Paula Sjogerman

on 7/13/04 6:13 AM, [email protected] at
[email protected] wrote:

> She says she doesn't think at 8 or 9 years old that she thought of it
> as more than just a really good story and it wasn't until she was older
> that she thought deeply about the themes of it and what was behind the
> plot. As a kid, she just thought it was a great book because it created
> such a real alternative world and so on. She thinks it is disturbing in
> an intellectual way, not in a horror story way, so people won't be
> disturbed by it unless they are intellectually 'ready' to think about
> it. In other words if a child is at the point that they will think
> about it then she thinks they can handle it and if they're not ready to
> handle it, they won't think about the implications of it and won't be
> disturbed by it.


That was true for her, and would be true for my daughter also, but not my
son. He is 10, an extremely deep thinker, and the book would be too sad and
disturbing for him. He feels certain things SO deeply that he has told me he
would like to stay away from certain topics.

So, as always, no one theory fits all kids.

Paula, back to my regularly scheduled lurking