The Princess and the Goblin

Recently on CHE forums, folks were discussing appropriate ages for reading certain types of books. Someone was asking whether they should tell a fairly conservative neighbor what exactly was in the book their 6th? grader was reading, and the general consensus was STFU. But, it got me thinking about stuff I read at various ages, and whether or not I felt I had been scarred. And, I generally thought 'not.' For example, I remember reading "Sophie's Choice" when my mom had, which must have been around fourth grade. There were just a lot of parts for which I had no reference, and therefore read through in a bit of a haze. Not the concentration camp part. I had been to Dachau with my family when I was 7. I knew about that. But, the sex and drugs? Not a clue what was happening there. And, although it's a terrible story, I don't think it hurt me to read it then. Although, and this was a point some folks made, I certainly didn't get out of it what I might have if I read it at a later age.

So, even more recently, I was browsing through a localish library site, and came upon some links to books you can check out digitally. I clicked through, and browsed for a while to see what type of books were available in ebook, audio book, etc., formats. And I came upon this.

Which is a book I must have read in 1st or 2nd grade, since I had recurring, well, not really nightmares, more like stress/anxiety dreams based on it for the next 6 or 7 years. Until about 7th grade, when I told someone out loud about it and they laughed. Okay, I told the story to my entire class after prompting from the teacher, and the teacher laughed and made several pointed jokes about it... but that's another story about a whole different kind of scarring. Maybe for another time. I knew the dreams were based on a book I had read, but I had long forgotten (even by 7th grade) which book that was, although I remembered the basic storyline. Now I know.

So, I am now re-reading it. Read along if you like. Beats me how the entire text can be online, and yet if you check out the digital book, there's DRM to deal with.... Mysteries of the technological age!