Oh, I did misunderstand, sorry! My DS didn't mention the war issue at all in The Homework Machine. Interesting. He did mention the belly button piercing incident though. He thought it was hilarious! I am definitely going to have to read this book and discuss it with him.
These books are very emotional reads. They are definitely topics that exist, but that most of us would prefer to push under the rug. I just thought these books were well written and approached the subjects in tactful ways.
I still have a tendency want to protect him from too much hurt in what he reads, but I enjoyed books that made me cry at this age so I try not to keep him from reading the sad stuff. It is part of life as you say.
The kids were either seeing a world that they were sheltered from and this gave them some compassion for others or it opened the door for someone hurting to talk realizing that if there was a book about the subject they were not the only ones experiencing such pain.
And this right here is a great reason to let them read such things.
