Do you think picture book illustrators take enough care in showing how dangerous water can be? There seem to be a lot of children's books in which children – or animals behaving like children - play in or near water. Often, they fall in but they are always rescued and suffer nothing more than a soaking. In reality, water is very dangerous and many children every year lose their lives in it. Should books give a more realistic view of the dangers? It might help to save lives.
Here's a conundrum. One of the things that stories do for children is to expand their horizons and increase their confidence in the world around the. Through stories, children can imagine themselves taking risks. Of course, they need to be sensible and sometimes they need to be given reminders that what the superhero can do is not to be tried at home... I remember some warnings to that effect have been given in the past. While we know that children pick up important subliminal messages through stories, we expect them to recognise that what happens in a story wouldn't - and couldn't - always be replicated in life.
One of my favourite boating stories, which may shock you because it does exactly what you describe, is John Burningham's Mr Gumpy's Outing.
Although Mr Gumpy tells the animals who want to come on his boat how to behave, they don't. As a result, they all fall into the water and, far from drowning, they are all easily rescued and rewarded for their behaviour with a delicious tea.
While I agree that after reading it, no child would think that messing about on a boat could be dangerous, would they really copy the cat, the goat, the chicken and the rest if they were in a boat? I hope and think not. Instead, I think they would have enjoyed an imaginative adventure and have learnt that, even if you mess about, adults aren't always cross, they may be kind.
For greater responsibility (and for older readers) Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons and its sequels make it clear that the children's father has absolute confidence in their ability to make sensible decisions about all aspects of a dangerous pastime.
Armed with that knowledge, readers don't have to worry about the safety of the children; they can assume that the children will explore and play wisely (although nowadays they would definitely do so wearing life- jackets). It's part of the overall suspension of disbelief which lies at the heart of much good fiction for children.
While I agree it is important to keep children safe I think it would be a shame if fiction for children lost its power to excite, entertain and thrill because it became too risk averse.
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