Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion EA Poe for the 8 year old?

Butter LOVES Halloween, The Nightmare Before Christmas, color black, spiders...you get the picture, I have a little goth baby, lol!

She adores her Harry Potter but I thought she might get a kick out of the classic creepiness of Edgar Allen Poe. Yes or no? I don't remember his stuff being violent, but totally creepy, make the hair on the back of you neck stand up, right?

And any suggestions for the first forays? tia!

Maybe his Poetry first?

My older dd was reading Poe at that age. She loved his writing. I believe that the Raven, which is a long poem, and the Telltale Heart were amongst the ones she read first.

I read the Poe Reader at that age. Loved it. I'd recommend not reading it before bed, though. I remember a few nightmares about The Fall of the House of Usher and The Premature Burial. The Raven, The Telltale Heart, The Mask of the Red Death, Descent into the Maelstrom, The Bells, The Gold Bug, and The Pit and the Pendulum tend to be a little less macabre than some of the other stories.

I'd recommend you read each one before you give it to her as there is a huge variety in the level of creepiness in the stories you find in anthologies. I know kids who grew up on Harry Potter and when they read Poe at fifteen in English at school were quite disturbed by some of the stories.

yes, I agree on that Kiwi! lol!