Books, hockey, and a bucketful of snark

BEST 'COMING OF AGE' BOOK

Holy shit, but this book scared the crap out of me when I was a child. It was written in 1966, and it's the story of three generations of girls and an evil wooden doll called Dido. 

Today it it would probably be shelved under YA Paranormal, but in my day it was in the children's section of the bookshop and it was freakin' terrifying. And I loved it. I read it so many times, my copy fell apart. It was probably the first book I read that could be described as 'gothic' and it gave me a lifelong love of the genre. 

But it could also be classed as a 'coming of age' book. The girls in the story fall in love, suffer heartbreak and tragedy, and overcome terrible hardships before Dido's curse is finally broken. 

Gorgeous illustrations too by Margery Gill who seemed to draw most of the pictures for my favourite childhood books. 

And I've managed to track down a picture of the edition I owned.