As part of my Creative Writing degree, I took a course in Writing for Young People. This book was mentioned in it and I can see why. It definitely follows the philosophy that children can understand and handle more than adults generally give them credit for and that the bad as well as the good should be available to them if they wish.

This may seem strange, but I wish this book had been published when I was younger. I think it would have been a wonderful challenge for my advanced reading level.

I enjoyed the language. It was nice to see it rolled around and savoured. I found the content rather harrowing at first, but the further I got into it the more confortable I became. The ending came as no real surprise for me, but I enjoyed every step of the way.

I’d be fascinated to read what the academics made of this book. I’m sure there’s got to be some literary articles on it somewhere. I think I could spend a lot longer thinking about this.