I found this to be an intriguing article by Sean Coughlan. As a mother of two boys, I recall how they delighted in drawing pictures of car crashes and buildings falling down. Using these kind of images in a children's story is bold and honest. I appreciate the fact that the children drew the pictures themselves. Here is an excerpt, with a link to find the rest of the article.
Blood and Bedtime Stories
By Sean Coughlan
BBC News
There's rarely room in children's books for scenes of slaughter and pictures of people being impaled, so why does one author want to change this?
There have been many calls to protect the young from violent images, but it's not often the opposite case is argued, that there aren't enough aggressive pictures in children's books.
But award-winning children's author Ted Dewan is conscientiously putting scenes of mayhem and destruction into his latest book, not drawn by an adult but by the children themselves.
Children, particularly boys, often produce violent images in their drawings, he says. But when it comes to children's books, this becomes a taboo. They're often fluffy and fleecy, but there's rarely room in the children's section for the scenes of slaughter that many boys like to draw.
One True Bear is a moral tale about a bear and boy. Mr Dewan wants children's literature to face up to this "hidden art" and to cast some light on the "type of pictures that don't get put up on the fridge". Read the rest here.
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