Algumas reflexões sobre a literatura para os mais jovens

"A Touch of Hell", de Tiffany Prothero

"Happy endings, magic solutions in children's books, he says, "create an alienation" in the child who reads them. "The child asks why I don't have this happiness thing you're telling me about, and comes to think when his joy stops that he has failed, that it won't come back." By the same token, creating mythic heroes "20 feet tall" places an impossible burden on the child, who feels he can never live up to the image.

He does not object to fantasy for children, but it should be "fantasy presented as fantasy, not a life possibility."

Excerto de uma entrevista a Shel Silverstein de 1978 ao NY Times, transcrita da Bruaá.

“Children's fiction needs to engage with the issues that concern and worry its readers, otherwise it becomes irrelevant to them. Sure, there's a need for happy endings and jolly jaunts, but there is also a need to address the darker side of life”.

Excerto de um artigo de opinião de Alison Flood em 26 de Agosto de 2009, para o guardian.co.uk.

Estas afirmações surgem em reacção discordante à opinião da escritora Anne Fine que afirmou recentemente ao The Times “that cosy tales in which children’s characters looked forward to future adventures had been replaced by gritty stories that offered no hope for their weary protagonists. Contemporary literature is dauntingly bleak, with depressing endings that do little to inspire”. Citação retirada daqui.

Uma discussão interessante sobre se as crianças terão resiliência para histórias mais realistas, mais duras e nem sempre com finais felizes. Talvez Anne Fine esteja a subestimar os jovens leitores…

Tomo como exemplo a tendência actual para suavizar os tradicionais contos de fadas, por muitos considerados demasiado violentos para as crianças, expurgando-os das partes mais duras e agressivas mas retirando-lhes em simultâneo vertentes de significado e aprendizagem fundamentais.