What children's books have you tossed out of your collection lately?

[peaceful_mama]

I tossed out "Llama Llama Mad at Mama"  The little llama has a pitching-stuff, dumping juice, breaking things meltdown in basically Wal-Mart (the Shop-O-Rama)  and yes, he does help mama clean it up, but then at the end "All done shopping, time for fun!" and they still go out for the promised ice cream.

first of all, ugh on the bribery.  Am I the only parent who's got a kid who seems to think that promise of a treat is simply a challenge to see if I'm really going to NOT do it?

and second, yes, the little llama does help clean up--but that is what we do when we make a mess!   In my house, if that happened in the store, they'd be going home for a nap, not out to Baskin-Robbins!!!

[hildare]

haha!  i can't bring myself to throw away books, so i hide them but they keep reappearing.

i absolutely, positively cannot stand "because a little bug went ker-choo." 

somebody gave us a copy of koala lou, which i haven't done anything with besides hide, it's so sweet and pretty but i just don't know how i feel about koala lou's mom getting too busy with the other babies to tell lou she loves her!  ugh!

[kittywitty]

We'll be sure to stay clear of that one!

I finally hid Pinkalicious. My 3 yo barely eats anything as it is, but that's taught her that green foods are "icky like Pinkalicious" and that they are a punishment/medicine.

[peaceful_mama]

ugh just what we need right?

[mamaboss]

My mom gave us a bunch of Skippy Jon Jones books and I haven't tossed them yet but they are hidden away. I can't stand them!

[McGucks]

MIL gave us "Elmo Babies."  The pictures are horrid and there is not really any story.  It's headed for the landfill since DS2 has chewed on it a lot anyway.

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by mamaboss 

My mom gave us a bunch of Skippy Jon Jones books and I haven't tossed them yet but they are hidden away. I can't stand them!

That's so funny!  Skippyjon is a favorite here, but I get why it can be irritating....

 The girls bring "Miss Spider" books back from the library all the time and they very mysteriously get returned before the week's end.  We read all kids of anthropomorphic stories, but for some reason this one crosses a line for me.  A spider that won't eat bugs?  Yeesh!
 

[peaceful_mama]

did not realize that miss spider does not eat bugs.  that is wierd!

[Smokering]

A Disney Tigger book some well-meaning relative gave us. I cannot STAND Disney Winnie-the-Pooh. Heck, even the stuff marketed as "classic Pooh" gets my hackles up, because it's not "classic" Pooh, it's REAL Winnie-the-Pooh-by-A-A-Milne-and-illustrated-by-Ernest-Shepard.... or it's not.

A friend gave me a big old box of books, and a lot of them are old-style school learning-to-read books. Some of them are cute, but a few, well, reflect the times. I'm not the type to get up in arms about seeing a mummy cooking while Daddy goes off to work... but she has a book about firemen, with every page showing (male) firefighters climbing ladders and sliding down poles and all that jazz.... and then on one page, presumably feeling very chuffed at their own magnanimity at including the fairer sex, the text says "Sometimes the person who operates the telephones is a woman". Picture of woman. It always makes me giggle and cringe. And let's not get onto a book about My Friend Paul who has (I'm guessing) spina bifida.... it's meant to foster understanding nd PC-ness, doubtless, but it's rather, ah, primitive in that respect.

I haven't thrown any of them out because my friend wants them back when DD is done, but there are some I've hidden at the bottom of the pile.

[MissAnthrope]

We're tossing The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm.  I LOVED that book as a kid, but we recently read it during storytime with our smalls and I realized what a complete and total trainwreck it is.  The kids actually feel bad for running away from a kidnapper who keeps the littlest in a cage and doesn't feed them anything but grubby guavas and stale crackers because she's old and they were taught to respect their elders.  The older kids have a long conversation about how they need to escape, but they don't want the kidnapper to go to jail.

Um...no.  Just no.

[katelove]

I haven't thrown any out yet but, when J was going through a tearing phase at around 9 months I wouldn't rescue the ones I didn't like   

Boris the Pirate  - basic plot summary: pirates are all mean and nasty, then Boris' parrot dies and he cries. The End.

Koala Lou - I'm with Hildare on that one

I've recently started unpacking the books I saved from my childhood though so there may be a few throw-aways to come.

[rebecca_n]

a bunch of hand me down rugrat books

tiptoe into kindergarten 

lil miss naughty

i love you stinky face (just because we had 3 copies! I love this book) 

miss bindergarten gets ready for kindergarten

jimmy neutron books

p.j. funnybunny in the perfect hiding place (its mean!)

and some disney books-

we're going though our bookcases

[mommy212]

I don't keep any of the sesame street/disney/dora/other tv-show based books around.... fortunately (is this fortunate?) we are about the only ones who buy DS books, so I buy the ones I like/approve of. Also, I just don't like the books that are nothing but one word on a page... I'm sure they are all fine and good and whatnot but I just want to toss the thing when I am "reading" it! lol :) Just a pet peeve

[LynnS6]

Some really awful "Moral Tale" type stories that a well-meaning (but highly conservative) relative gave us. They were the 'hit you over the head with the moral' kind of story. The worst was that they took decent classic tales (King Midas, The Fisherman's Wife (OK, I hate that one), Stone Soup, etc.) and rewrote them badly to emphasize the moral. Oh, and some Bailey School kids books. I hated those too. They're not awful, I just don't like them. I'd love to give away the insipid Rainbow Magic books but dd can't part with them yet (even though she fully agrees that they all have the same plot).

The only other books I've given away are books my kids have outgrown. We had a few Dora books, Clifford books, Winnie-the-Pooh books that I didn't care for, but my were OK with. But they've stopped reading them. I've kept some classic little kids books (I love the Tom & Pippo books) even though my kids are way too old.

