Dealing with death in children's stories

Hey Pamster! My MG has a heck of a lot of death in it (as do many others, ie Harry Potter). I think the key with dealing with death in MG is either it is the central theme of the whole story, "how one as a child deals with death". Or if it is just a plot point (as it seems like yours probably is) you have to write the death in such a way that while it impacts the MC, the MC sort of bucks up and gets on with things anyway. So you have a moment of: "He was gone. Never to come back. John couldn't quite get over it and his stomach was hollow." And then shortly after, "No, he couldn't dwell on it. Not now. That wouldn't do any good. What he needed to work on was getting through the portal to secure the secret amulet. When that was done, then he could miss his friend properly."

Or something to that effect.

Basically you need to respect the fact that a character has died, address it briefly. And then have the MC feel strong enough to move on. If the MC feels he/she can move on, so can the reader.

Hmm . . . man I have way too many characters die in my book. But a bunch of them are villains so I guess that's okay?

Make it real but not graphic. Children need emotional realism but they also need to be shown productive ways of dealing with bereavement. Your character must be allowed to react as a real person would - with anger, denial, frustration, guilt etc - that's what makes it compelling. Then he or she needs to be shown a 'way through it' so that he or she can become stronger and grow in maturity.

Pamster said:

ETA: If a mod could fix that iwth and make it with I would be really happy...LOL that's what I get for posting quickly without looking at the subject again and doing so BEFORE I've had coffee...LOL

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Measure twice, cut once.

Death is dealt with even in lower grade chapter books. In the Boxcar Children series, the books start after the children's parent's have died leaving the kids homeless during the great depression. The books are actually happy and uplifting. So it can be done very well.

I guess it's not quite a children's story, but Heinlein killed off one of the main characters in his original manuscript of his Juvenile "Podkayne of Mars," but the editor had him change it so in the published version she was only hurt and in the hospital. The Baen Books edition has both endings, and IIRC a discussion of the probable process of how this was changed between writer and editor.

I deal with death in my WIP too. My MC lost her mother a few years back and is still dealing with the emotions of it. I'm trying to show how she has been affected by the loss without dwelling on it too much. In the next book, another character is going to die and I have a feeling this will bring up a lot of emotions for her. It will interesting to see what will happen.