should war be a taboo subject in childrens picture books?

Answer 1

No, not at all. It's a part of the world we live in today. It's all over the news. If it's in books at a level they can understand, it might help them. I'm sure if it's a children's book, there's no blood and guts or anything like that. Showing kids a reality of the world in something they understand is no worse than the sex and violence on tv and video games that they see.

I'm the wife of a soldier. War is very much part of our lives. Thankfully, they have some wonderful books like "My Daddy is a Soldier" and others that help kids in their position. Very often, it helps kids understand something that maybe the parents don't want to discuss. Children today are so smart and informed. There's nothing wrong with it in books so they have facts and understanding instead of biased points of view on tv or such.

Answer 2

No. It should not be taboo. It should be taught that never in the history of the world has a democracy fought a war with another democracy. An amazing and startling fact.
It is fascism and totalitarianism that create wars. The answer to eliminate war is for the world to enter civilization by becoming democracies. Then....peace.

Answer 3

My husband is a Marine, as is his twin brother. In a few weeks, my brother-in-law will be in Iraq. My children are aware of what's going on and we talk about where Iraq is and why Uncle J is going. For military families open dialogue about deployments like Uncle J's is necessary. Younger children might very well benefit from a picture book to help them understand.

Answer 4

i guess it all depends on what age range the books are for. but in todays world war is everywhere and they will hear about it somewhere may as well be somewhat knowledgable about it. you know kids they will ask questions and i as a parnet would want to be the one to give the answers

Answer 5

No, I dont think so, reality is what it is. I think kids should know about 9/11 because they are the generation that will have to deal with these crazys

Answer 6

so you want to cencor them until they are? 18? let them find out on their own? make sure YOU teach them about the different subjects, that way YOU get a say in what they know about it, and what opinions they may form about it.

Answer 7

If Elmo can talk about his daddy's deployment, surely books could help kids too.

Answer 8

why? It's occurring all around them in our country and other countries...If a child wants to know more...than that's up to you how far YOU discuss the issue with them.

Answer 9

As if often the case, I'm apparently the oddball here...

Yes. It should be a taboo subject in children's picture books. Children can have quite advanced intellectual maturity, but they remain children emotionally. Teenagers and adults can deal with ugly realities reasonably comfortably (usually). Children do not always have the emotional resources needed to be able to look at something that is real but awful and be able to put it into the right perspective.

I'm not saying that children shouldn't know about wars that go on, but putting war into picture books is not appropriate.

Besides not always having the emotional maturity required to deal with the picture appropriately and without giving it exaggerated emotional impact, the developing brain/mind needs as many neutral or positive images/ideas as possible in order for the child to be spared too much time on stressful thoughts/circumstances that can affect his brain chemicals (and possibly his emotional development). Children need some level of feeling safe in the world (whether or not they are always 100% safe), and showing them images of violence is likely to affect that feeling of being safe. Children are not the same as adults, and the rules are different for them.

There is a way to inform children about bad situations in the world without handing them books with pictures they can study and stew over. The person who has been made to feel secure in childhood is the person who is best able to deal with the unpleasant things in life later.

It is a natural instinct that parents should want to protect their children (within certain limits); and I can't help wonder why on Earth anyone would feel it is so important to offer a child violent images in children's picture books.

Children need to know - on an intellectual level - that there are awful things that go on; but their exposure to that information needs to be just the basics. People have a way of seeing some of the awful things in the world just by growing up and being conscious. The world has a way of sharing its ugly side without any need for the assistance of some adult who for some reason believes it important to make sure a child sees violence in images in order to make sure his childhood isn't one of a certain amount of innocence.

There is no decent purpose in putting images of war into children's picture books (and this is different than a text book that covers a war for kids old enough to have outgrown picture books). What on Earth is in the mind and heart of the adult who feels it is important to make good and sure no childhood is left undestroyed. As it is, childhood isn't the innocent la-la-land that people sometimes think it is. Children have enough to deal with in their own, personal, lives.

War is one of those things like violence on television, sex, and ignorant messages on television - parents need to be standing by to help put things in perspective for children and to know when to steer the child to other thoughts when it seems they're getting too "all involved" with something that is too "deep" or dark.

Putting images of war in picture books (or even discussing the subject of war in children's books) is inappropriate and not good for children. It gives children too much opportunity for "studying" the violence without the benefit of parental support/supervision.

Finally, anyone who knows children knows that, in general, Nature pretty much arranges for children to go through physical, intellectual and emotional maturation milestones in a reasonably predictable pattern and on a reasonably predictable time-table. Adults shouldn't attempt to interfere with this by deciding to introduce the topic of war before (and maybe long before) it becomes a topic about which a child develops natural curiosity. It is a rare seven-year-old who asks his parents, "Can I see some bloody and gory pictures of horrible things that can happen to people" (and if he does its up to parents to tell him that someday he'll see such pictures but they don't have any around right now).

Children are not so stupid that they cannot figure out that war exists in the world. They don't need someone saying, "They need to know, and further here's the pictures". The pictures will have far more impact on them than they would on someone older, so choosing childhood as the time to make sure they see images of such violence amounts to kicking someone when they're down.

Answer 10

why? because it isn't nice?

It's things like that, that make teenagers think they are invincible.