There are some things it may be easier to absorb as kids, which may be why some parents go “OMG I can’t let my kid read this it’s too scary and/or complicated!!”

The Coraline effect! (Actually, I re-read a couple of P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins books - which I'd loved as a kid - a few years ago, and they are so much weirder than I remembered. One story had a woman made of candy who breaks off her fingers and gives them to the Banks children to eat?? as candy??)

Ohh, what an interesting backstory to Watership Down!