Child Abuse

Chalula88 · Jan 2, 2006

I'm writing a story in which a young girl is physically abused by her foster parents. She has really had a hard time in the foster care system and has faced a lot of neglect also. How much is too much to put into a children's book? It's similar in style to Creech and Haddox (sp?) and I think the target audience would be the same.

Basically there would only be one chapter that contained a discription of the abuse, but it is mentioned several times earlier and later in the novel. The references are nothing more than that she's had a lot of broken bones, bruises etc and the discription will be something along the lines of her foster father yelling at her and twisting her arm. Would that be okay?

watcher · Jan 2, 2006

My advice would be that no matter what you're writing about you want to do your research and become as much of an authority as you can. Read all the books and short stories out there that you can on this topic and get a sense from them.

My life experience tells me that the physical abuse that you're specifying would be something that many children could relate to and would probably fall within the boundaries of at least some publishers. I would expect that most stories like this would need to have a happy ending and would need to see the abused character telling someone and getting the help they need (As recommended by current abuse counselling professionals).

You may still get some comments here from people who write in the genre.

I applaud you for taking on such a worthy task.

silentpoet · Jan 3, 2006

I have some experience working with abused children and think if it is well done then writing about abuse can be very important. Kids need to know they are not alone in their problems. So I think there is a need for this type of writing, but as I am not a publishing expert I can't say about markets. I am just offering the above as encouraging words.

Chalula88 · Jan 3, 2006

I do know a lot about child abuse, my mother is a therapist and has helped a lot of children who were abused. I can't remember a children's book that has abuse in it, I can think of many teen novels that do.

My primary concern is that the abuse is not the focus of the novel, the main plot is about twins who were seperated at a young age and are reunited (one from foster care and one from adoption) through a power that they both share: being able to psychicaly communicate with one another. The tone of the novel would be serious, not commical, but I'm concerned that it may be too rough for young readers if the book isn't designed to educate on the subject. What do you think?

Child Abuse

Chalula88

watcher

silentpoet

practical experience, FTW

Chalula88