Picture Books - How Difficult Can the Subject Be?

   

This Week's Talk Point 

Today many authors of picture books tackle subjects such as death, dying, war, and homelessness. Are these subjects appropriate for younger children? Maurice Sendak's We are all in the Dumps with Jack and Guy depicts homelessness and includes images from the Holocaust. Eleanor Coerr's Sadako tells the story of a Japanese girl who contracts leukemia and dies following the bombing of Hiroshima. Maira Kalman's Fireboat and Jeannette Winter's September Roses are stories that depict the destruction of the World Trade Center. (Also see Sami and the Time of the Troubles by Florence Parry Heide, Hiroshima No Pika by Toshi Maruki, and Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti. Another author who tackles tough subjects like homelessness, racial tension, discrimination, and war is Eve Bunting.) 


You can read part of each of these books on Amazon.com by clicking on the links above. Book cover images from Amazon.

Try to read at least one of the titles mentioned above, or a book with a similarly difficult subject.

We would love to hear from teachers and students about your thoughts about this topic. Please leave a comment, answering one or more of these questions.

Is there a place for such books in your classroom? Why or why not? If you decide such books are important, with what ages would you share such books? 

How would you introduce these titles to your students? 

 What role can and do the illustrations play in mediating the difficult topic the book presents to children?

Talk Point from Charlotte Huck's Children's Literature by Barbara Z. Kiefer