Not Just a Witch Book

2 1/2 stars read as an adult

You know, all of Ms. Ibbotson's books seem to contain lots of charming characters, which is a very good thing... but they also seem to contain some very dark and descriptive passages, which bothers me quite a bit.

"The light was poor and at first, mercifully, Danial could scarcely see. Only the smell hit him instantly: a truly awful smell of sickness and rottenness and decay.

Then came the sounds: half-strangled cries, desperate squawks...

But now his eyes were becoming used to the gloom. He could make out rows and rows of wire cages piled from floor to ceiling on either side of narrow concrete corridors that seemed to stretch away for miles.

And he could see what was inside the cages. Not one chicken, but two, packed so close together that they could hardly turn their heads or move. Unspeakable things were happening in those cages. In one, a bird had caught its throat in the wire and choked; in another, a chicken driven mad by overcrowding was trying to peck out its neighbor's eyes. There were cages in which one bird lay dead while the other was pressed against its corpse. And yet somehow, unbelievably, the wretched creatures went on laying eggs - large brown eggs which rolled on to the shelf below, ready to be driven to Wellbridge Market..."

I know that several very popular books for children contain graphic and gruesome events. I don't mind it QUITE so much when the happenings are fantastical and obviously make-believe, But when events stray into the factual here-and-now, then I have a big problem with it. I don't think a child needs to read a credible description of a chicken farm.

For me, passages like this sucks the "fun" out of this book.