WHO SAID YOU MUSTN'T SCARE CHILDREN?
I knew his name, of course, and I'd caught a couple of interviews on YouTube - and very charismatic he is, too. But it wasn't until I'd watched the television series Good Omens that I was drawn to reading Neil Gaimon's books.
I started with his massive tome, American Gods (I read this on my Kindle but I believe the hard copy is nearly 800 pages) and next, I read Neverwhere, both of which I really enjoyed.
Then, because I write for children as well as adults, I read The Graveyard Book (listed as suitable for 9+). Now we know that children of an even earlier age become acquainted with horror stories. Grimm's fairy tales for example are full of lost children, children being cooked and eaten, children being confronted by wolves, and so on. But those tales belong to a distant past.
In The Graveyard Book's first couple of pages, a man with a knife steals into a house in the darkness. He stabs to death a father and a mother in their bed. He then stabs to death their small daughter. And finally he steals into the baby's nursery. The book may be fiction, but the act of breaking into a house and killing all its occupants echoes not one but many real life crimes of today.
So, would this book terrify 9 year old children? I looked up some reviews and was surprised to find that many parents had read the book aloud to children even younger, without inducing nightmares.
In fact, all the children loved it - as did I. It's a brilliant book, full of imagination, tenderness and humour.
But in children's literature, do we need to draw a line? This is OK but that's just too gruesome? How do we judge?
In The Graveyard Book's first couple of pages, a man with a knife steals into a house in the darkness. He stabs to death a father and a mother in their bed. He then stabs to death their small daughter. And finally he steals into the baby's nursery. The book may be fiction, but the act of breaking into a house and killing all its occupants echoes not one but many real life crimes of today.
So, would this book terrify 9 year old children? I looked up some reviews and was surprised to find that many parents had read the book aloud to children even younger, without inducing nightmares.
In fact, all the children loved it - as did I. It's a brilliant book, full of imagination, tenderness and humour.
But in children's literature, do we need to draw a line? This is OK but that's just too gruesome? How do we judge?
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