If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while, you know I’ve gone through some questioning about who my books (Piper Pan and Her Merry Band) are really for: especially after getting some feedback that the characters I’ve created are too dark for a “pixie dust world.”

I’ve followed this opinion, and have come full circle to believing my books are perfectly appropriate for kids age 9 to 12 (or earlier mature readers). Here’s why: the unfortunate truth is, bad things happen to kids. And when a child is lucky enough to be free of bad experiences, they’re still aware of the bad things that happen to other kids. They know kids don’t have an “exempt” status from life’s darker load.

The value of reading a book where bad things happen to kids is the opportunity to bring to the surface and normalize what’s going on inside them. It frames their experience, their emotions, and gives them a context out of which they can talk to adults in their lives about these “bad things.” It lets them know they aren’t alone, and that they are not only OK, they are on a par with storybook heroes.

I’d like to share a couple of excellent titles that do exactly this. In fact, the subject matter these books take on make my books look pretty darn mild.

The first is Every Single Second, by Tricia Springstubb. This contemporary tale takes place in an Italian barrio in an American city. The young heroine and her friends are growing up amid the usual challenges of little brothers, busy parents, and looming middle school.

Added to the mix are difficult family secrets: a father who served time in jail for an accidental drunk driving fatality, another father with PTSD, a mother who left when her daughter was very young, a gentle older brother whose efforts to protect his young sister backfire and leave him guilty of a shooting.

Truly troubling content, and yet this book is so well written, it simply unfolds as part of the coming of age process the young heroine walks. She makes courageous decisions to stand by her friend, to forgive her father, to speak her truth.

The second book is The Peculiar Night of the Blue Heart, by Lauren DeStefano. This book seems to be set earlier in the 20^th century—and it has a definite spooky quality. It centers in the house of Mrs. Mannerd, who cares for a passel of orphans.

The two protagonists are a “nice girl” names Marybeth, and a “wild boy” who acts like and has an affinity for animals, named Lionel. The crux of the story happens when Marybeth is possessed on Halloween by the ghost of a girl who lies secretly buried in a neighbor’s barn. As things are revealed, the ghost’s violent death by neighbor bullies mirrors a violent act Lionel witnessed as a child: formative in making him want to be an animal rather than a human.

Lauren DeStefano’s storytelling is gripping, her characters likable, and though I don’t usually like spooky stories, this one has so much heart it drew me in and wouldn’t let me go.

All this is to reassure you that there is no reason to avoid gifting a book where bad things happen to kids. You aren’t traumatizing the child. They live in the same world we do. You may be offering just the thing they need to understand and feel OK about life’s darker corners.

Happy Reading!

Lindy MacLaine