The Ol' Dead Dad Syndrome

I had to laugh when I read an article in Publishers Weekly titled "The Ol' Dead Dad Syndrome: Why are there so many dead parents in kids' books?" by Leila Sales. I have been asking myself that questions for years, and Ms. Sales has some interesting theories. First, lazy writing. She believes that creating and developing characters is hard work, and that some authors take the easy way out, and lop off a few here and there. Second, it is an easy way to create sympathy for a character. "Dead parent equals immediate sympathy." And third, grownups are boring. When kids are left to their own devices they can run wild and get into all sorts of trouble as the Baudelaire children prove in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events series. Ms. Sales suggests one possible solution to this--set the book at a boarding school, summer camp, or another parent-free zone--Hogwarts anyone? I found the article interesting, and believe Ms. Sales was making light of the "syndrome", but with anything these days there are some that took offense. For an interesting defense of dead parents take a look at Nathan Brandsford's blog. Is it me or is everything too complicated these days?