I wrote my book When We Were Alone because I wanted to teach young children about residential schools. Initially, there was resistance: I was told that you can’t write about hard history for young children. I believed that you could, and since 2016, that picture book has been in many schools in Canada because you can teach children about hard things. In fact, you ought to.
That principle feels especially relevant right now as the world faces a difficult time. Destabilizing events dominate news headlines, and parents can feel torn between protecting their kids − particularly adolescents and teens − and wanting to help them understand what’s going on. I’ve spent much of my career writing tough stories for young people, and through that work, I’ve learned they are more than capable of holding complicated truths. The question is not if we should share those truths, but how.
