![]() ![]() Some measure of a book's success, then, might be how deftly it explores that pain - and what small winged creatures it might offer young readers alongside it, in the form of solace, courage, strength, patience, pride, resistance and hope. Fiction gives children a chance to encounter loss gently, on the page, and to see how different characters find their way forward. Her friends are 5,6,7 - too young to face such grief, we think helplessly, except that suddenly they must. In my daughters' school, children are mourning a beloved first grader who died from complications of the flu. ![]() The students of Parkland, Fla., know this well. That swarm of afflictions - all of them released from these four new books - might seem extreme, but the world doesn't always spare children. ![]() Violence, divorce, bullying, class conflict, depression, displacement, illness, grief, homophobia, abandonment, isolation, money worries and suicide attempts. READING A MIDDLE-GRADE NOVEL Can feel like opening Pandora's box. ![]()
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