More likely than not, the daughter doesn't want to strain her brain reading Poe or Hawthorne so she concocted her "nightmare story" so that mommy would save her from the evil Homework Boogy Man.
"No Mommy! Don't make me read The Scarlet Letter!!! It's so, it's so.....it's just too terrible to mention! Oh, by the way Sherri and I are going to see Red Dragon this weekend, should be a blast."
I'm not sure that's it. Before you were here RMD, I explained that my wife is teaching in a "home school academy." Kids that are being homeschooled go there for specfic classes parents feel they can't (or don't want to) teach.
She did actually pull a couple of books off of the suggested summer reading list.
There's a legend about the Edgar grave in Baltimore. Supposedly on his birthday a mysterious figure leaves a bottle of cognac and three roses on his grave. It's been reported that the same thing happens at the Poe statue on the Virginia Capitol grounds (we also have a Poe museum here). I told my wife she should do an overnight field trip to the statue on Poe's birthday. (I'd even buy the cognac).