I am a huge fan of Kirk's work, but this book is a disaster. It's scary and completely inappropriate for small children. I consider myself to be fairly open-minded, but this is not acceptable for children.
Very inappropriate. Horrible language and refrences.
I was reading this book to my five year old boys, and I came across the word "pantywaste". Immediately, I put it down. I read it later myself, and there were many more inappropriate words and phrases. One of the illistrations shows the bad spider smoking a cigarette. I absolutely DO NOT recommend this book for children. I actually believe it should be pulled off of the shelves.
Anyone who has a problem with this clearly has not read it or is overly sensitive. This was one of my favorite books when I was younger, and I still read it for the nostalgia. No problems in it whatsoever.