Parents need to be reminded of this:

From the Boston Globe:

We won't be the spoiler here, but it's no secret that a much-beloved character dies in this sixth book in the series by J.K. Rowling. What do you say when your child has been up all night reading, and her eyes are red and swollen from crying?

For sure you don't say, ''Oh honey, it's only a book."

Children's literature specialist Masha Rudman of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst says, ''That's like saying, 'Oh, it's only one stick of dynamite.' " In other words, she says, ''Stories have power."

I read The Outsiders for the first time when I was about eleven.  I sobbed my brains out, and I very clearly remember my dad telling me "it's just a book".  (He also said that he was going to flush it down the toilet if I kept crying.  He was joking, but I was horrified because a) it was a library book and b) I wanted to read it again). 

Anyway, it was not helpful.  If anything, it made it worse.  So, rock on, Boston Globe.  You tell 'em.