Children's Books I hate! - Page 6

[spero]

Originally Posted by NYCVeg

And, while I don't dislike it, does anyone else find "In the Night Kitchen" to be a little...trippy? I really think Maurice Sendak was dropping a lot of acid back in the day.

In the Night Kitchen is nothing compared to I Saw Esau: The Schoolchild's Pocket Book!!!

Under "Insults":

Tell her! Smell her!
Kick her down the cellar!

"Teasing and Repartee":

Tit for tat,
Butter for fat,
If you kill my dog
I'll kill your cat.

"Contempt":

Cry, baby, cry,
Stick a finger in your eye,
And tell your mother it wasn't I.
(For cry babies)

Great illustrations, though - all the little nakey boys are intact. OTOH - There's a totally sick series of illustrations showing a nursing baby slowly consuming his whole mother after she dozes off, then dancing with glee afterward!

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

I work in a library, in the children's section...I actually like most of the books mentioned : But I can see how the repetitious ones get old, they are good for language development though.

The one book I would burn given a chance (ok it's a whole series) is the Captain Underpants books by Dav Pilkey. Ugh. They are SO popular, especially amongst boys age 8-11 or so. They are nothing but potty humor and the WORST part (for me anyway) is there are constant misspellings. Blech. Hate those things. Waste of county funds if you ask me.

[kewb]

My 8 year old son loves Captain Underpants. I don't. Fortunately, he also loves to read other things.

[Nathan1097]

Originally Posted by Mama Poot

ROFL some of those are terrible. I was watching Sesame Street once and it waas at the end where Oscar reads to Wormie and he's looking for a book to read. As he leafs through books, he pulls out "Get Lost, Moon" and "The Very Angry Caterpiller" Someone at Sesame street is tired of these crappy books as well!

[Nathan1097]

No-one's mentioned Walter the Farting Dog yet!

I haven't finished this whole thread yet, but I have never read that book but I've seen it and ... WTF?!?! :

[amyjeans]

I just got and read to my girls "The Story of Babar" and was appaulled!!!!!
Fisrt- the mom dies- SOOO Disney-like, then in the end, he marries his cousin?
huh???? and everyone is okay with this?
Now- before anyone throws any rocks at me, the last time I checked marrying a cousin in not a good thing.

yikes!

[Nathan1097]

Originally Posted by falcon

Books I hate?

Two words-

Everyone Poops

I don't think I need to elaborate

When I first saw those, I couldn't believe they were real!!

[Twocoolboys]

Originally Posted by kaleidoscopeeyes

The one book I would burn given a chance (ok it's a whole series) is the Captain Underpants books by Dav Pilkey. Ugh. They are SO popular, especially amongst boys age 8-11 or so. They are nothing but potty humor and the WORST part (for me anyway) is there are constant misspellings. Blech. Hate those things. Waste of county funds if you ask me.

Don't you think they get a lot of reluctant readers reading though? The actual text part of the stories is all gramatically correct and spelled correctly and has some pretty challenging words as well. It's the comic parts that are written by George and Harold that are full of errors - but it is supposed to mirror how a child would write.

My ds went through a big Captain Underpants phase - we loved them!

I can't think of a book that I actually hate. Though I do get tired of reading the repetative Green Eggs and Ham and things of that nature.

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

Originally Posted by Twocoolboys

Don't you think they get a lot of reluctant readers reading though? The actual text part of the stories is all gramatically correct and spelled correctly and has some pretty challenging words as well. It's the comic parts that are written by George and Harold that are full of errors - but it is supposed to mirror how a child would write.

My ds went through a big Captain Underpants phase - we loved them!

And that is why we carry them, the librarians philosophy that if you can get them started reading, you can guide them toward better books. I don't know that I agree yet. I think that is sort of idealistic. Not that it NEVER happens, but that it seldom does. I think you can have fun, easy to read books for early readers without all the bad grammar and misspellings. I don't even mind the potty humor so much, but why not spell things correctly? I understand mirroring how a child writes, but when the intended reader still has a burgeoning vocabulary it seems more worthwhile to reinforce the proper spellings, ya know what I mean?

I'm all for kids loving books though, even if I don't like the books themselves

[treefolk]

I thought Walter the Farting Dog was really funny... we get a kick out of farting...but I will say that I thought it was funny as an adult because of the "dry" sense of humor it had.

[BusyMommy]

Yep, Cap't Underpants and Diaper Baby, etc are big here.

[emmalala]

Miagic Treehouse. I know they are for beginning readers and that's good but they are so flabby and illogical that I only get them from the library.

[Altair]

I LOVE the No David books... the children I teach with autism can read David's facial expressions so much better than they can read facial expressions of other characters. Sometimes it is THAT series of books that gets our Kindergarteners with ASDs to start talking to us for the first time.

And the children are smart and find it funny that we DON'T say no all day... yet that is David's life. There is so much teaching to do from those books, so many conversations can be started... and conversations about characters with ASD students is not an easy thing to create!

