I recently had an argument with an acquaintance who thought that dark themes and subjects don't belong in children's books.

She was adamant that subjects like death, injury, danger, or the like shouldn't be in kids' books and that it was wrong to expose kids to fiction containing things like that.

Personally, while I find her viewpoint understandable, I also think it should be up to the parents to decide what material is appropriate for their kid to consume, and not just root out all the "icky" stuff in children's fiction in general.

Honestly, I also find it kind of funny, considering some of the most popular children's fiction series in the past several decades have had heavy doses of darkness and death- for instance, Harry Potter, the Warriors books, His Dark Materials, Animorphs... I could go on, but I think we all get the picture there.

But I am curious what other people think on this subject.

Those are part of life. Lots of children's books with darker themes tend to deliver them in a gentler way. We coddle children too much now anyways, imo. Idk. Gotta prepare them. EVERYTHING DIES.
I think it's a disservice to your child to force that kinda ignorance on them.

Dark themes in children's stories aren't necessarily a bad thing, but I do believe they should be monitored by adults. Children don't have the same understanding of certain concepts that we do, so it's important to make ourselves available to discuss whatever topic they might not understand.

Dark themes have been around forever though, and children are aware of them to some degree. You've got your fairy tales and cautionary tales, and stories with all sorts of happenings and consequences.

It's important for children to be exposed (to some degree) to darker themes in order to promote understanding and empathy, however, we should definitely review such materials beforehand to determine if they're appropriate for them.

Sometimes not necessarily about whether or not a story has dark moments, but as adults we should ask what our children will get out of being exposed to it. Some dark themes are just there for the chill or for gratuitous violence; some are there to provide guidance or for us to contemplate on. Even so, the way such themes are presented is also very important.

For example, I read "Montana 1948" as a freshman in high school, and my impression of the book was that it was incredibly brutal, although it had a strong message and brought forth many real world issues. "Lord of the Flies" ran along a similar vein, and "Animal Farm" was also difficult for me to take in when I was in middle school.

However, there are also many important books from my childhood that I continue to hold dear to me because while they had dark themes, they were written in a way that I was able to accept and understand. "The Outsiders" is one of such, and Cynthia Voigt's "Tillerman" series presents a number of hard issues that helped shaped my understanding of prejudice and made me who I am today. For my brother, "Bridge to Terebithia" was a big one; it was one of the few books he enjoyed reading.


TL;DR: It's important for kids to be introduced to dark themes, but parents should also take responsibility and monitor/decide what's appropriate.

Although I think to some degree it matters the age of the child, I'm in general of the belief that dark themes are beneficial to the growth of children. And let's face it, children enjoy it. Fairy tales are quite gruesome and though we like to tell more tame versions of them now, Hansel and Gretel are still thrown out by their parents and harassed by a witch. Cinderella still deals with the death of a parents early in her life. These are a part of reality and actually quite dark even in tamer versions. Lying to children that the world is roses only leads to shocks later in life.

If we're talking about young adult fiction though, like Harry Potter and Warriors, kids of that age should have no trouble with the subject matter. They're not stupid. They know death exists. My dad started reading Harry Potter to me and my brothers not long after the series published, meaning I was around ten. Before that, he had already read Lord of the Rings, His Dark Materials, A Wrinkle in Time, and all sorts of things. Or...probably around those years anyway. XD (Can't actually remember). I found all those books wonderful and whatever themes may have been over my head, simply went over my head. Such is nature that we'll learn from and grow from the material that we're able to take in. What we can't take in, often goes right over our heads.

Though I do believe there are dark themes that should be read with care still. Children's and young adult books with dark themes are aware of their intended target age though and write accordingly. It's books not meant for children that you need to worry about.