Is having a character referring to the Devil taboo for MG and younger?

Personally, I wouldn't give it a second thought if I were you.

1) Have you perused a banned book list? I'd be proud for my work to be in such rarified company!

2) Getting banned is some of the best advertising you could hope for.

3) No book is immune to criticism. As an interesting exercise, think of your absolute favorite book of all time. Now go to Amazon and read the one-star reviews for that book. There WILL be one star reviews.

Haters gonna hate. Write what you want to write and (unless your target audience happens to be the sort of people who would ban "Harry Potter"), don't worry about what such people think.

Librarians kept the books because librarians believe in the First Amendment and could not give less of a damn what books people want to ban. Librarians will throw themselves bodily over books to save them from loons who want to ban them; that's how librarians roll.

Do you read a lot of MG? I can think of MG with evil spirits, ghosts, the devil...

I would perhaps think carefully about how I depict the devil in MG, which is a far, far, far cry from saying it shouldn't be done. I'll take a walk and see if there are any examples of this that I know of. As for people trying to ban your book for such content, whether for valid or invalid reasons, I dunno. It would likely have to be very popular or rather button-pushing, more likely you'll suffer no worse than a few bad reviews and some busybodies on Common Sense Media (if that even).

My UMG novel has one. Why not? I guess it all depends how they're depicted. Context and all.

I don't think it would be, as long as it's handled in an age-appropriate way. This doesn't mean all parents or parents' groups will approve, or that all agents or editors will either, but I don't think there's any industry-wide rule against it, unless you are writing specifically for a religious audience. As for zealots trying to get a book banned, I wouldn't allow that to stop me from writing anything. For one thing, it would allow the zealots to win. For another, a little notoriety sure as heck didn't hurt Harry Potter or other books that get on banned lists. A book has to have a certain amount of popularity before it can attract the ire of these groups, of course, but once it does, it might even be good for sales. One reason I read HP is because I figured anything that crowd hates can't be all bad.

I've run across references to the Devil, or even Satan, in MG books. I remember in one of the Great Brain books, the characters played a prank on another kid where someone dressed up in a devil costume and pretended to be there for his soul (because the kid backed out on a childish, make-believe oath he took on the Bible). While it was portrayed as a dumb thing kids do (since the oath on the Bible wasn't technically binding in that situation), there was no doubt in any of the characters' minds that the Devil really existed and your soul would be damned if you lied under a real, binding oath given by a priest or justice of the peace.

Kids often believe in things like devils and demons very literally, even if they weren't raised to be religious. I still remember the stories my cousin told me about the little mica flecks in some sidewalks being "witches candles" that had a small chance of pulling your soul down to Hell (though I was younger than MG then, she was about that age). It can be fun to be scared.

I'm pretty sure I read books with references to selling one's soul when I was a kid.

There are plenty of stories for MG kids that deal with paranormal or fantasy too, where things that are dark or scary are objectively real within the story universe and are real threats to the characters.

Of course, you'd have to handle it in an age-appropriate way, with less gore and graphic-ness being appropriate than for YA or older. But there are MG novels that are pretty scary in their treatment of the supernatural, with lots of tension and potentially dark consequences. Think of Neil Gaiman's Coreline. My nieces loved it when they were 8-9.

Enlightened said:

Excellent advice. Thank you! I'm different about being on a banned list, but you are right.

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It's understandable; everybody wants to be liked and being called evil or a bad influence, even by a small group of people, is bound to hurt.

If you want to write MG, you kind of have to read MG.

There will be zealots who try to ban you for any number of reasons. If you're not selling Harry Potter numbers, I doubt they'll notice whether you include the Devil or not. (If you ARE selling Harry Potter numbers, you won't care!)

You might get a nasty tweet from a parent or two who feels your portrayal doesn't match their own vision of the Devil, just as you might get one from someone who feels your work is:

1. Too LBGTQ friendly.
2. Not LBGTQ friendly enough.
3. Too socialist.
4. Too capitalist
5. Too violent
6. Too religious
7. Not religious enough
8. Not vegan enough
9. ... You name it, there will be a zealot who doesn't like it.

As others have said, there's always going to be someone to find something to hate about your book. People have challenged Winnie the Pooh because talking animals are an "insult to God."

If you're writing for a Christian audience, I'd suggest being careful; their standards are likely to be more stringent in regards to mention/portrayal of the Devil. Otherwise, write away.

And definitely read more MG fiction. You'd answer your own question if you read enough MG fiction...

Enlightened said:

Excellent advice, and thank you for the mica story. That was fantastic. I agree, content is critical; i.e. make it age appropriate. The devil costume version is a great example of how to make it age appropriate.

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My cousin was one for stories when I was a kid. She had me half convinced there were "wearwolves" living in the hills of Eugene Oregon (wearwolves being wolves that wore clothes), and that miniature witches would float out of the attic doors at night in little bubbles and hold covens in the garage, and that the "boogie man" was so-called because he was covered in boogers.

I should write a kid's book so I can commemorate these things somehow.

There have always been haters and people who want to stop everyone from having access to things proscribed by a particular religion or value system. Writers have always gotten pieces of hate mail from such people from time to time. Unfortunately, we live in an era where the haters have more ways of getting their opinions out there and attracting (or generating) more haters, and the internet makes it easier for them to spew their bile for all to see and to harass and threaten people.

I don't know what one can do about that except develop very good emotional (and perhaps physical) filters.