Children's Books I hate! - Page 5

[mimim]

Originally Posted by MamaDimstam

This is obviously for slightly older readers, but I cannot stand the Junie B. Jones books for all the deliberate misspellings. Dd saw one and asked why the writer made Junie so "not smart." Awful.

This is a good example of how a book you don't really care for can be turned into a positive experience.

The "not smart" would prompt me to start a discussion about how people can be smart in all different kinds of ways and how people can be bad at one thing but excellent at another.

[boatbaby]

Originally Posted by mimim

I love a lot of these books.

Who doesn't like feisty, strong, creative, feminist Olivia???? (Although William does have bottles.)

Green Eggs and Ham is about not saying you don't like something when you haven't even tried it.

Love You Forever is about unconditional love and the fact that your parents will always cherish you even when you are grown and you should do the same. We think it's hilarious when she climbs in his window. It's not meant to be literal!


A lot of books (Curious George is one) can be used to discuss cultural and historical difference and why we don't agree with the values of the book.

Although, I do agree Rainbow Fish is boring and insipid. Clifford bores me too.

I think Olivia is a brat not a feminist. And reading Olivia once gave my son some bad ideas he never thought about before.

There are a million other books out there that teach cultural differences -- i hardly think Curious George is one of them. Though that is a very creative way to look at it...

[UUMom]

Originally Posted by Daffodil

Actually, Crescent Dragonwagon is Charlotte Zolotow's daughter. (I just looked it up.) (ETA: I see AuntNi beat me to it on that one.) Speaking of that sicko, MWB, I love the story about the little girl who gets a steamroller for Christmas and rolls a bunch of people and animals flat as shadows. (Including her teacher, knocked down and flattened out with a Merry Christmas smile still on her face.)

Just kidding, of course. I actually hate that story because it advocates going overboard on Christmas spending (the parents not only buy the girl a steamroller, they get her a steam shovel, too!) and because it shows such irresponsible parenting. What kind of parents would let their child drive a steamroller unsupervised? (Without even explaining how the controls worked!)

OMG! You are right. Touche to you. (I am thrilled someone bothered to look it up). lol

[Mama Coltrane]

i like most Dr Seuss, but i detest reading Fox in Socks. It just gives me a headache with all the tongue twisters and rhyming. It reminds me of being in speech therapy as a kid!
I love reading out loud, just not that book.

[UUMom]

Ok, while I love No! David!, I really do not enjoy Daisy Head Maisy. There is something so off about that book.

[clane]

While I do enjoy enjoy reading some books more than others, the only ones I truly detest are the character books that play music. The only noise coming directly from a book should be the sounds of the pages turning.

DH & I were just discussing the message of the Rainbow Fish the other day. Bleh!

[sabrosina]

The only book that I won't read to my son anymore is The Carrot Seed.

A little guy wants to grow carrots so he plants the seeds and everyone in his life is discouraging him.. mom, dad, brother all keep telling him 'they won't come up!' What is up with that? But the little boy keeps watering and weeding and amazingly enough, they DO come up.

So the story does have a keep-at-it-and-you'll-succeed theme, but what a crappy family example.

[NamastePlatypus]

MIL was reading one of dhs books from when he was little which I thought was cute, until I started listening. It was some book about Oscar the Grouch. It was so mean. I was horrified! Then she got pissed because I asked her to read another one of his that he likes and well, you know MIL's: I would quote it but I threw it away :

[One Art]

I dislike Funny Bunny (all the other animals make fun of him because he doesn't have a tail, so he has to get one) and Pokey Little Puppy (the puppies dig a hole under the fence to play and they get punished by not being allowed to have dessert). And I have a huge pet peeve about books that rhyme badly - Hello Toes, Hello Feet, Chelsea Fish, and Pretty Little Lilly and the Magical Night come to mind... they rhyme badly and the rhythm is awful! (ok, I am an english major and a writer) And illustrations do creep me out sometimes.... has anyone read The Pet Person?

[vac70]

Originally Posted by AuntNi

Love You Forever. The big guy in his mother's lap just creeps me out.

I like RM's books but that one has always creeped me out too. I worked at a Children's bookstore and never understood why people would start crying when they read that book!

[TheDivineMissE]

I still have Love You Forever memorized from when I was 19 and worked at a daycare. I didn't even have kids and that book made me cry every single time I read it. I never thought it was creepy - just amazingly sweet - the devotion mamas and babies feel for each other. *sniff*

Oh and the If You Give A Mouse A Cookie book is so cute too! It's written just the way a kid might think or tell a story. I love those books and would buy them all if they weren't so darned expensive!

Books I don't like:

Anything that makes noise, like a PP said. Those books drive me crazy.

[Ravin]

I have 2 problems with Curious George. One is that it is dated. Nearly everything anyone mentions that is wrong with the book has to do with the change in mindset that has occured in the past few decades about apes.

Second is that he's NOT A MONKEY!!!!

