They’re not “wonderful stories”. They are great American literature, and really way too complex to be taught to kids. They’re for the advanced Enlgish class of senior year high school, or college.
“They’re for the advanced English class of senior year high school or college”
Disagree. Great literature is not just for adults. My son is 14 and finished reading “To Kill A Mockingbird”. It was light reading to him since he had read “Tom Sawyer”, “1984”, “Animal Farm”, and “Fahrenheit 451” in middle school. Although he is in advanced English, too many people think middle schoolers and early high school kids are ignorant. Introduce a child to classical literature and you open the world to them. IMHO
The heck they ain’t wonderful stories.
Literature and wonderful stories are not mutually exclusive terms. Other’n at, you’re absolutely right. Except . . .
I read these first as a kid. They were so memorable that I went back to read them as an adult. Different experience. I think I get some of the complexity now. These wonderful stories are making a difference in my own writing life. But the reason they’re transcendent, is because a kid can love them, too. Try getting that out of Thomas the Train vids, eh?
But, hey,