I have been wanting to find a specific genre of children’s books written by authors who went through this thought process: “This important lesson about life’s cruel realities isn’t landing. I know! I’ll make it accessible to kids!”
You can feel the author’s shadow looming over these stories, insisting “The pain is the point!”. Books like Animal Farm, Where the Red Fern Grows, masterpiece designed to break a kids heart by a little
I found it darkly hilarious that humanity have produced must-read classics full of pain for their children to read, and we unanimously decide that this is a good idea. Let us build the ultimate syllabus for childhood dread. What books should be on it? Are there any good books that destroyed you as a child?
Here is my list so far:
The Mild Classics:
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson
Not much to say about these three. They are good.
The Intermediate level:
Where the Red Fern Grows – This book is about the journey about Billy and his dogs. It is a wonderful journey full of love, dedication and determination, and then the dogs die.
Charlotte’s Web – A classic for kids that touches on friendship and inevitability of death. Charlotte dies in the end.
Bride to Terabithia – This comes out from my research, I skimmed its summary, will read it soon. A celebration of friendship and imagination that teaches about the sudden, senseless nature of tragedy.
Old Yeller – Haven’t read this too. I heard that this book touches upon love and unbearable responsibility. The boy must shoot his own beloved, rabies-infected dog.
Coraline – Now this is just evil. There is no lesson, just a story specifically designed to inflict horror to the child. It takes mundane everyday things and gives them a fearful twist. When the child feels afraid and try to reach out to an adult, the way adult dismiss them is just like what happens in the book.
The Advanced level:
Animal farm – Imagine someone read the dystopian 1984 and decided that this is a lesson that kids should learn.
Lord of the Flies – The author took one look at the classic, optimistic adventure stories and said, "Absolutely not." Being a WWII officer, he argued that the default state of humanity isn't innocence—it's savagery. Thus in his story he strands a bunch of schoolboys on an island and letting their inner assholes run wild, exploring the fragility of civilization.
Metamorphosis – The famous Gregor Samsa that turns into the bug. The real horror is the alienation, familial rejection, and the bleak pointlessness of Gregor's existence and death
We Children from Bahnhof Zoo – German shock education. There was once a child has her life wrecked by drugs by age 13. So, the Germans write a chronicle about it, and decided to prevent such happenings, its should be shown to 12 years old kids. Thus a “kids’ book” with drug addiction, child prostitute, withdrawal symptoms and such is born. On my reading list.
What am I missing? What books would you recommend to put into this list?
by Light_scatterer
6 Comments
My daughter asked if she was ever going to read something without a dead animal or an abused kid and as far as I know, no, not in school. It was pretty much all dead animals and abused kids all the way through.
Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman. It’s a German children’s book that’s basically about children misbehaving and dying horribly because of said misbehavior.
I received a copy when I was younger and was fairly horrified, haha.
I tutored a kid from Serbia in english one time and the class he was in made him read Bridge to Terabithia. His response was basically “wow, I am from Serbia and this is still some of the most fucked up shit I have read”
The two that come to mind for me are:
Holes by Louis Sachar. This deals with the injustice of the USA’s incarceration system. And is still one of my favorite books.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. the poor kid in that book has to survive on his own in the forest after a plain crash and goes through literal hell. I remember having nightmares of being trapped in a forest after reading this when I was younger.
Bridge to Terabithia, Where the Read Fern Grows, Old Yeller, and My Girl (originally a movie but then made into a book, I think?) are the first that come to my mind.
Lord of the Flies was obviously fucked up, but in my opinion not as sad/hard hitting. Out of the Dust was unrelenting misery, but again, not really sad as much as just rough.
Anything Micheal Morpurgo. Usually makes you fall in love then crumble your heart.