My sister recently texted me and asked for some book recommendations. She wanted a good biography or auto-biography. The first book that came to mind was Mistaken Identity by Dan and Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen and Whitney Cerak. The book is the story of two young women involved in a car wreck. One of the girls lived, the other died, and they were mistaken for one another. The mistake was not discovered for several weeks, after one family had had a funeral for their daughter and the other had been sitting at the hospital with the injured, comatose girl. The book is fascinating, but very difficult and I warned my sister that it would make her cry. She was okay with that, but many library patrons are not. 
I am currently attending a seminar led by Tom Wilkinson, of this blog's "Tom's Two Cents" column, on Lonesome Dove. In his introduction of the book, Mr. Tom discussed the author's ability to make the reader fall in love with a character. He warned us that McMurtry would have no compunction, though, in killing off our favorite characters, and if I am remembering correctly, in unpleasant ways. 
A couple of years ago, the movie "A Dog's Purpose" came out. It is based on the book by W. Bruce Cameron and I read and enjoyed the book. When I recommend it and its companion book A Dog's Journey, I get asked if it is sad. People want to know if the dog dies. The truth of the matter is that the books follow one dog over the course of several lifetimes. The dog is born, dies, and is reincarnated several times. The books are funny, heartwarming, and joyful. Sadly, most people will not check the books out even though they end in a positive, hopeful way.
I also recently read an article titled "What Good Does It Do To Break a Child's Heart?" by children's author Jo Knowles. She discussed books that she had cried over as a child - books such as The Velveteen Rabbit and Charlotte's Web. In thinking about her reaction to those books she discovered that:
"...those books hadn’t broken my heart. Not really. They’d caused an awakening in it, and helped it grow. That’s what good books do."
I've thought about that quote a lot since I first read it a few days ago. I think that it sums up the benefits of reading quite succinctly. Through reading we get to enjoy other people's success and happiness, but also grieve with them, and rail at the unfairness of it all when things go wrong. Books show us something about ourselves. Of course, I'm not going to grieve as strongly for a book character as I do for a friend or family member, but maybe grieving a book character can teach me something about myself - about how I grieve. Maybe reading about a horrible situation like the one in Mistaken Identity can help me expand my compassion for those around me. Maybe facing difficult things in a book can help me face them in real life.
Maybe the same is true for children. In Ms. Knowles book See You at Harry's a child is at the funeral of her younger brother and doesn't understand how people can be laughing and telling stories at such a sad occasion. I remember being confused by the same thing when I was a child. I also remember reading Where the Red Fern Grows as a kid and crying over Billy's loss of Ole Dan and Little Ann. Books can show kids situations they've never seen and help them process the ones they have. Much as we want to keep kids sheltered from pain, they are going through the world with their eyes wide open, taking it all in. Books are such a wonderful way to open discussions about difficult topics with the kids we love. I have read thousands of books since I first learned to read during nap time in Kindergarten. I've read books that are funny, happy, silly, sappy, sad, intense, informative, and everything else you can think of. I've read romance, science fiction, adventure, young adult, inspirational, biography, non-fiction and even a graphic novel or two. I love a good escapist read that I can breeze through in an afternoon. However, the books that have stayed with me are the ones that have made me think, and that usually means that the characters have gone through something difficult and come through on the other side.
I guess what I really hope for is for readers to be open to all kinds of books. I hope that we don't dismiss books out of hand just because they contain something difficult or sad. I'm not going to recommend a book that has no hope in it - where there is nothing redeeming in either the characters or the situation. Those are my least favorite types of books. But just think of all the wonderful stories we would miss if we never read anything with hard things in them. I think my life is better for the books I've read that have "broken" my heart. I sure wouldn't have wanted to miss them!
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