Curious George has no tail. He knuckle walks. He is completely and obviously a CHIMPANZEE.

I dislike Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb for the same reason.

I still read both books to DD. I just substitute "chimpanzee" for "monkey" except when the firemen in CG are speaking.

And any concern about George being taken can be easily brushed aside by saying that his mother was killed by poachers and the Man in the Yellow Hat, a primatologist, took him in. Most chimpanzees orphaned at a young age (before 3 or 4 yrs.) die.

There have been captive chimpanzees who enjoyed smoking, so the pipe thing is actually fairly realistic (just dated!!!).

[maygee]

Moo Baa Lalala is actually really fun to read, I think! Boynton's books are cute! It's one of the only books tht I didn't end up hating to read when I worked at a daycare. Goodnight Moon I LOVE!!! And Runaway Bunny too! BUT I hate those "learning books" Leapfrog?? that train your kids to read and recite random things...they just really disturb me, the whole smartest baby thing...

[KayasMama04]

I didn't read all of it but to me they are childrens books give them credit...I don't hate any of her books wait...board books annoy me because they are too short lol I like the song bad babies its funny...come on when my mom brought my little sister home it was not peaches and cream she was always crying and mom held and played with her more. I always cry when I ready ill love you forever.

[4evermom]

It's really just the illustrations of I'll Love You Forever that are creepy. My ds would find that sentiment comforting (we don't have the book).

Eric Carl books drive me crazy to read because they are so repetitive.

We have some story with the characters illustrated like hedgehogs, I think, where the little girl keeps stalling at bedtime. She keeps getting out of bed. It is handled very nicely until the end when the father asks if she knows what will happen if she gets up again. The answer is a spanking.

ETA Bedtime for Frances is the book I was thinking of in the above description.

[Daffodil]

Originally Posted by 4evermom

Eric Carl books drive me crazy to read because they are so repetitive.

We have some story with the characters illustrated like hedgehogs, I think, where the little girl keeps stalling at bedtime. She keeps getting out of bed. It is handled very nicely until the end when the father asks if she knows what will happen if she gets up again. The answer is a spanking.

ETA Bedtime for Frances is the book I was thinking of in the above description.

Oh, yes, Eric Carle books are so boring and repetitive! (There is one good one, though - Draw Me as Star.)

I love Bedtime for Frances, and so does my DD, despite the fact that we would never spank her. I love all of Russell Hoban's books. We have one by him that I'm sure would appear on every thread like this if it weren't out of print and seldom seen - Tom and the Two Handles, about a boy who figures out that the best way to get along with his friend is to learn how to beat him up. I love that one, too.

[falcon]

Books I hate?

Two words-

Everyone Poops

I don't think I need to elaborate

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by Daffodil

Oh, yes, Eric Carle books are so boring and repetitive! (There is one good one, though - Draw Me as Star.)

I love Bedtime for Frances, and so does my DD, despite the fact that we would never spank her. I love all of Russell Hoban's books. We have one by him that I'm sure would appear on every thread like this if it weren't out of print and seldom seen - Tom and the Two Handles, about a boy who figures out that the best way to get along with his friend is to learn how to beat him up. I love that one, too.

I threw that one out (Tom and the Two Handles). It was truly terrible . Ds was a puncher and did not need that book in his life!

I do like Bedtime for Frances except that tiny part. It's frequently just one line that ruins an entire book. It's not so bad now that ds is older but I didn't want to read it to him when he was 3.

[Doodadsmom]

Originally Posted by pixiepunk

the vast majority of sibling preparation books make me nuts. between the "mommy's going to leave to go to the hospital" and "daddy's going to give the baby a bottle" and pictures of cribs, bouncy seats, disposible diapers and the like i was appalled to find that there were only like two books i found on the subject that i could even modify for my DD.

Have you seen All the Places to Love? I haven't read it, but it looks really good on Amazon...the younger sib is born at home.

Re: Love You Forever...I like this one. The allegorical message is very positive. Which is what I dislike about The Giving Tree...the allegory is worse than if you just take it literally IMO.

Also, I don't think that all books are either 'good' or 'bad' - something that's fine for one person might not work for another. Like I said, I like Love You Forever, but if there was someone in my life who literally did the types of things the mother in this story does...then, not so much. And if a book brings a parent to a bad place, I don't see how their reading it to their child could be a good thing. It's not like we've got a very limited list of available books.

[NYCVeg]

The only children's books I really dislike so far are the ones that are poorly written. I think the Sandra Boynton books are pretty poor, in terms of quality. Those Fuzzy Bee/Snowy Bear cloth books that they sell at toy stores are dreadful. There's a line in Snowy Bear (MIL got it for dd)--"Running quickly through the snow, see the moose come and go"--that drives dh and me BATTY. We either correct the grammar when we read or make snarky comments about being careful not to run into the moose when playing in the snow. Of course, dd is only 8 months, so all books are tasty snacks to her!

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.