Do kids' books always need happy endings?

Children don't need 'artificial hope that there will always be a happy ending' that's what the winner of the 2014 Carnegie Medal, Kevin Brooks says.

Speaking at the presentation of the medal, taking his novel he said ‘they want to be immersed in all aspects of life, not just the easy stuff. They’re not babies, they don’t need to be told not to worry, that everything will be all right in the end, because they’re perfectly aware that in real life things aren’t always all right in the end.

'To be patronising, condescending towards the reader is, to me, the worst thing a Young Adult fiction author can do.'

Rejected by publishers for a decade for being too dark, The Bunker Diary, Brooks' novel is about a young boy who is kidnapped and kept in a bunker. Now 10 years later it has picked up the 2014 Carnegie Medal.

Helen Thompson, chairman of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal judging panel, also commented: 'children and teenagers live in the real world; a world where militia can kidnap an entire school full of girls, and where bullying has reached endemic proportions on social media.'

'Exploring difficult issues within the safe confines of a fictional world creates essential thinking space, and encourages young people to consider and discuss their own feelings and reactions.' She added. 

Primary teacher Matt Lowe thinks it’s all a question of age. ‘I think it’s important to realise that older kids are more than capable of getting to grips with slightly more troubling stories. It’s important to remember that some real classic kids’ books – the The Hobbit for example – feature the deaths of important characters that the reader has come to love during the books. Obviously, darker themes are something that J.K. Rowling plays around with a lot.

‘But I think it’s a question of matching books with the maturity levels of individual kids. Certainly by the time they’re in Year 6 they should be able to handle more challenging storylines. Once you get to Year 4 and below, though, I think there’s something to be said for happy endings and keeping the magic of childhood.

Librarian Margaret Anson, a recently-retired veteran with nearly fifty years’ experience, takes a similar view. ‘I also think a lot of writers and publishers underestimate how much children like fantasy and escapism.

‘For years in the seventies and eighties we had authors churning out these very gritty books for the young fiction market, sometimes aimed at very young readers. At the same time everyone was moaning about how children were reading less and less. Not many people saw that there was a shortage of material that many children, and especially boys, wanted to read.

‘Then came along Harry Potter, and virtually overnight thousands and thousands of young readers had their noses in books again. The bottom line is that children of all ages love stories and imaginary worlds. Give them a great one, and they’ll be hooked for life.’

How do you feel about it? Should they always have a happy ending or is a dose of realism more important?