Yes, I can definitely see how it would be a book that you've got to read young. And I feel in my soul this imprinting on book illustrations so hard that other adaptations are Unacceptable: when I was young I loved the Little House on the Prairie illustrations with Pa with his whiskers, and when I saw the TV show and Pa was clean-shaven I would have nothing more to do with it.

I've also had this work the other way, too. I grew up with the animated Disney Winnie the Pooh and for a while I found the E. H . Shepard illustrations rather disturbing. (I've grown fond of them now, though!)