Difficult topics - what to expect from our books

We want to take a bit of time to let you know what you can and cannot expect from our books when it comes to tackling difficult topics.

First off, we don’t get into topics that could be emotional for kids to tackle without adults there to guide the discussion. 

This means specific topics on racism and discrimination in general are not broached in our books. It’s important to us that kids can use our books on their own if they want, and so we create our topics with this no-adult-required threshold in mind. 

However, this doesn’t mean we keep things childish or simplistic. 

We’re devoted to helping to develop and strengthen critical thinking:

• Across our critical thinking lineup, we often dig into the broad and universal issues that underpin difficult topics. These could be questions/debates/dilemmas on fairness, freedom of speech, culpability, accountability, ethics as well as moral, civic and collective responsibilities. 

• Often we use hypothetical/fictional/analogous scenarios to discuss current issues. It allows kids to more freely explore their own thinking without having to worry about saying the wrong thing. It helps them to engage. 

• We often encourage kids to look at a topic from different angles and through the lens of different circumstances. We want to challenge them to get in the habit of really thinking for themselves, and not just repeating what they hear from others.

• Because our topics are often open-ended, you are free to take the conversation at hand further. That is, we leave the door open to broach other topics, including sensitive & difficult topics, if you want to walk through it. It's up to you.

The value of imagination:

When it comes to difficult times, we think a strong imagination is also essential. It's key to:

• tackling problems in new ways
• envisioning the world's and one’s own story/future in different ways
• finding new ways to express oneself 
• developing empathy as the imagination helps you put yourself in others’ shoes 

Plus... escapism should never be discounted!

So from this perspective, we hope our creative thinking books can also help kids process the issues they are confronting.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at hello@furiousthink.com

Thank you!