Background: DD(7) is an anxious child and is often distressed about hypothetical disasters like houses or school catching fire, lightning strikes, wolf or bear attacks, etc. Previously this school year she's been upset about some of her school reading material, and been tough to settle afterwards. Some of it has been fictional stuff, like fables where animal characters hurt or eat other characters. Other times they were factual books, and she was worried about things like Hitler not wanting black people to compete in the Olympics or pictures of a leopard eating an antelope. So far I've tried to be supportive and reassuring of DD, while still getting her to complete her assigned reading. (I don't want to give her the idea that she can pick and choose which homework to do.)
DD has put off her homework over the weekend and so I asked her to bring her reading book and read it to me before bed. The book is about Pompeii, and has chapters titled "No escape!" and "Dead and Buried". It describes how the people in the city tried to flee but were mostly burned alive or suffocated under several feet of ash.
I know if I let her read it, she's going to torment herself with visions of people dying horribly and no amount of reassurances will convince her that the same thing won't happen to us at any moment. I'm happy teach her about volcanoes generally, but WIBU to just give her something else to read?