what's the worst kid's book you've ever read? - Page 3

[ledzepplon]

Originally Posted by katja

Stormborn, we must have the same MIL!

I loathed The Little Engine That Could. The pictures were the same on every page, and the sentences were long and idiotic and hard to read. Sadly, DD liked it, but I got rid of it anyway. I can't believe it's still in print! I think there should be a special spot in He** for that one and for the Poky Little Puppy.

Ack! I LOVE The Little Engine That Could (I have the one with the original artwork from the 30s or 40s), and the Beatrix Potter books. The prose is lovely!

[nurturedbirth]

Originally Posted by SusannaG

This isn't a worst -- It's just a personal bad experience. When I was a kid, one of my brothers died at age one, and at some point after that someone gave us a copy of the book "The Littlest Angel". This is a description I just found: "A little boy who has recently become the littlest angel in heaven is unhappy and homesick. He drives the other angels crazy with his piercing whistle and slipping halo. Finally, he is sent to see an 'angel of peace.'" (It goes on)

I had that book as a child as well and also found it sad and kind of scary. And that's without the death of a sibling. to you, and to your mom for trying to get through it.

I was also kind of scared by "Bartholomew and the Oobleck".

[ryleeee]

i HATE the book "skinny and fats, best friends"

it's about these friends, one is fat and stupid, and one is thin and smart.

yeah, pretty much that.

[LittleLlama]

Originally Posted by dantesmama

"Babar and His Children". Right away, the doctor tells Babar's wife to supplement the babies with bottles of cows' milk because they aren't gaining weight fast enough. Then it describes (and includes several pictures of) one of the babies almost choking to death. Next, another one of the babies is thrown off a cliff and is saved only by falling in the branches of a tree. Finally the third baby is almost eaten by a crocodile and then nearly drowns (he must be revived). Babar grabs an anchor and "hurls it violently into the monster's (crocodile's) jaws."

And lest we forget, Babar and His wife are cousins!!!

I have a bunch of the Disney Classics and I just can't bring myself to introduce them to Titus (he's still ripping paper anyhow). The Doggies getting turned into a coat, the non-biological parent sending their child to prison/servitude.... and dogs on dates eating spaghetti is the last straw

Seriously about the other ones though.

[sarah_bella1050]

Barefoot Books, Book of Princess NOT suitable for children. It has one story about an evil princess who has her magical castle gaurds kill all her suitors and she put their decapitated heads on spikes outside her castle! Seriously messed up. I almost read that to my 2 year old!

[emma_goldman]

I loved Richard Scary when I was little but now, OOOOoook! So not feminist. The female tow truck driver gets to drive a DINKY little pink truck and all the males get big ones. And lots more stuff like that. The dog is named "spot" and the wife is named "Mrs. Spot", etc.

And I'm gonna get rid of these negative Thomas Tank Engine books...

[North_Of_60]

Originally Posted by ledzepplon

I can't stand those inane counting books . . . "Ten Little Ladybugs" or "One elephant went out to play, upon a spider's web one day . . .". They drive me nuts!

My daughter loves "Ten Little Ladyugs". I can tell she gets confused when there is one less ladybug every time I turn the page, because she tries to flip back and look, then flips forward, then back. It's cute. :

[cholderby]

Originally Posted by rzberrymom

(then again, I think I have a British version of these books--do they call him the fat controller in the American version too?)

No, they call him Sir Topham Hatt in the American version.

I thought of another one I dislike: Guess How Much I Love you. I hate how the daddy rabbit turns what should be a beautiful expression of fillial love into a pissing match.

[cholderby]

Originally Posted by emma_goldman

I loved Richard Scary when I was little but now, OOOOoook! So not feminist. The female tow truck driver gets to drive a DINKY little pink truck and all the males get big ones. And lots more stuff like that. The dog is named "spot" and the wife is named "Mrs. Spot", etc.

And I'm gonna get rid of these negative Thomas Tank Engine books...

FWIW, Tammy Tapir drives a strawberry jam tanker truck in A Day at the Firestation...

[sarahjackm]

Originally Posted by AnyMama

I don't like that 'love you forever book" it's kinda creepy that the mother crawl's into the window of her grown-up son's house and rocks him when he's asleep.

That is my DH's family's FAVORITE book. They call it the Mommy cry book because my SIL can't read it to her daughter without tearing up. I openly call it the creepy book. My FIL and MIL bought us each a copy of it, I've happily snuck our copy to my SIL's house. Now they have two copies and I have none

[homemademomma]

Originally Posted by EnviroBecca

Mr. Nosey says that if a person is interested in what others are doing, he deserves to be physically injured until, due to the power of negative reinforcement, he is afraid to be curious.

nak

and mr. greedy- the main character eats too much so he is "greedy", and when he "learns his lesson" he gets skinny and the book says "and doesnt he look better this way?" :

and please dont get me started on how sexist and male-centric pretty much all kids books are. omg.

