Damn. The memories.
The book's status as a bestseller and a generally dismissive attitude to these books meant it appeared on a young children's school book club catalogue when I was seven. The picture on the front caught my eye and that's the one I asked my parents to get me.
I recall having nightmares from it- and laying awake shivering in silence because I was even more afraid (probably correctly) that if my mother found out she'd take away the book that gave me those nightmares. I stuck with it, and with Citadel of Chaos and Forest of Doom when they came out.
Years later, at the ripe old age of ten, I would buy Dragon Warriors in the mistaken belief they were more solo gamebooks and thus graduated to real RPGs.