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Article: Return to Pooh Corner
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 10, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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IN 1948, when nearing the end of a long writing life, A.A. Milne
had some things to say about children's reading. At 9, he had
himself read Oliver Twist, and it seemed almost as if it had ended
his childhood; it had certainly given him the stuff of nightmares.
Dickens' world seemed the real world and a frightening place. "The
young can assimilate a good deal of blood-letting in their romances,"
Milne wrote, in his introduction to Books for Children, a reading
list compiled for the National Book League, "but they should be
spared the realism which lets the wolfish faces at the window into
their innocent dreams. The night-thoughts of a child, waking or
sleeping, can be terrifying and we ...