friendly’ books, which suggests something consoling, sweet and kind of nostalgic. But that’s a smokescreen, because those qualities attract parents and teachers more than children,” says Natalia O’Hara, author of Hortense and the Shadow and other books with her sister, illustrator Lauren O’Hara (of the forthcoming Madame Badobedah and the Old Bones). “Children like sweet and safe stories but they also like dark, bleak, unsettling or horrible stories. Children are like everyone else, they want stories that reflect the whole contradictory tangle of their lives.”

My own experience growing up is that there are things I find dark and
unsettling now as an adult and parent that I didn't as a child. Namely
stories that involve children being abandoned and coming to harm... I
remember as a child just skating over those elements as the normal
prerequisite to a fun adventure, completely normal stakes for a
high-stakes, engaging stories to have. As an adult and moreso as a
parent I can sometimes barely get through those plot points, and even
when I can I find them dark to the point of breaking immersion.