Recently I read a Young Adult novel that one of my students recommended. There were many good aspects of the story, but one thing bothered me: The end of the story led me to feel like the future was hopeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the far past, kids’ books could sometimes be too<\/em> happy, so happy that they seem ridiculous to us now. But for many years, although kids’ books took on challenging problems, they were almost required by publishers to have a hopeful ending. No matter how much difficulty the characters went through, at the end there had to be a sense of hope for them and for our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want you to know that I think that the idea of writing a book for children that ends with no hope is not only unnecessarily depressing, but I think it’s unethical<\/a>. The fact is that human history is full of struggles. But the other fact that always goes along with those struggles is that humans thrive when we have a sense of hope for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s unethical<\/a> to write hopeless books for kids because those books are teaching you something that is untrue: you are not living in a hopeless time, and no problem is so great that you can’t find a shred of hope within it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reading books that tell you that the future is hopeless is not good for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So here’s my advice: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t read them! You can read reviews to find out what others think of the book. And I give you permission to look at the end of a book before you read it. And if it’s a big, fat bummer, set it aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But won’t reading the ending spoil the story? It turns out that research says NO! Read or listen to my episode called “There are no spoilers<\/a>” to find out why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the book has been assigned by a teacher, speak with them about your concerns—chances are, the teacher has found a good reason to assign it. But if you’re doing pleasure reading, don’t seek out books that make you feel worse about our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life is challenging enough without being told that there’s no hope. There is hope, and I have hope that you will always be able to find hope within every challenge you face…. and the great books that you read!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently I read a Young Adult novel that one of my students recommended. There were many good aspects of the story, but one thing bothered me: The end of the story led me to feel like the future was hopeless. In the far past, kids’ books could sometimes be too happy, so happy that they … Continue reading Are your books bumming you out?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"http:\/\/sukiwessling.com\/kidblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Are-your-books-bumming-you-out_.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"http:\/\/sukiwessling.com\/kidblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/KidsLearn-booksbumming.jpg","cover_image_id":"878","duration":"2:37","filesize":"2.88M","filesize_raw":"3019708","date_recorded":"2024-11-07 20:48:15","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,5,47],"tags":[],"series":[66],"class_list":["post-869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-being-a-kid","category-reading","category-understanding","series-kidslearn"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t