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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43780
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43780
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

You have two problems here:

1. Lots of good people dying, "on stage" - in front of the children
2. Good people killing other good people

* * *

The first is dealt with very well in _The Hobbit_, for example.

> Already behind [Thorin] among the goblin dead lay many men and many dwarves, and many a fair elf that should have lived yet long ages merrily in the wood. And as the valley widened his onset grew ever slower. His numbers were too few. His flanks were unguarded. Soon the attackers were attacked, and they were forced into a great ring, facing every way, hemmed all about with goblins and wolves returning to the assault. The bodyguard of Bolg came howling against them, and drove in upon their ranks like waves upon cliffs of sand. Their friends could not help them, for the assault from the Mountain was renewed with redoubled force, and upon either side men and elves were being slowly beaten down.  
> [...]  
> “It will not be long now,” thought Bilbo, “before the goblins win the Gate, and we are all slaughtered or driven down and captured. Really it is enough to make one weep, after all one has gone through. I would rather old Smaug had been left with all the wretched treasure, than that these vile creatures should get it, and poor old Bombur, and Balin and Fili and Kili and all the rest come to a bad end; and Bard too, and the Lake-men and the merry elves. Misery me! I have heard songs of many battles, and I have always understood that defeat may be glorious. It seems very uncomfortable, not to say distressing. I wish I was well out of it.”

There is both a general picture of the battle, with many dead, and the personal connection - multiple beloved characters are in danger. Fili, Kili and Thorin are killed, bringing heart-wrenching grief. All the relevant emotions are presented to the reader, evoked, explored: the horror of the battle, the MC's fear for his own life, his fear for those he (and the reader) care for, a moment of despair when the battle turns against them, hope unlooked for when the eagles come, grief when, although they've won, a great many are dead.

There are no graphic details - no blood and gore. The scene is filtered through the narration. Bilbo is focused not on the visceral - not on cries of pain and spilt guts, but on other emotions. Almost, Tolkien paints not a picture of a battlefield, but a picture of a picture - the unsavoury bits have been cleaned up.

The "cleaned up" part is very noticeable in a slightly later scene:

> There indeed lay Thorin Oakenshield, wounded with many wounds, and his rent armour and notched axe were cast upon the floor. He looked up as Bilbo came beside him.

A very emotional farewell follows. The focus is all on the grief of Thorin dying, there's no descriptions of bloodstained bandages and whatnot. I think that's the right way to go in a book for children. Gory descriptions would be "too much", overwhelming the reader and distracting from what you want to tell.

**tl;dr:** focus on hope/despair, grief, concern for friends. Avoid vivid descriptions of gore. Tell that people are dead, but don't show their death throes.

* * *

The second depends on how you want the people who do the killing to deal with the situation, emotionally. The children might be too young to participate in the killing, but when Moses calls "Whoever is for the Lord, to me!" they are for the Lord, aren't they? So they would be part of the party doing the killing, even if they don't actively participate, and by extension, your readers are party to that too.

In stories for children, good guys kill bad guys. Many goblins are killed in _The Hobbit_, and nobody bats an eyelash. But those people who made the golden calf - they were misguided and afraid. Can you truly paint them as monsters, whose death is nothing to be sad about?

You've got to decide for yourself how you want to present this situation, why those people deserve to be killed (or maybe need to be killed although they don't deserve it). You've got to figure out how those men who do the killing rationalise it to themselves. Only once you've got that, can you think of how you present it all to your child-protagonists, and through them - to your readers.

Original score: 26