In a conversation about books, I heard of a school librarian in a large American city who choses books that won’t draw complaints. With budgets being cut, she feels it is better to have books on school library shelves rather than spending her limited dollars on a book that then, must be removed because of an objection. The result is a “safer,” conflict-free world for school children readers. The thought being that the children will, at least, have books to read.
This library is opposed to the world the children are living in. Where are children going to find the book in order to read about themselves? Where are children going to find the book to ease their own struggle in real life? Where are children going to find the book that changes them into lifelong readers?
Katherine Paterson writes in The Invisible Child about children finding themselves in books. She discusses the idea that story characters need some internal struggle to reach readers in difficult situations. To satisfy the invisible child looking for identification, confirmation that he or she is not alone in the world. The invisible child being that one hidden from the surface glance that schools and acquaintances, or even, friends and family usually see on a daily basis.
What should a writer write today? The old wisdom is that you write the story that wants to be written. As writers, should we see the children around us today and write the story that needs to be written? How far should we push our characters? Should childhood in general be ratcheted up for an attention-grabbing narrative? If we consider Katherine Paterson’s book of essays, a small push may best meet that need for readers.
Write characters with an edge, not completely lost, but with a reason for hope. Give children some relief from the demanding, destructive world developing all around as society wrestles with a change. Comfort the invisible child, write for this child. Write with an edge and hope that is grounded somewhere in real life. Write for the child inside all of us and it will be chosen by a story-buying world still trying to find itself.
THE INVISIBLE CHILD: ON READING AND WRITING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN by Katherine Paterson (Dutton, 2001).
