Certain “kids” books stand out in the memories of millennials because they were completely traumatized by reading them for the first time. Like with any other aspect of pop culture, there is a collection of literature that is strongly associated with the era in which millennials grew up, and not necessarily because that’s when the relevant books were published. Many classic kids’ books from the 90s are still worth reading; likewise, books from an earlier decade were still a part of millennials’ (born in the 80s or 90s) lives as children.

Millennials often came into contact with these as required school reading — in some cases, leaving them angry at their teachers for putting them through the experience. Several of the books in question are still common reading material for elementary school-aged children. Hopefully, some people enjoyed it enough that they would still pick up the books they read for school today. Others might have been so shocked the first time that they would never think of returning to a particular novel.

10

Charlotte’s Web

By E. B. White

Charlotte’s Web’s focus on anthropomorphized farm animals is less cheery than one would think, as the concept is used to show the perspective of a young pig who is told that he is being raised for slaughter. Notably, the other animals are spared this fate because what they provide for their human owners is continuous throughout their lives. Charlotte’s Web highlights themes of accepting things one cannot change, mainly the eventuality of death. However, the things that Wilbur cannot change as a pig are drastically different from what humans cannot change for themselves.

Charlotte concocts a desperate plan to save Wilbur’s life that miraculously works. However, the movie adaptation (more so than the book) points out that while Wilbur might have been spared, the family feasted on another pig for Christmas dinner. Charlotte’s death at the end, the departure of most of her children, and three of her daughters staying behind to become Wilbur’s new companions is actually the most comforting take on the circle of life in the story.

9

The Halloween Tree

By Ray Bradbury

The inciting incident of The Halloween Tree is that a young boy, one of a group of nine friends, is kidnapped by a shadowy demon. This prompts the others to undertake a journey through time and space to rescue him, with the help of another mysterious figure. The narrative is used as a vehicle to explore the origins of Halloween, and with them, themes of fear and death. The ending is especially harrowing, where the eight friends each sacrifice a year of their lives to save the missing boy.

This resolution of The Halloween Tree depicts children making a dark, adult decision that may come back to haunt them years later. They are at least consoled by their friend being returned safely, while the reader is left pondering the strange journey they have just been through. The Halloween Tree is also a classic novel adaptation stuck in development hell as the writers figure out how to best approach this macabre tale that puts kids not just through physical danger but existentially fraught circumstances.

8

The Hundred Dresses

By Eleanor Estes

The Hundred Dresses is a poignant depiction of inequality and how discrimination takes shape among children. A poor Polish-American girl called Wanda is bullied by her classmates, especially due to her wearing the same dress every day. She defensively tells them that she owns a hundred dresses, which they don’t believe. Wanda’s family is eventually driven out of town by discrimination, but Wanda submits a hundred drawings of different dresses to a class competition before she leaves.

The girls who tormented Wanda are left pondering the implications, while the audience is left with a bitter story that possibly touches upon real instances of bullying they have experienced on either side. The Hundred Dresses is a focused, specific story, but its themes of everyday social cruelty and forgiveness are far-reaching. Illustrations such as Wanda’s many drawings taped up around the classroom stick with the reader as a heartrending reminder of times they may have been unkind to others.

7

Hatchet

By Gary Paulsen

Hatchet hones in on the plot of Lord of the Flies, following one boy who survives a plane crash instead of a larger group, which shifts the story’s purpose. The whole thing is pretty disturbing from several angles when all the book shows is 13-year-old Brian alone in the wilderness, fending off predators, struggling to find sustenance and endure the elements, and reflecting on his family in the form of bittersweet memories. His suffering almost feels needless when he could have thought of checking the plane for a survival pack from the start.

Brian is rescued at the end of Hatchet and returns to his family. His mother having an affair before divorcing his father is now far less troubling, given what he has been through. However, the reader has still endured a terrifying story that would be a difficult experience for someone of any age, let alone a young teenager. Given that this is common elementary school reading, many kids experience this book when they are younger than Brian.

6

Goosebumps: Night Of The Living Dummy

By R. L. Stine

The Goosebumps books inspired a generation with their unique brand of horror, both goofily macabre and genuinely spine-chilling. Now a new generation is experiencing the stories as well, with Disney’s Goosebumps TV show inspired by the books utilizing different elements from R. L. Stine’s compendium. The 62 Goosebumps collectively include a veritable menagerie of unsettling images and creatures to scare children.

