I've just finished reading "The Silent Boy" by Lois Lowry. It was a lovely gentle book about very ungentle things - mental illness, class, teenage pregnancy.
I always struggle with working out what age I'd like my child to be before reading a book like this.
I think I underestimate the amount of ugly things that small children meet in the world and have to think about. I remember really liking books that dealt with big things as a child. The problem is that I hope that children won't have to notice these things yet. If I pretend they don't exist I am just being uncaring really?