Madeline

The book Madeline was the first story to horrify me.

I don't remember any details of the narrative; what stands out in my memory is the illustration of Madeline, standing on her bed, pulling aside her hospital gown or pyjamas to show the other little orphans the scar on her belly from from appendix-removal operation. (I may be misremembering some details.)

I was four, maybe five years old when this was read to my class at school, and was appalled to learn that adults literally and deliberately cut up children and permanently removed items from inside their bodies. That they inserted a knife and severed material inside and then, adding insult to injury, sewed up the child's skin with a needle and thread.

(Madeline's author, Ludwig Bemelmans, was pretty hardcore in real life. He was shipped to the United States when he was quite young, after shooting and badly wounding a fellow employee at his uncle's hotel in Austria.)