It's difficult to make sense of all that's happening in the world today, but for young people it must be particularly tough.
Indeed we're seeing some shocking results of surveys showing how some of them are responding - according to a new poll, half of 13- to 27-year-olds can’t see the point of democracy.
Why do they not know that authoritarianism is worse, asked David Mitchell in a recent article, and many commentators have joined him in wondering how we've come to this place.
The children's laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce says that young people are experiencing a 'happiness recession' and for him the decline in reading has played its part in this.
Last week he arranged a Reading Rights Summit in Liverpool to address this issue, seeking to influence government in encouraging reading for pleasure.
'Our children are near the top of the global leagues when it comes to the mechanical skill of reading,' he said, 'but near the bottom when it comes to reading for pleasure'.
And another report this week found that fewer than half (44%) of 1,000 parents of reception-aged children said they thought children starting school should know how to use books correctly, turning the pages rather than swiping or tapping as if using an electronic device.
We know, as our little community of booklovers here, that reading for pleasure brings about mental and emotional well-being, and helps us come to terms with, and understand, complex matters facing us as a society. We need to do our bit, then, in encouraging young people to get into a habit of discovering and enjoying books for themselves.
I read a quote attributed to Albert Einstein recently: 'If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.'
Whether or not Einstein actually said this, let's continue to delight in stories - and share our pleasure with all the children we know.
Thank you for reading.