Tough Subjects for Kids

I just read Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains, a story about a slave during the Revolutionary War. Isabel has it tough, really tough. Her owner dies and Isabel is thinking about the freedom she has been promised. But the lawyer with the will has fled due to the war and, not surprisingly, no one will take Isabel's word for it. Before you can say Thomas Paine she' and her sister have been sold to a greedy loyalist and his bad tempered wife. Details about the war are seamlessly woven into Isabel's story, as are horrific facts about living as a slave. The story ends on a hopeful note. And that's where the title of today's blog comes in. It's a story for kids to read (I think the target is middle school but upper elementary kids would be interested and could read it) and so it shouldn't be too dark and grim, should it? On the other hand, it's a story about slavery and, facing facts, most actual slave narratives do not end on a hopeful note. Such a fine line--where to shelter and where to trust our child readers to know for themselves how much they are ready to process.

Other books this made me think of:
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes--I think it would be very interesting to compare Chains to what I think of as an old-school Revolutionary War story
Calico Bush by Rachel Field--another old-school historical novel about a French girl who is an indentured servant