The original “Bambi”
For some reason I got my hands on George Orwell&#x27;s &quot;Animal Farm&quot; at a very young age, as it looked like a kid&#x27;s book.  That&#x27;s a fairly bleak book, for example when the pigs sell the draft horse to the glue factory, but only the goat (whose only friend is the horse) knows what&#x27;s going on.<p>Watership Down is another good one, the character of the Black Rabbit of Inle (the Grim Reaper of rabbitkind) was memorable.<p>However I disagree with claims that these kind of works &#x27;traumatize&#x27; young readers.  It&#x27;s just an introduction to life&#x27;s realities - everyone has to die, nature is beautiful but also violent, and humans can be crueler to each other than any animal ever could. Kids aren&#x27;t traumatized by reading, or by playing video games - if trauma occurs, it&#x27;s due to things like war and poverty and neglect and abuse.