When my daughter was little, she loved to play make believe, and I loved eavesdropping on her pretend world. But there was one thing that always startled me about her world-building endeavours: she always took me and her dad out of it.

Her games would begin with: “Okay, so we need to get some food because Mom and Dad are dead.” Or “It sucks living in the attic because we’re orphans.” Or (slightly better) “All the grown-ups have been kidnapped! What should we do?”

Later I realized all Kid-Lit and children’s movies share this one commonality. In fiction, kids are alone and must navigate the universe by themselves. (Think Harry Potter, Anne of Green Gables, etc.) Kids internalize the potential for disaster and try to fantasize a way around it. It's fascinating until the world of make-believe collides with reality. As occurred this week in our corner of the world.