Why I Write Scary Books for Kids

Lorelei Savaryn discusses the normalization of the occult in children’s books, and what parents can do when their kids encounter this material unexpectedly.

I joke with my priest that I write “theologically plausible” ghosts in my books for kids.  

When I say this, I mean that the ghosts in my stories are always depicted in a way that might be possible, given the theology of the Catholic Church. They are souls of the departed in some form of a purgatorial state. If they aren’t in heaven yet, then something is holding them back.  

Sometimes people ask me why it is that as a Catholic, I write ghost stories in the first place. When answering that question, I sometimes share that I was a kid who liked to read spooky stories. Other times I share my favorite quote from GK Chesterton:  

Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.

Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear. (G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles)  

I talk about how I believe it’s important for kids to read stories where characters encounter evil, whether real or fantastical, and where they have the chance to bear witness to good defeating that evil in the end. I think that reading stories like this helps us grow our own strength and bravery for when we face the dragons and monsters in our own lives.  

But there is still another reason. As a mom with kids of my own who read in a variety of genres, I’ve noticed a disconcerting trend in spooky books for kids, and I hope that the stories I write can help be even a small part of a remedy for that. To be fair, these things have existed in kids’ books in some capacity for a long time, but it is undoubtedly more common now than it has ever been before. 

A rise of the occult in children’s books  

That trend is this: there are an alarming number of books published, which are targeted at kids aged eight and up, that expose kids to the occult, normalize occult practices, and that teach kids inaccurate things about the spiritual world.   

Without naming specific titles, many children’s books being published today feature things like tarot cards or tarot card readings. Kids attempting to reach the dead by holding a séance or some other method, are also very common. Several books included demons, either as characters in the story or as an entity that kids have the ability to exercise on their own. A recent book featured a scenario where a sad ghost possessed another child character for a brief time, and the child was completely powerless to stop it.   

I believe, in most cases, that things like demons and ghosts are viewed at as myth to many writing in the genre. Or, if they believe things like ghosts and demons are real, they don’t understand the theology behind them. Therefore, they are likely largely unaware of the potential harm these types of stories could bring to kids.

However, my concern as a Catholic mother is multi-faceted. Even with the attention and communication between me and my kids about what they’re reading at any given time, my kids have still come across these things because there isn’t always a way for us to know that they were in there from the back-cover synopsis. And no matter what the author’s intent, thousands of children are reading these books and might decide that maybe it would be fun to get a tarot card reading or hold a séance, or they might believe that a ghost is able to possess them.  

So when I am asked why I write spooky stories for kids, another important answer is because it is important to me to address the fact that occult practices and misrepresentations of ghosts and the demonic are so prevalent in children’s literature today.  

That is largely why I wrote my new middle grade novel, The Night Train, the way that I did. I wanted to give middle-grade readers, those who love suspense and the spooky, the chance to see a ghost story where characters know that there are things they do not mess with. The kids in my story have at least a basic understanding that ghosts are in a purgatorial state. They know that they shouldn’t attempt to handle a demon or hold a séance. That there are some things that are bigger than they can handle, and that they should leave to a priest. The sidekick character in the story, a boy named Westin whose family are practicing Catholics, provides snippets of Catholic teaching on things like curses and ghosts throughout the book. My books are, I hope, a bit of an antidote to the pervasiveness of the occult in the market at this time.  

What parents can do  

As a parent concerned about my kids being exposed to the occult, here are some practices our family has put into place so that we can make good choices about the books that they read and so that they know what to do when they inevitably encounter something that wasn’t apparent on the back cover.  

To start, we talk to our kids in a developmentally appropriate way about the kinds of things we would want to avoid in books, and why. We don’t want to make light of things like demons, or seances, or tarot cards. With tarot cards, for example, we’ve talked about how we wouldn’t ask anything to try to help us predict our future, because any ability to do so wouldn’t be coming from God. Also, if they encounter something they aren’t sure of inside the pages of a book, our kids know to ask us about it. They know that just by encountering something in a story that they aren’t doing anything wrong, and that the right thing to do is to check.

We’re always happy to take a look and help them discern if what they’ve encountered is veering onto dangerous ground, or if the content and value of the story is worth continuing on. These are discernments I make one a regular basis in my own reading life, and I hope that teaching our kids these skills with help them grow into discerning readers as well.   

The books our kids read matter. What we pour into ourselves often finds a way to stitch itself to us in one way or another. While the landscape for children’s literature has veered into territory that embraces exposing kids to and normalizing the occult, as parents we can foster healthy catechesis and open communication so that our kids not only know what kinds of things to steer clear of, and how to, with our support, discern through the stories they hold in their hands.  

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Copyright 2024 Lorelei Savaryn
Images: Canva