content: I have to agree with the others who warn that this book is unsuitable for children. In fact, I'm researching this book online today because just now (in my early 30s) I suddenly had a flashback to the horrible scene of Birdie's burning. I read this book when I was in 4th or 5th grade and, like others have said, the sickening feeling it gave me-- not just the burning scene, but the ugliness of the whole moral universe of that book-- has stuck with me all these years. It's *not* that I believe in coddling and sheltering children from the harsh realities of life. I read plenty of books as a child that featured cruelty, heartlessness and violence, and *none* of them disturbed me as deeply as this one did. Based on my first-hand experience of how this book reads from the perspective of a child, I wholeheartedly advise parents not to subject their children to it. There are better choices.