Sometimes I look around at the BBC and wonder where all the creativity has gone. But far more often I'm left stunned by the sort of stuff being produced, stuff that makes me realise I've got a long, long way to go.

The series of short animations produced by the Newsround team, to illustrate child poverty in a way that kids will understand - and bother to watch - is a perfect case in point.

Late last week Tim Levell, the Newsround editor, wrote about them on the BBC's Editors' Blog:

One of the aims of CBBC is to make television that's engaging for seven to 11-year-olds, and all our recent research shows that bleakness is a turn-off, both visually and emotionally. Children respond best to strong visuals as well as some practical and positive outcomes.

So when CBBC's creative head Anne Gilchrist suggested the idea of using cartoons to tell the children's stories, everyone at Newsround instinctively knew that this could be a very exciting and powerful idea. As far as we know, no one has ever attempted to tell current affairs using animation.

Children we've shown it to have really liked the different animation styles, including photo-montage, comic strip and cardboard cutouts. They weren't really expecting a "documentary", but to our relief they've kept watching, and some have even had tears in their eyes by the end.

[source: BBC Editors' Blog - 'Strong visuals']

Tim's post about the background to the animations is good, but the comments people have left on it are better. A lady named Di wrote:

I saw the programme on the TV tonight and thought what a strange way to portray the stories - I felt it was a little demeaning. then I noticed my two children, especailly my son who is normally turned off by anything like this. The programme had their full attention throughout and they wanted to engage further after the programme finished too. I've changed my mind completely about the presentation style.

But a gentleman named Donal questioned the raison d'etre behind the animations:

Why is important for children to be aware of all the wrongs in the world so early? Can we not just let children be children, they will spend many years of their lives being aware of "the worlds problems" with out it being drilled into their heads so early.So children recognise other peoples misfortunes? What would you like them to do about it? Feel guilty? Childhood seems to becoming ever shorter.

I've watched every single one on the Newsround website and so should you, they're outstanding and deserving of an award. Not only is the animation absolutely first class - five different techniques for five different stories - but the actual content really is worthwhile and well presented.

Each story is voiced by the child it involves, and we're given the merest glimpse of the actual child at some point in the animation, to remind us that this is the story of a very real person.

Di, in her comment, has it right I'm sure when she says her children were gripped. I'd go further than she does - I didn't find the cartoons demeaning at all, and they kept me much more involved in the story than if this had been a dry Newsnight or BBC News 24 report into child poverty. No reporters, no talking heads, no statistics, just real kids telling their stories with something interesting to watch. No wonder Newsround's target audience responded well to it.

As for Donal's fears about the dwindling innocence of childhood, I don't agree that children should be kept away from the bad things in life, just as I don't think children should be intentionally exposed to them either. It's not like Newsround wants every child to live in poverty, it's just trying to broaden the horizons a bit for children who don't, or let children who do know they're not alone - and that they've got a voice. Kids are exposed to enough truly horrible news - wars, murders, etc - on the 'adult' news, that the least their very own version can do is try to explain some of the bad stuff in the most accessible way possible.

It really would be demeaning if Newsround spent every bulletin pretending the world is a faultless arena of joy to an audience containing, in many cases, kids who know damned well it isn't.