I hate The Giving Tree, however. I have debated this one with other teachers for hours, everyone seems to have an opinion one way or another! It IS my background in comparative lit and gender/sexuality studies that makes me look at this book deeper... it is not me just reading it at a surface level. I fail to find ANYthing redeeming in it. I saw above the theory that the underlying message is that the boy is selfish... and some people argue that it is about exploiting nature. I disagree.


Same with Curious George. Racist. I won't read racist books to my students.

I hate any Disney books, or any books written from/about TV shows and movies.

I don't like Eric Carle books, not b/c of the repetition (One of my fav books has lots of it.. Farmer Duck... great socialist book!) but because they are just boring.

[Heffernhyphen]

Has anyone mentioned yet that The Giving Tree isn't about a man taking from a woman, but about a mother giving to her son? Just like Love You Forever, I take it as metaphor . . . hyperbolic metaphor . . . symbolizing a mother's boundless love. Will I climb through my grown son's apartment window to snuggle him in his sleep? No. We'll still be co-sleeping and nursing so I won't have to.

Books that do bother me include the all-too-aptly-named Grimm Brothers' works of terror and creepiness. How do kids ever accept a step-mother after reading an original version of Hansel and Gretel? They didn't have enough food to eat so she makes the father drag them out into the woods TO DIE? Ouch!

I also don't especially enjoy reading classic Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. Most of them are just plain weird.

And, as a former Kindergarten teacher, I MUST give all my characters fitting accents as I read their dialogue. Therefore, I don't especially enjoy Sesame Street books because my Big Bird sounds like a stoner and my Elmo sounds like Marilyn Monroe in a porn movie. Books by black authors written in authentic dialect also make me uncomfortable because I read like a racist.

[AKmoose]

Add me to the dislike club for Rainbow Fish, Love You Forever (creepy) and The Giving Tree (selfish man). I remembered Giving Tree so fondly from childhood that when I found it at a garage sale as a mom, I snapped it right up...then re-read it. Yuk.

The other ones I really do NOT like are the Eloise books. I find the little girl obnoxious, spoiled, rude and always doing things I don't want my kids to know they even COULD do

We have also "disappeared" every Disney book ever given to us...

[heldt123]

I don't hate any of the books we've read so far, although I do groan silently when my son picks out certain books. I quickly get rid of all the Little Golden Books, Whinne the Pooh, and Disney books I used to buy at yard sales. They just don't get me interested, and seem to drag on too long. Anything I don't like, ends up in the garage sale box to be recycled on to someone else that might like it better than we do.

I LOVE Goodnight Moon, Hop on Pop, and Snug House Bug House!

[straighthaircurly]

Ok give it a rest on Curious George. For goodness sake, its not like it was written recently. Its like saying we shouldn't read The Great Gatsby because it isn't politically correct for our times. Curious George is a classic and always will be. I didn't even bother reading past the first page of this thread because the reasons people were giving for disliking a book were kind silly and in my mind fall into the holier than thou political correctness department. Now if a book is poorly written or is just marketing in disguise (aka Disney) then feel free to complain. But to hate Green Eggs and Ham because you think it teaches forcing something on someone until they give in rather misses the point of the book (it is just fun, silly, rhyming stuff). Quit being so serious people. :

[KayasMama04]

To me its sad a lot of us are refusing to read books to our children that they might enjoy becuase WE don't ike it or its boring to US. I will reread the most annoying book over and over because dd likes it. Shes two she doesn't think curious george is racist and nor do I think im raising one if she is allowed to read it. I agree with straight and curly ...heffer about how the giving tree could be about a mothers love.

[LynnS6]

Originally Posted by UUMom

: Next time an adult wants you to read The Runnaway Bunny to him/her, run away. Very fast.

laughup

Originally Posted by AuntNi

"Yeah, I bet his wife LOVES having her MIL sneak in the window. " Keep in mind my experience is from my dad's mom and my DH's mom, both of whom *would* probably sneak in our window if they thought they could get by with it

With apron strings that long, you think he actually got married? No way, no how, who'd have him?

I think it's perfectly OK to acknowledge that there are certain books that as adults we hate, even if our kids love them. But I have to agree - lighten up folks!

Personally, I love the Pokey Little Puppy (loved it as a child), the Boyton books (I love the illustrations - and even the Rhinocerous Tap CD is meant to be tongue in cheek folks!!). Boynton's Pajama Time is worth it's weight in gold for how much easier it made getting pajamas on for a while.

Oh, but I forgot to add my ALL TIME LEAST FAVORITE BOOK: ONCE UPON A POTTY. It's the stupidist book alive. And dd was in love with it. When my folks were visiting, she brought it to my dad to read -- he had no idea what he was getting into. You should have seen the look on his face when he got to "and he went wee-wee and poo-poo..." (honestly such stupid words for bodily functions!)

[maygee]

ot, but....In the Night Kitchen is the best children's book ever---and they tried to ban it because it was about masturbation, I heard... never got that, personally. Sendak was a genius, imo. Higglety pigglety pop is great too--