Dandelion Break Shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

[Aethalope]

Oh no! Dark book covers! Titles with Night and Dark and Murder! Won't someone please think of the children!!!

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

Children read dark books as well. We don't need to wrap them in cotton wool.

In my local (40min away) bookstore, there is a separate, cosy area for picture book and middle grade readers (and guardians) to go in and peruse - including MG horror which is growing in popularity. The Young Adult shelves are beside adult fantasy. Both have the light, the funny and the dark. I've eavesdropped on teenage browsers - they've talked about what they've seen on Tik Tok and instagram. They're exposed already. In their lives, many are experiencing very dark or very scary scenarios. Reading about a protagonist (living with the protagonist) as the character overcomes their dark and comes out the other side is hugely cathartic for them (as it is for adults).

Keeping young minds behind blinkered glasses may blind them to hope.

 

[Aethalope]

Well said @Hannah Faoileán

Some of these parents haven't a clue what these kids are seeing and doing on their phones. Dark themed teen and YA stuff has nothing on Roblox or even some YouTube ads.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Umm what? We're telling preschool they have to solve climate change by recycling-when adults havent even been able to change daylight savings time BUT teens mustn't read 1984 or Dracula? I love the 18 up timeline too. On your 18th birthday you are gifted with nerves of steel and told there is no Santa Claus.

I mean I kind of agree about horror up until they do become teenagers. We used to protect little kids even in movies. It was a shock when Eisenstein let a baby carriage roll down dangerous stairs, now no one would even gasp. When Spielberg used pre teens in Jurassic Park there was an outcry from shrinks and he admitted he wouldn't let his own kids watch.

Until little ones can differentiate between fiction and reality give them happy worlds like Bluey where people take care of each other so they have a safe place where that is true-even if it's not at home.

But then let them explore dark places safely. They will have to live in the world where light only exists when you create it. Let them chose how to do that. Stop trying to keep them safe. They have to figure out how to bravely circumnavigate darkness, just like when they had to learn to walk wo you holding their hand.