LITTLE BLACK QUIBBA
SIR,—The comments aroused by my reference to two children's books by Miss Helen Bannerman seem to be either vaguely personal, irrelevant (for example, that they were first told on a train in India), or to descend to the reductio ad absurdum (that Noddy tales are worse, for instance, which may be true according to taste, but hardly advances the dis- cussion).
My simple contention, inspired by the reactions of one not untypical child, is that I can see no reason why stories intended for the very young reader need to be about violence, death and blood shed, and illustrated in colour to match. One corre- spondent suggested that the child is at fault. Mirabile dictu: so it is now a fault to be tender-hearted at the age of three! I would merely say as a general reply that it must surely be desirable to prolong, not shorten, the period during which a child's reaction to violence and sudden death is one of fear rather than of acceptance. The latter could lead so easily, as 1 think in many cases it has, to an appetite for sadistic entertainment, and perhaps for the'real thing —like the children who committed wholesale slaughter recently among the animals at Belle Vue, Manchester.—Yours faithfully,
LESLIE ADRIAN
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