[Red Pajama]

Originally Posted by mamaboss 

My mom gave us a bunch of Skippy Jon Jones books and I haven't tossed them yet but they are hidden away. I can't stand them!

We love Skippyjon Jones. Send them our way.

[Comtessa]

Originally Posted by mommy212 

 I just don't like the books that are nothing but one word on a page... I'm sure they are all fine and good and whatnot but I just want to toss the thing when I am "reading" it! lol :) Just a pet peeve

So it's NOT just me!  I can't tolerate those books at all!

We like Skippyjon jones over here, too, but most of my friends despise him.  I think it's just a matter of individual tastes on that one! 

The books I've pitched are mostly religious books for children -- they are positively horrific.  They're either insipid and boring (the Precious Moments stuff -- ick), or they hit you over the head with a badly-written moral, or they refer to God as "He" which, for me, is a deal-breaker.  (They get enough religious gender bias in our church; we don't need to reinforce it at home.) 

The worst, though, are the Bible stories for children -- I'm a biblical scholar, which means EVERYONE gives our kids Bible books.  Sorry, but the Bible is really NOT a children's book.  How on earth do I explain resurrection to a 2 yo who doesn't understand death?  Not to mention the concept of religious sacrifice (which is hard enough for adults to understand; let's not burden kids with it).  My son's name is Isaac, so my MIL gave us a baby board book telling "The Story of Isaac."  Really, I'm going to read my infant a story about God commanding a father to slaughter his own son?  Come on, there's plenty of time for him to wrestle with the weirdness and difficult theology of that story -- we don't have to start when he's a baby!  It's just... weird.  Oh, and don't get me started on the children's picture book that celebrates the way that the 10 plagues devastate the Egyptians.  "Hooray, hooray, all the firstborn babies are dead!"  Seriously?!?! 

So, yeah, mostly we throw away the religious stuff.  Which is a shame, because I'd love to have some good religious books around for them -- we've just found precious few.  (In God's Name, by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, is fantastic.)

I'd like to pitch the Dora books on principle (the Dora marketing is SO insidious), but they're actually kind of cool in a lot of ways, like gender (Dora's mami is an archaeologist, and her friend's mom is a firefighter) and the adventures are kind of exciting for DD.  Though the theme of the kids' over-reliance on technology makes me cringe a little.  At least the books aren't as annoying as the TV program -- we made the mistake of turning it on.  Once.  10 minutes later, it went back in the "return to the library" pile.  Eugh, it was awful!
 

[mistymorning]

Love you Forever.  I HATE that book.  I find it creepy.  I have tossed/donated so many copies but my dh loves the book so he keeps finding them in used book stores and buying them. 

The curious George books bother me-I don't like how the man with the yellow hat traps George, and it's ok, and how George is happy to be sent to the zoo, and all the animals are so happy in their teeny cages.

I try to use books like that and those that have old fashioned ideas as talking points.  But I also don't feel bad about putting books that I don't agree with in the donation pile.

[hildare]

Originally Posted by mistymorning 

Love you Forever.  I HATE that book.  I find it creepy.  I have tossed/donated so many copies but my dh loves the book so he keeps finding them in used book stores and buying them. 

The curious George books bother me-I don't like how the man with the yellow hat traps George, and it's ok, and how George is happy to be sent to the zoo, and all the animals are so happy in their teeny cages.

I try to use books like that and those that have old fashioned ideas as talking points.  But I also don't feel bad about putting books that I don't agree with in the donation pile.

I remember being SO freaked out as a child over 2 books: one was called Petunia, in which an explosion injures some animals.. and the other was curious george, because the monkey got arrested for calling the police on the telephone. i developed telephone phobia from that book. i HATE curious george.

[onlyzombiecat]

There has only been one book I absolutely hated in the last 11 years and that was The Sleep Fairy. I actually destroyed the book.

Someone gave it to us because dd had sleep issues. Basically you are to read this book and slip small gifts to your child if they stay in bed. Gee, I never thought of bribery. Thanks.

Do not give it to someone whose child has real sleep issues and is already frustrated and sleep deprived.

I dislike the Katie Kazoo books that my dd has read but do not get rid of them because dd liked them. I did say I thought it was time to read other books and dd agreed.

Katie changes places with someone in each book but it is only for 10 minutes- long enough for her to go, "What? Who am I now?" and screw up something and change back. She learns nothing real about being in someone else's shoes in that short of a time. I feel she doesn't really deal with conequences much. She has a somewhat mean friend who Katie flatters and worries about placating in every book; I seriously worry about this girl's future relationships. Many stories have boys pitted against girls.

[meemee]

*sigh* we had the opposite theme going on in our house. 

the books i didn't like are the exact ones dd WANTED. 

she is 9 now and we have passed on almost all her books. however we have not parted with all her dr seuss, ogden nash and don't let the pigeon drive the bus series. 

however as a toddler dd was v. picky about her books. she always wanted some exciting adventure mystery stories instead of the sappy morally share books. even if they were disguised in the form of bears or cats or dinosaurs.

the one i deliberately donated many years ago was a spongebob book that talked about him acting like he was drunk off of ice-cream he got at a 'bar'. dd never really watched that cartoon - but really loved the artwork. 

ugh i particularly hated both love you forever and the giving tree. but dd enjoyed them both a lot. she didn't view the first book as creepy as i did. but i think it was more coz of the song. and the giving tree kept on giving. but i never gave them away coz dd liked them. however we have the whole shel silverstein poetry collection coz dd enjoyed them so much. she is a kinda poetry freak.