Childhood ruined. By Sam.

I wanted to read the Enchanted Wood again to see if it was as good as I remember.   Bad idea.  Childhood ruined.    When I was little this trilogy was my favourite.  I reread them over and over.   I remember being terrified of the Snowman and Dame Slap and actually feeling real terror, when your heart starts pounding and you go boiling hot.    I thought the children were so amazing and Moon Face was kindly.  

But now I realise it was all a con.   Jo is a rude obnoxious little boy who needs a good slap.   Their parents are lazy and irresponsible.   Bessie is a doormat who is made to do all the work just because she is a girl and she just sits back and takes it.   Moonface is rude and disrespectful.    The danger is non existent, the snowman is less menacing than Winnie the Pooh.   The tree doesn't even seem so big.  Now as I'm reading the only danger I can sense is the branches snapping under the weight of them or being bitten by a wild animal.   I wish I had never read it again.    I'm sad now.  

Maybe tomorrow I will reread Malory Towers and realise that Alicia is a big slag and Darryl is a lesbian.

I know these books were written for a different time but were things so old fashioned when I was a child that I thought the family dynamics in these stories were normal?   No wonder modern day children refuse to read Enid Blyton.  She wasn't right in the head.