The big stuff is there: good and evil, right and wrong, but the depth isn’t. Our protagonist doesn’t struggle. She’s too clean, too plain. How do we tell our author that their baby needs considerable re-working?
empathy
Editing Children’s Books on Mature Topics: What to Consider
By Jennifer Ladwig
While books can be a wonderful way for readers to escape reality for a few hundred pages, books can also help foster learning and provide readers with safe ways to cope with issues they might be facing.
The Role of Empathy in YA
By Jasmine Gower
Empathy is not so much feeling something about a character, but feeling something with a character. It is not only being sorry for a character when they struggle and happy when they succeed—it’s about the reader experiencing those trials and victories as if they were their own. And when those trials and victories are rooted in immediate real-world issues, there’s more at stake than well-written characterization.