Death in children's literature

I shied away from hinting that the knitter had died I didn’t want to put ideas into the head of my viewers, but also I wasn’t confident that it would be well received by parents. I felt that I should do a bit of research into how death is managed in children's books.

It quickly became clear that this is a big area, I came across at least 2 thesis on the subject, so I’ve only scratched the surface here.

Although usually I avoid using Wikipedia as a resource I was surprised to find an entry which was a good introduction to the subject. Early books include the alarmingly titled A Token for Children:An Exact Account of the Conversion, Exemplary Lives and Joyful Deaths of Several Young Children’ by James Janeway

Historically, death in childhood, was common. Commentators disagree over whether it was portrayed more openly or magical devices were used to rescue the main character from certain death. Probably a bit of both. Analysis is flawed because death is a common plot device to release a child from the normal constraints of responsible parenting and stick them into novel situations where they can have adventures. Extrapolating from the number of violent deaths in soap operas, I suspect that the death rate in fiction in general is high.

Moore and Mae in ‘Who dies, who cries, bereavement in children's literature’ are concerned that in the books they analysed most deaths were children or adults of parenting age rather than grandparents and felt that it would give a child a slewed view of risk. Growing up as an avid reader with a risk adverse mother I can’t say that I noticed this but I didn’t have any first hand experience of death until I was well into my teens. Moore and Mae also noted that there was little mention of grieving or change in circumstances in many of the books in their study, many of which were featured on bibliotherapy lists. They applauded death and grieving were handled in Louisa May Atwells Little Women.

Joyce Ann Kaufman’s Death in Childrens Literature comments on how death is handled in a number of books which saved me from reading them.

Children’s books are often used as a sort of propaganda with a sometimes not very well hidden agenda to carry a message. Commentators felt that death should be discussed more openly, both generally and with children so I don’t think that it would necessarily be a bad thing if one of my younger viewers thought that the knitter had died. The likelihood probably depends on their personal experience and circumstances. 

Nevertheless I think that hinting at the death of the knitter shuts down the imagination for something more exciting and is a sad ending without a good reason so I’m happy to have left it out in this situation