Violence Against Children In Realistic Novels For Children: The Tulip Touch By Anne Fine, Secrets By Jacqueline Wilson

The novels for children about violence against children may be shocking forsome adults, for those in particular who are not used to reading contemporaryrealistic novels for children. Violence against children is dealt with by the writersfor children, and these writers are encouraged by some researchers. However,violence is the subject matter which must be dealt with cautiously. Anne Fine andJacqueline Wilson are the two British writers for children dealing with violenceagainst children in their novels. The aim of this paper is to discuss how Fine in theTulip Touch and Wilson in Secrets deal with violence against children.Both Fine and Wilson have been able to write novels about physical abuse,depicting less violence scenes. Fine has focused on the consequences of theindifference of people and the institutions to violence against the child while Wilsondisplays what the abused child feels and how she is able to overcome her problem.Besides, Wilson emphasizes the significance of the concern of the people around theabused child. Considering both writers’ efforts to emphasize the function of adults’concern for the problem of the abused children and the role of the adults in solvingviolence problem, we may suggest that the realistic novels for children about abuse should be read by adults as well.