History WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids / Literature

* ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' may be the ur-example of "just because it's ''about'' children doesn't mean it's ''for'' children." This mistake isn't usually made by native English speakers because of its cultural impact, but there have been cases of the book being included in English as a foreign language reading programmes for kids, presumably because the curriculum developers heard "literary classic" and "kids on a desert island" and stopped paying attention.

* Professional storyteller (yes, there is such a thing) Bil Lepp had much to say about this trope in regards to literature. He explains that a child playing video games, watching television, or reading graphic novels is a lot more prone to parental intervention than one reading a book, as the usual parent's response to their offspring sitting quietly with a book in their hands is that they are [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar broadening their minds]]. He uses this simultaneously as a way to attract children to literature (an issue he is quite passionate about), and to tell parents to [[strike: be more concerned]] continue supporting young readers.

* A non-explicit variation in the novel version of ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'': Creator/WilliamGoldman is [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis presented as the "abridger" of someone else's book]]. He is surprised to discover that his favorite story from childhood (which had always been read to him by his father) was really meant to be a historical satire, containing long descriptions and historical accounts which would bore children to tears.

* Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' was a kid's movie, complete with a source-tribute opening song about "Arabian nights". But parents whose kids pester them for more of the same shouldn't touch ''[[Literature/ArabianNights A Thousand and One Nights]]'' with a ten foot pole, unless they want their children reading about forced marriage, infidelity, serial uxoricide, and explicit descriptions of human anatomy ... and that's just in the ''frame story!'' Hopefully they'll catch on before Scheherazade starts rambling on about corpse-tearing ghouls, bestiality, or [[GagPenis penis humor]]. There's a lot of racist content and inherent ValuesDissonance in it, too.

* Most [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek and Roman myths]] in their classical form. Creator/{{Ovid}}'s [[Literature/TheMetamorphoses Metamorphoses]] have copious amounts of rape, gore, and cruelty, which can easily take people off guard who are more familiar with the kid-friendly adaptations of the myths like Disney's ''Disney/{{Hercules}}''.

* Creator/JamesPatterson is one of those authors who writes for all the demographics: Adults, teenagers, and children. While his ''Literature/MiddleSchool'', ''I Funny'', are ''Literature/JackyHaHa'' series are made for child audiences, thus kid-friendly, his other books, such as the ''Literature/AlexCross'' and ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series, aren't really. This is probably why his children's books have the "Jimmy Patterson" label to differentiate.

* Creator/JamesPatterson is one of those authors who writes for all the demographics: Adults, teenagers, and children. While his ''Literature/MiddleSchool'', ''I Funny'', are ''Literature/JackyHaHa'' series are kid-friendly, his other books, such as the ''Literature/AlexCross'' and ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series, aren't really. This is probably why his children's books have the "Jimmy Patterson" label to differentiate.

* Creator/JamesPatterson is one of those authors who writes for all the demographics: Adults, teenagers, and children. While his ''Literature/MiddleSchool'' and ''I Funny'' series, ''Literature/JackyHaHa'', and ''Literature/KattVsDogg'' are kid-friendly, his other books, such as the ''Literature/AlexCross'' and ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series, aren't really. This is probably why his children's books have the "Jimmy Patterson" label to differentiate.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' - funny fantasy by the guy who wrote kids' books like the ''Literature/NomesTrilogy'' and ''Literature/JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy''? Well, ''maybe''. There probably isn't anything particularly scarring in there, and the language never gets worse than "shit" (and rarely above "bloody"), but [[Creator/TerryPratchett Sir Terry]] himself admitted to being perturbed when a class full of kids wrote him letters about ''Discworld/TheTruth'' and how much they liked the violent, would-be drug addict Mr Tulip. Also, many of the earlier books are directly riffing on other works, which themselves are not all suitable for children. Of course, there are also ''Discworld'' novels that ''are'' aimed at kids: ''Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'' and the Tiffany Aching novels - although one might argue each Tiffany book isn't entirely suitable for kids younger than Tiffany at the time (''Discworld/IShallWearMidnight'' features mob justice for a child beater, and even in-story Tiffany's dad is uncomfortable telling her the backstory to that, as well as a being of pure hatred that poisons everyone against Tiffany -- it's notable that ''Discworld/{{Wintersmith}}'' onwards lack the "compact hardback" editions of previous YA Discworld novels, appearing more like the adult books).
** ''Discworld/WheresMyCow'' is a very mild example; it's a picture book, and not ''too'' inappropriate, but does touch on some of the more unpleasant or serious aspects of Discworld, including Foul Ole Ron (whose CatchPhrase includes a form of [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch the word "bugger"]]) and Vetinari, about whom readers are advised to "really ''don't'' [[TroubleEntendre let him detain you]]."

* Creator/JamesPatterson is one of those authors who writes for all the demographics: Adults, teenagers, and children. While his ''Literature/MiddleSchool'' and ''I Funny'' series, ''Literature/JackyHaHa'', and ''Literature/KattVsDogg'' are kid-friendly, his other books, such as the ''Literature/AlexCross'' and ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series, aren't really.

