If you’ve not heard about #kidbkgrp, basically it’s a Twitter based chat (using the #kidbkgrp) on various topics in children’s / YA literature. The schedule for the November / December chat is available here (and I’d love to see you along next time!)
So last night we talked about darkness in children’s literature. Darkness is a very umbrella term and one that I use to encompass a whole variety of ‘graphic’ content. In a way, it’s things such as violence, drugs, sex and more. The chat topic came about after I chatted with some other people online about the ‘Gone’ series by Micheal Grant, and also by my feeling that perhaps it’s easy for certain angles of the media to ‘brand’ a certain genre of YA literature as ‘dark’ and therefore ‘abhorrent’ and that’s far too simplistic an angle to take when we actually look at the book, at our actions as a reader and at our role in the entire process as gatekeepers / adults etc.
Here’s the storify and here’s a link to the hashtag on Twitter.
See you on November 14th to talk about comics! I want everyone to be there! Let’s take over Twitter! 😀
Daisy May Johnson 