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Every book begins with the unknown that lies within its pages. Sure, we are given a few sentences that provide us with some direction but really that’s it. We don’t know how many battles we’ll fight or friends we’ll make along the way. What we also don’t know is how it will all come to an end.

Ah, the ending. Some of us crave it so deeply that we’ll read the last page of a book first. For some, the last page holds the answer to an age-old question: To read or not to read?

I can recall J.K. Rowling being asked, more times than I can count, is Harry Potter going to die? A question she could never answer, well, that is, until the end. No pun intended. In Harry, A History, J.K. Rowling has this to say,

In many ways it would have been a neater ending to kill him. For sure, I knew that all along. Felt that the books’ overriding message was that love is the most powerful force in this world. My model with Harry really was war veterans, who have seen horrors and are asked to go home and rebuild, and go back to ordinary life and care for a family, be a father – particularly be a father – [it is] a difficult job, in troubled times. I felt it would be a betrayal of my character if I did anything other than show him doing that. And I think it’s an absolutely heroic thing to do …

She’s right. The act of rebuilding is heroic. To pick up the pieces, put them back together and move forward takes courage. I believe it may be one of the hardest things one can do.

Kenneth Oppel, author of the Silverwing saga, has this to say about the ending,

… I think readers want simple, basic things from endings. Most readers, if they’re honest, want happy endings. They might not get them, but that doesn’t stop them wanting it.

We do, don’t we? We want the friends we’ve made along the way to not only survive but also thrive. It’s only natural. Reading an unhappy ending is never easy. Frankly, it can be downright brutal, but it’s needed because it’s honest in its realism. The unhappy ending gives the reader balance.

Some pose a single question: Can children handle the unhappy ending? I think they can. Children ask questions because they want answers. They’re smart enough to know when the truth is being withheld from them. We’re doing them a disservice if all we supply them with is a utopian view of life.

I think that both J.K. Rowling and Kenneth Oppel are right. Not every journey in life has a happy ending and, I believe, nor should every story. Sometimes good doesn’t triumph, justice isn’t served, the hero doesn’t survive. If every story ended with a happily ever after, what would we ever learn about the world or, perhaps, more importantly, about ourselves?