#one book had a boy and a dog running through a wheatfield or tall grass field idk. the name is escaping me ugh

[radmista]

wow, you made me remember reading terabithia in 5th grade. i remember being pretty upset and sad, but i feel like it helped me a lot emotionally. i agree, it's important for kids to explore complicated feelings like grief and mortality safely, instead of sheltering them

I remember reading it in 4th grade, it wasn't a required reading for us but one of the "harder" books my teacher had on a hidden shelf behind her desk that we could ask to borrow and read. I think they must have been from her own collection that she was giving us access to for those more emotional readings.

I wish I remembered exactly how I felt finding out Leslie died. Ik there were bits of story that confused me, and I later reread parts when I was a bit older. I still think it's one of the best books to give kids in this age range precisely for that reason! It's a coming of age sort of story, and I think it's a great book for helping kids experience those emotions (sometimes for the first time) in a safe age appropriate way. Even exploring the concept of mortality is important for children. I feel it's often one of the things parents end up feeling ill equipped to handle precisely because they've kept their child sheltered from the very idea of it.

I was reading more rbs in that thread chain and some people brought up good points that, these books aren't what traumatized them, it was likely their parents or guardians not providing an environment where they could talk about these negative emotions. I feel that's partially the case for some people, and when they grow up, rather than realizing the problem was not having a space to process those feelings, they blame the book.