* ''Creator/JamesPatterson'' is one of those authors who writes for all the demographics: Adults, teenagers, and children. While his ''Literature/MiddleSchool'' and ''I Funny'' series, ''Literature/JackyHaHa'', and ''Literature/KattVsDogg'' are kid-friendly, his other books, such as the ''Literature/AlexCross'' and ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series, aren't really.

* Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' was a kid's movie, complete with a source-tribute opening song about "Arabian nights". But parents whose kids pester them for more of the same shouldn't touch ''[[Literature/ArabianNights A Thousand and One Nights]]'' with a ten foot pole, unless they want their children reading about forced marriage, infidelity, serial [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness uxoricide]], and explicit descriptions of human anatomy ... and that's just in the ''frame story!'' Hopefully they'll catch on before Scheherazade starts rambling on about corpse-tearing ghouls, bestiality, or [[GagPenis penis humor]]. There's a lot of racist content and inherent ValuesDissonance in it, too.

* ''Literature/FlowersInTheAttic'' by Creator/{{VC Andrews}} was originally written for adults. It developed a PeripheryDemographic of preteen and teen girls, who secretly passed it around, snuck it home, and read it by flashlight under the covers in bed. One attraction was the BrotherSisterIncest between the two oldest children. Another was the book's "TakeThat" against the notion that no matter how mean she seems sometimes, your mother loves you and has your best interests at heart. It was very much a stage beyond Creator/JudyBlume's ''Literature/Forever''.

* Most [[Myth/sClassicalMythology Greek and Roman myths]] in their classical form. Creator/{{Ovid}}'s [[Literature/TheMetamorphoses Metamorphoses]] have copious amounts of rape, gore, and cruelty, which can easily take people off guard who are more familiar with the kid-friendly adaptations of the myths like Disney's ''Disney/{{Hercules}}''.

* Creator/RussellTDavies was wise enough to avert this when the BBC wanted to republish his ''Doctor Who'' tie-in novel ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresDamagedGoods Damaged Goods]]'' after he became the high-profile ShowRunner of the revived series. He reportedly persuaded the BBC that young ''Doctor Who'' fans shouldn't be encouraged to read one of the grimmer entries in what was in general a notoriously DarkerAndEdgier portion of the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse''.

* ''Literature/TheLittlePrince'': So we have a book about the loss of innocence that accompanies growth, which tackles topics such as codependency and politics, and that ends with the death of the titular character, but with a kid on the cover and several cartoonish illustrations; let's make it a compulsory read for eight-year-olds! That's the best way to make them hate books.
* Most [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek and Roman myths]] in their classical form. Creator/{{Ovid}}'s [[Literature/TheMetamorphoses Metamorphoses]] have copious amounts of rape, gore, and cruelty, which can easily take people off guard who are more familiar with the kid-friendly adaptations of the myths like Disney's ''Disney/{{Hercules}}''.

* ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' shows that this trope is OlderThanTheyThink. Largely regarded as a children's tale with many, many {{Bowdlerise}}ed versions of it out there, it was successful among children even when it was first published in the 18th century... despite the fact that the unaltered text is, in fact, a ''heavily'' satirical and most definitely an ''adult'' book, being among the most preeminent satirical works of the English language.

* ''Literature/FlowersInTheAttic'' by Creator/{{VC Andrews}} was originally written for adults. It developed a PeripheralDemography of preteen and teen girls, who secretly passed it around, snuck it home, and read it by flashlight under the covers in bed. One attraction was the BrotherSisterIncest between the two oldest children. Another was the book's "TakeThat" against the notion that no matter how mean she seems sometimes, your mother loves you and has your best interests at heart. It was very much a stage beyond Creator/JudyBlume's ''Literature/Forever''.

** [[https://www.cracked.com/blog/5-insane-young-adult-novels-with-disturbing-messages/ This article by Cracked]] presents several cases of novels YA with questionable messages, a good example is Steffie Can't Come out to Play, where a 14-year-old girl runs away from home looking to become a model but ends up becoming a minor prostitute . The novel is not at all realistic dealing with the issue of prostitution, and instead presents it as something glamorous and desirable, focusing on the money earned, the luxuries and the beautiful clothes (the author of the article read this novel with only nine years of age).

* Creator/DianaWynneJones primarily wrote children's books, but ''[[Literature/TheMagids Deep Secret]]'' was originally published under an adult label — and for good reason. The book has more explicit references to sex (and, relatedly, pornography and adultery) than her other works, as well as several instances of rather shocking violence ([[spoiler:[[WouldHurtAChild some of it against children]]]]). Its sequel ''The Merlin Conspiracy'', however, is much tamer — so that it was published for children, but with the inside blurb [[BlatantLies claiming the book is stand-alone]]. Similarly, the lists of Jones' other works found inside her other children's books usually make it a point to exclude ''Deep Secret''. However, there was a publishing of ''Deep Secret'' done under Tor's Starscape label, which is specifically targeted at young teenage readers.

* Creator/RussellTDavies was wise enough to avert this when the BBC wanted to republish his tie-in novel ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresDamagedGoods Damaged Goods]]'' after he became the high-profile ShowRunner of the revived series. He reportedly persuaded the BBC that young ''Doctor Who'' fans shouldn't be encouraged to read one of the grimmer entries in what was in general a notoriously DarkerAndEdgier portion of the ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse''.