I can vouch for the Spiderwick Chronicles being fine for a 5 year old. They are pitched a little older than that (protagonists are 8-10) but my 5 year old was not scared (beyond a little happy-scared), and there's nothing for normal parents to object to. (Parents who object to anything supernatural on principle would have trouble, but if you're okay with fairies, you're good.)
Wesley: Hey. Hey, Gunn. Is something weird going on? … Charles, you just peed on my shoes. Gunn: I'll be damned. That's weird.
'Life of the Party'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
flea - May 18, 2010 12:03:26 pm PDT #11526 of 28344
information libertarian
Frankenbuddha - May 18, 2010 12:09:47 pm PDT #11527 of 28344
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory may not be gothy per se, but it certainly put a certain way of thinking in my head that isn't far from it, IMO. And a good Edgar Allen Poe collection of short stories can get by as a "classic" despite the fact that any number of those stories are potentially traumatic (or would that be revelatory) in a really interesting way .
Not that I'm talking from childhood experience or anything.
Kathy A - May 18, 2010 12:28:58 pm PDT #11528 of 28344
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
I started out in trashy romances in 6th grade with the mid-70s original bodice rippers such as Kathleen Woodiwiss's "The Flame and the Flower." I then downgraded to Harlequin romances and Barbara Cartlands because that's what my aunt loaned me (she thought they were more appropriate for my age, and also that's what she was reading; I returned the favor some 15 years later when I started bringing her bags of my Silhouette Blaze and Intimate Moments books after I finished them).
Kathy, considering Law&Order still continually dips in that well, you've got decent taste in mayhem.
Well, they were local boys. Leopold's duration in Stateville was before my grandpa was a janitor or my uncle did his semi-annual dentist visits there (uncle did work on Speck's teeth, though).
DavidS - May 18, 2010 2:53:39 pm PDT #11529 of 28344
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Speaking of Dahl and Goth: The Witches.
Gris - May 18, 2010 4:28:35 pm PDT #11530 of 28344
Hey. New board.
All of Dahl has a bit of the goth mindset in it, I'd say, though it's certainly most overt in Witches.
DebetEsse - May 18, 2010 4:30:56 pm PDT #11531 of 28344
Woe to the fucking wicked.
I would throw some Gaiman into the mix (You can't get started too young). I would think Graveyard Book would qualify.
Atropa - May 18, 2010 4:33:31 pm PDT #11532 of 28344
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
I would throw some Gaiman into the mix (You can't get started too young). I would think Graveyard Book would qualify.
!!! How did I forget to include The Graveyard Book?! Oh, I am a doofus.
Volans - May 18, 2010 4:37:45 pm PDT #11533 of 28344
move out and draw fire
Perfect!
Katerina Bee - May 18, 2010 4:40:57 pm PDT #11534 of 28344
Herding cats for fun
Doesn't urban fantasy a la Charles de Lint count as goth? His characters the Crow Girls especially.
Volans - May 18, 2010 4:42:33 pm PDT #11535 of 28344
move out and draw fire
I can't remember the author, but there's a YA book called Thirst that was quite good. And with a male protag, so not Twilight.