The war in children's and adolescent literature

Abstract

Since February 24, 2022, the war between Russia and Ukraine has colonized communication. Impossible for children and teenagers not to see fragments of news and images. What to do as educators? Talk about it? Keep quiet? At least two reasons - above all in primary and secondary school - push us towards the terrain of comparison and shared reflection. First reason: this war, more than others, has entered the lives of children and young people. Second reason: the mass mediaization of war risks, already in the short term, to provoke a dangerous addictive effect which, as educators, we are called to stem. Under certain conditions, literature for children and adolescents is an excellent resource to offer young readers and teachers territories to elaborate on what it really means to experience war and its consequences.