Children want to know how to cope with situations that seem overwhelming, that they feel are beyond their years and ability to cope. Children of all ages feel this—whether you are three or ninety-three. It would be a human fallacy to believe that the child is completely gone even at an advanced age. It is the human condition. Encounters with loss of love, death, losing that prize you coveted, and not getting to go to summer camp or the school you wanted, are just a sample of childhood dilemmas.
Parents divorce, grandparents die, and sometimes there is not enough to eat, or money to pay the bills. Sometimes, parents have to work so hard, that a child is often alone. Perhaps, they have a medical or mental condition that makes their life difficult.
What can help with the resolution of these events or feelings is a book that takes them on an adventure, solves a mystery or perhaps replaces boredom with excitement. Maybe it’s snarky—it says things that as a child they can’t say to an adult or bully. Maybe it teaches them to look at an embarrassing situation and then come to laugh about it. That is a very good reason to write and read children’s fiction for ages 8-12.