Bleak Books

For a lot of kids life can be bleak. Each day 2500 children witness divorce or separation of their parents. Each day, ten kids under 18 are killed by gunfire. Kids who don’t experience it can now read about it in the hottest new teen novels. They are called bleak books. Parents who want to protect childhood innocence may need to read beyond the cover. Inside, stories of murder, drug addiction and sexual abuse often fill the pages. "Parents think, oh good, you’re reading books, says sixteen year old Dara. "And they don’t know what they’re reading."

Many pre-teens are also reading the books which causes concern for Cindy Wallace, mother of ten year-old Emily. Wallace says exposing Emily to subjects that are too mature for her might cause anxiety. "That would make her think, what if my parents were gone, or what if I had to survive on my own," says Wallace. "You know ‘what if‘?"

According to some experts these questions of "what if" translate to "what is" for many kids. Kids today face great hardships including divorce, broken families, addiction and juvenile and adult crime. Educational expert Dr. Jennifer Obidah says bleak books often mirror real life and provide an outlet for kids. "It really helps the child to see that, you know, this issue as it is affecting me is also affecting another child somewhere else," says, Obidah. "The books act as a way to bring to topic to the table and then for an adult to intervene and give them a little more knowledge than the students themselves may have."

Obidah says its crucial that parents area available to provide perspective and those parents who prefer to protect the innocent should beware. These days you can’t always judge a teen book by it’s cover.

What Parents Can Do
Dr. Jennifer Obidah offers the following advice to parents.

Be realistic. Kids are dealing with a lot more serious issues today than in the past. Many subjects which were once taboo are now talked about openly. Many books offer the opportunity for kids and parents to face these issues in a more productive way.

Use books as a way to bring up a taboo topic. Often times it is the parent who has a hard time talking to kids about tough issues, such as substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, suicide and sexual abuse. Parents and kids may be more open to starting a conversation by talking about someone else’s problems rather than their own.

Read along with your children. Parents have the choice to read a book ahead of time and then decide whether or not it is appropriate for their child. Another approach would be to read along with your child and discuss the issues as they come up.

Know when to say no. Sometimes a subject matter in a book is not appropriate for kids and parents need to be able to assess if their child is emotionally capable of understanding a certain subject. We do not want to scare our children into accepting reality. Books can be a great teaching tool for kids in developing moral character and judgement but they have to be developmentally ready to handle it.