A trend I have frequently noticed with books for younger readers is that books with complex emotions or dark themes lead to them being immediately categorized as part of the young adult (YA) genre. A good example of this is A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, a book which follows a 13-year-old boy coping with his mother’s terminal illness. We might look at the premise as being rich with tension and a strong basis for emotional storytelling, but flinch at the idea of what it might present to a reader under the age of 12. I understand the necessity of protecting children as the most vulnerable demographic of the population, and parents, one of the main parts of the market a publisher must capitalize on, are rightfully cautious about what kinds of media their children are exposed to. But if we cater to this instinct to protect to the extreme, we ignore a crucial role books can play in the development of children and teenagers through the use of darker themes.
This article from the Kentucky Department of Education describes how Bibliotherapy—helping students process trauma through reading—can actually help children with traumatic experiences recover. By providing a book with a character in the same situation, students can not only connect to a character going through their experience but find a safe, external environment to explore the emotions that come with it. Going beyond traumatic experiences, this article from Sagent Behavioral Health praises the numerous mental health benefits of reading, including increased empathy and self-exploration through seeing characters overcoming different challenges.
The recurring theme for children both with or without traumatic challenges is that books provide a safe, low-stakes environment for them to develop themselves and how they think—and that environment can be freely picked up or put down.
Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart is the well-known debut of her Inkworld series, a YA trilogy that deals with increasingly dark and “adult” themes in what would otherwise appear to be an imaginative fantasy narrative about books being brought to life. The Inkworld in the universe of Funke’s trilogy is where a great deal of the dark themes come from. On the one hand it’s a dreamlike place that would be fit for Alice in Wonderland, with magic, fairies, and tiny men made of glass. On the other hand, the Inkworld is filled with violent sword fights, death, and terrifying spirits that appear to the dying to take them to the afterlife. These darker aspects of the Inkworld can be frightening for a reader to contend with, but they also provide an avenue for them to consider what those fears and emotions mean for them. How would I feel about the death of a friend? How do I feel about the existential threat of loss and death? These are the questions a reader can begin to ask themselves as they process the fear the book invokes—and if that fear is ever too much, they can step out of the Inkworld in an instant by setting it down.
Young adults get the majority of books with darker themes, but what about very young children? Many people have had childhoods which dealt with difficult experiences and emotions that are complicated even for an adult to navigate. For these children, having a safe environment to explore and confront those feelings through literature is even more critical. The picture book Grief is an Elephant by Tamara Ellis Smith is one of the few books out there for young readers which offers that possibility. Smith’s book focuses on the emotional experience of coping with losing a loved one through a charming and easily digestible metaphor, with animals of different sizes showing the progression of grief from an overwhelming burden to something small and barely noticeable. For a younger child with limited life experience, it’s easy to feel like any state is a permanent reality, and Smith’s book offers a way for them to both relate their experiences with grief and find reassurance that they will become easier with the passage of time.
But darker themes have a place in picture books outside complex or traumatic experiences. Max Greenfield’s Good Night Thoughts deals with a phenomena even most adults will relate to: anxiety and racing thoughts as you lay down for bed at night. For a child who might be dealing with an anxiety disorder or just struggling to fall asleep with all their worries about the world, books like this are invaluable. They validate this everyday struggle by acknowledging it and also provide crucial coping skills and emotional awareness that will serve young readers well in becoming adults.
Books with darker themes provide important developmental opportunities across the board for readers of all ages and backgrounds. These aren’t corrupting influences but glimpses of a world full of potential danger and difficult questions that everyone must eventually confront in becoming adults. In the interest of young readers all having access to the potential these kinds of books offer them, I hope we can start to see more stories dealing with complex emotions and dark themes in more age groups, rather than being relegated to YA novels.
Julia Smith, Pine Reads Review Writer and Editor