Experts are warning about a dangerous new trend in children’s fiction which features macabre tales of teens dying of cancer, committing suicide, or watching family and friends from heaven after being raped and murdered.
The Daily Mail is reporting that the new trend involves books such as The Fault in Our Stars by John Green in which a 13 year-old with terminal thyroid cancers wonders if she’ll live long enough to fall for another cancer victim.
A similar theme is found in Before I Die by Jenny Downham in a dying 16 year-old girl decides the number one thing she wants to do before she dies is have sex.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher chronicles a teenage girl who leaves 13 recordings explaining why she killed herself. By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead, written by Julie Ann Peters and published by Disney and Hyperion Books for Children is based on the tale of a disturbed girl who uses a suicide website to help her kill herself after a series of bungled attempts.
As shocking as this material, dubbed “sick-lit”, may sound, it becomes even more appalling because its target audience is children as young as 12 years.
Children’s book expert Amanda Craig told the Mail she’s so concerned about these books that she refuses to review them.
“When you write for children, you have a moral and social responsibility. I think there is a cavalier attitude towards this in the publishing industry, especially as children as young as 11 are likely to be reading these books,” Amanda said.
The trend began with a 2002 novel by Alice Sebold called The Lovely Bones, in which a 14-year-old girl watches her family and friends from heaven after she is raped and murdered.
The morose genre has been gaining momentum ever since, with macabre titles frequently finding their way onto best seller lists.
When confronted by the Mail about these books, publisher Penguin Books deferred to one of their writers, Phil Earl, 39, author of Saving Daisy, a story about a character who self-harms. Earl claims troubled teens told him the books give them hope.
“When young people are lost in such traumatic states, it’s vital that they don’t feel alone,’ he said. “Isolation makes the situation worse and their problems more entrenched. Novels and stories on the subject offer a sense of commonality and, most importantly, a sense of hope.”
However, child psychologist Emma Citron is asking parents to keep an eye on their children, especially those under 15 who keep reading these books.
“I think there are more life-affirming ways for young people to find out about death,” she told the Mail. “It’s OK as long as parents are talking to them about these books and what they are thinking and feeling. But these subjects should not be consumed by young people alone.”
The time to worry is if the books start to make their child head down “a morbid path that makes them sink into a low mood,” because that would be “a significant worry,” she said.
“Let’s hope publishers do have young people’s interests at heart – and they are not selling books by sensationalising children’s suffering,” she added.
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