Sign up for a free recipe e-book →

Clarissa's Blog

Reader Beware

Published by

Clarissa

on

I got Klara JK Rowling’s The Christmas Pig on Audible without checking out what it was about. My mistake because the story is about a severely traumatized boy whose parents are divorced and now he’s mentally very unwell. I don’t know how to explain this chain of events to my 5-year-old, so Jack’s violent two-day screaming jags remain very confusing to her.

I don’t know what possessed JK Rowling to base the story on something so disturbing. It’s clearly a book for very little children. The webpage says 8 and up but it’s more like 4-7 range.

2 responses to “Reader Beware”

  1. Occasional Reader Avatar
    Occasional Reader

    Lots of children’s books deal with tragedy and/or unhappiness in some capacity. Didn’t you read A Little Princess to Klara? That book is incredibly tragic: parental death, abuse, starving children begging for food. It loved and continue to love that book. But it really is quite sad. I remember weeping as my mother read it to me. It has a happy ending (unlike Hans Christian Anderson’s depressing stories) but the characters truly suffer along the way.

    Like

    Reply
    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Sara Crewe isn’t screaming and trashing her room for two days over a trivial event a normal child forgets in 2 minutes. She’s resilient and stable. The character in the JK Rowling book is seriously mentally unwell.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a comment

A conservative literary critic and college professor

Recent posts