No Blyton-esque endings- but where's the hope?

There's an interesting article over at Guardian books blog about Anne Fine's comments at the Edinborough international book festival (how cool would that be?!)

It raises some of the issues that I'm interested in, namely the fine line between reality and despair.

Recently as a faculty we were discussing just this problem; we want students to read realistic texts, that are gritty and deal with issues worth discussion, BUT we also want them to retain a sense of hope. If you're being fed texts about the end of the earth in English, then moving to science to learn about global warming and then to social studies to learn about overpopulation, then you can see why some of them have such a bleak outlook.

And is it our place as English teachers to raise these issues?

I'm about to read Tender Morsels which has been so controversial in the UK this summer.

Watch this space :)