Roy Smith wrote:

Bottom line: Pine will work, pine is cheap, the end result will end up
dented and will sag a fair bit under load (though I am assuming a 7 yr
old doesn't have a large collection of heavy books).

Short of building the thing out of cast iron, is there any material which
will stand up to a 7 year old kid?

Concrete.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
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