Kate Douglas Wiggin has said:

"Let us be realistic, by all means, but beware, O story-teller, of
being too realistic. Avoid the shuddering tale of 'the wicked boy who
stoned the birds,' lest some hearer should be inspired to try the
dreadful experiment and see if it really does kill."

I must emphasize the fact, however, that it is only the excess of this
dramatic element which I deplore. A certain amount of excitement is
necessary, but this question belongs to the positive side of the
subject, and I shall deal with it later on.

5. _Stories presenting matters quite outside the plane of a child's
interests, unless they are wrapped in mystery_. Experience with
children ought to teach us to avoid stories which contain too much
_allusion_ to matters of which the hearers are entirely ignorant.
But judging from the written stories of today, supposed to be for
children, it is still a matter of difficulty to realize that this form
of allusion to "foreign" matters, or making a joke, the appreciation
of which depends solely on a special and "inside" knowledge, is always
bewildering and fatal to sustained dramatic interest.

It is a matter of intense regret that so very few people have
sufficiently clear remembrance of their own childhood to help them to
understand the taste and point of view of the _normal_ child.
There is a passage in the "Brownies," by Mrs. Ewing, which illustrates
the confusion created in the child mind by a facetious allusion in a
dramatic moment which needed a more direct treatment. When the
nursery toys have all gone astray, one little child exclaims joyfully: