Is Hop-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe too much for kids?
by Jerome Tiller
Leave it to Edgar Allan Poe to stir up a controversy. Some adult readers of Hop-Frog believe the story is unsuitable for our main target audience, middle-school readers. No doubt, Hop-Frog is a disturbing tale. It is unlike all the other books in the Adapted Classics collection to date, all of which contain at least an ample amount of humor (and that includes Edgar Allan Poe’s Thou Art the Man).
Nothing Funny about Hop-Frog
There is nothing funny about Hop-Frog. It is a story about maltreatment and revenge. And true to Poe’s typical story-telling mode, the climax of the story is particularly disturbing. But also typically, it is good. Fast-paced and gripping, the story includes the issues of injustice, bullying, and revenge....