Divorce and Separation (Tough Topics)

Title: Divorce and Separation (Tough Topics)

Author: Patricia J. Murphy

Publisher: Heinemann Library

Publication Year: 2008

Professional Source: Kent County Library

Genre (and subcategory, if appropriate): Nonfiction Picture Books

Audience: Children

Awards: None

Critical Response:

This book, Divorce and Separation, is not the type of book that people would typically think of when talking about children’s literature. People could easily say that this book is unimaginative, and they would be right. This book is an example of a very factual book aimed towards children. Its goal is purely didactic and is not meant to be pleasurable at all. However, the solemn tone of the book fits its subject. Divorce is not something to play with.

The book’s structure is very simple. It starts by providing dictionary definitions of divorce itself and everything that goes with it, saying things like, “A divorce is the end of a marriage. It is a legal agreement between two people who used to be married.” (8) However, spelling out the technicalities, it switches to 2nd person to address the child readers directly, saying, “You might believe that you did something that caused them to break up. This is never true.” (12) Its language is instructive without any extra figurative language, but it still makes sure to reassure the child that things will be okay in the future. This combination makes a difficult subject easier for a child to understand and digest, which is very important with a subject as serious as divorce.

The book itself appeals mostly to young children, and is filled with simple vocabulary and stock images. However, the book could also be appealing to parents going through a divorce. By read this book to or with their children, a parent could help their child to better understand what is going on around them. However, those images display many different types of people on the pages. People of different ages, races, and genders are on each page, further emphasizing the fact that divorce can happen to anyone. However, the book was published a few years ago when the LGBT movement was not as prominent in the media, and the book shows its age when it assumes that the children reading it will all have one mother and one father.