However, Night of the Living Dummy is a strong contender for the scariest Goosebumps book, featuring Snappy the Dummy as one of the villains, the character who is the face of Goosebumps. Night of the Living Dummy includes instances of Snappy’s brother Mr. Wood trying to strangle a family dog and walking off a beheading, continuing to terrorize a set of twin girls. Millennials may say that one particular Goosebumps book traumatized them over another, depending on their personal fears and experiences — but Snappy and Mr. Wood are definitely responsible for a lot of nightmares.

5

Where The Red Fern Grows

By Wilson Rawls

The tear-jerking ending to Where the Red Fern Grows happens so fast that it gives the reader whiplash. Billy achieves exactly what he wants through hard work and some luck, saving up to buy two hunting dogs who turn out to be especially talented. The trio earns enough from selling pelts and prize money to secure Billy’s family’s future. After years (in Billy’s time) of all this happening, Old Dan is killed in a violent fight with a mountain lion and Little Ann dies of grief only a few days later.

Where the Red Fern Grows’ ending leaves readers reeling when it falls apart so quickly. The dogs’ gravesite is covered in red fern in the springtime, said to have been planted by an angel, and Billy accepts that everything happened as it was meant to so he would be able to leave the wilderness with his family. Still, the dogs’ demise is an event that continues to shock young readers when they are assigned Where the Red Fern Grows in school.

4

The Velveteen Rabbit

By Margery Williams

Just about every generation was traumatized by The Velveteen Rabbit at some point. Like several other stories that focus on anthropomorphized animals or objects, The Velveteen Rabbit uses a concept that is Disney’s bread and butter to tell a much sadder story about growing up and moving on. In the process, the stuffed rabbit is abandoned for a long time while his owner is entertained by better toys, the boy deuteragonist almost dies of scarlet fever, and the rabbit is doomed to be burned to ashes.

The book also frightens readers by showing them the assumed perspective of toys that are threatened with being forgotten or thrown out — many years before Toy Story. The rabbit is miraculously saved by a fairy that turns him into a real rabbit. However, this means that he must leave behind the boy who believed he was real when he was just a stuffed animal, while the boy seems to have moved on as well.

3

The Giving Tree

By Shel Silverstein

The Giving Tree has not aged as well as some other children’s books when people have become more critical of the alleged one-sided relationship it depicts. The tree gives everything it has to the boy as he grows into a man until all that is left is a stump. Even then, the stump is there when the old man just wants to sit for a while. The last thing the reader sees is the diminished image of the two of them together.

The pair symbolizes a relationship that has stood the test of time, although it was more beneficial to one than the other. Young readers may glean something from The Giving Tree about having someone in their lives willing to do anything for them. They are also likely left with a sour taste in their mouths, even if they can’t quite yet figure out the potential metaphor for a toxic relationship. The Giving Tree is still a bittersweet story that saddens readers of every generation with a harshly realistic message.

2

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

By Alvin Schwartz

Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark is a collection of retold myths and folktales (comprising three books total) accompanied by harrowing images that became something of a cultural phenomenon in the 1990s. The American Library Association places it as the most challenged book of the decade, while it was still highly contested into the 2000s. Most of the challenges constituted arguments that Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark is simply too horrific to be made available to children in a school library.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark delivers what the title promises: plenty of nightmare fuel. Like with Goosebumps, different readers will find different short stories more terrifying. However, Alternative Press argues for “What Do You Come For?” being one of the worst, depicting an old woman alone in her house who wishes for company, which is granted when body parts tumble down her chimney and form a dancing human corpse.

1

Bridge To Terabithia

By Katherine Paterson

Bridge to Terabithia shows how imagination is a powerful tool in the face of a difficult reality. Jesse and Leslie form an unlikely friendship and create the imaginary kingdom of Terabithia, where they rule as king and queen. Through their relationship and a kind of interactive storytelling, Jesse becomes happier and lets go of some of the anger that was weighing him down. However, Leslie’s approach to life becomes more important than ever when she dies in an accident.

The book synopsis strongly implies that Leslie dies, so it at least is not so shocking, but still more tragic than almost anything else that happens in required elementary school reading. Bridge to Terabithia shows how childlike wonder takes courage to maintain when Jesse keeps Terabithia alive for his young sister after Leslie’s death. However, Bridge to Terabithia is doubtlessly one of the most traumatizing books millennials grew up with since it was first published in 1977.

Source: American Library Association, Alternative Press