It'd be interesting to see how many people read the book before having seen the film, because having seen the film first, when I read the book, I was trying to comparing it to the story of the film and trying to somehow fit it in with it, clearly that isn't going to work as the film is simply an adaptation of the book, so technically it can bare no real resemblance to the book, just the characters/ideas etc. I couldn't see children reading the book as I do agree as it got confusing at parts, especially for such a short book.