[*Amy*]

Originally Posted by katja

I loathed The Little Engine That Could. The pictures were the same on every page,

Our friends bought DD a large picture book edition of TLETC with *the most beautiful* illustrations ever. I want to rip them out of the book and frame all of them!! Let me see if I can find it to link....

OK, here it is. You can click on "Search inside this book" to see some of the pages. Gorgeous!

Someone said they hate Runaway Bunny, but I love it! I guess I just like the message that the Mama Bunny repeats to the baby - I love you so much, I will always find you!

But I hate Pat the Bunny and its knock-off, Pat the Puppy. The illustrations are freaky, and it's just weird!

[staceychev]

I might be unpopular here, but I hate the Olivia books. What a freakin' brat that pig is! I know it's supposed to be funny, and a little bit for the parents to enjoy, but she's so bratty! Argh.

As a Mama I hate Richard Scarry, although I loved his books as a kid, because they're just not easy to read to a 2YO.

[prothyraia]

Originally Posted by cholderby

I thought of another one I dislike: Guess How Much I Love you. I hate how the daddy rabbit turns what should be a beautiful expression of fillial love into a pissing match.

Hah! That just about sums up my feelings on it.

[arwenevenstar]

Originally Posted by homemademomma

nak

and mr. greedy- the main character eats too much so he is "greedy", and when he "learns his lesson" he gets skinny and the book says "and doesnt he look better this way?" :

and please dont get me started on how sexist and male-centric pretty much all kids books are. omg.

I really can't stand ANY of the Mr Men books, in fact i just got rid of all ours finally a few years back. We were bought them by my mother who grew up with them so therefore thought they were suitable! I prefer subtlty in books.

I also HATE things like Angelina Ballerina books and Dora books which friends love to buy my daughter.

Two books I love for my kids are: No matter what by Debi Gliori - which is a NICE version of unconditional love and Tell me something Happy before I go to sleep by Joyce Dunbar which is a lovely book about an older brother comforting his younger sibling who is afraid of going to sleep. Something just feels nice with these ones!

[arwenevenstar]

Originally Posted by staceychev

I might be unpopular here, but I hate the Olivia books. What a freakin' brat that pig is! I know it's supposed to be funny, and a little bit for the parents to enjoy, but she's so bratty! Argh.

As a Mama I hate Richard Scarry, although I loved his books as a kid, because they're just not easy to read to a 2YO.

Oh and Max and Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuby - that is why I can't stand tv characters in books. I can avoid them on the TV as we don't watch it, but to have them thrust in my kids faces via so called "books" eugh!!!!!!!

[katja]

Originally Posted by *Amy*

Our friends bought DD a large picture book edition of TLETC with *the most beautiful* illustrations ever. I want to rip them out of the book and frame all of them!! Let me see if I can find it to link....

You're right, Amy, those are much nicer than the one we had. And lest you all think I'm just a hater, I adore Runaway Bunny too. The story is okay, but mostly I just love the pictures.

[Perdita_in_Ontario]

I always thought I was a weirdo for thinking that Love You Forever is creepy. I figured it was just because MIL bought it for DH a couple of years ago and I found the imagery a bit disturbing.

I've never really enjoyed personified animals and it's worse now. I make an exception for Sandra Boynton, whose books I adore (although Doggies makes me hoarse too!).

Most of DD's books I can live with, but some of the books MIL brought out from storage (50s, 60s, 70s) I can't stand.

There's a National Geographic Baby Elephant book, which I thought would be marvelous until I realized it was the story of a baby elephant in India who is born into servitude (I realize there are cultural differences, but it shows pictures of him chained, and of a tiger hunt - just things I hate).

There's the Romper Room Do-Bee Book of Manners, which illustrates that you must eat all the food on your plate, and hold the chair for girls, and obey your parents at all times.

There's a book of crafts - things to make out of toilet rolls and egg cartons. Great in theory - but did you know that airplanes are for boys and doll carriages are for girls? I know that there are real differences in interests between boys and girls, but do we need to enforce them at every turn?

And finally, my all-time most hated - a book called "Whose Hat is That" with pictures of different hats and who wears them from the 60s - you can imagine. The Fedora is Dad's - and he's in a car driving to work. The hat with the daisies is Mum's - and she's at home ironing and shopping. That one's going to get lost as soon as I remember to lose it LOL.

I don't buy any books with branded characters - at least while DD is young enough that she's not begging for them!!

[Thalia the Muse]

Max and Ruby aren't TV characters -- they were book characters first. Same with Angelina (and the original Angelina books, not the TV episode tie-ins, are GORGEOUS. I want to go live in Katherine Holabird's twee little British world). Max and Ruby crack me up. He's such a toddler, and she's such a bossy older sister -- she's totally me at that age (except I was a lot less patient).

Richard Scarry is extremely sexist, and also sort of priggish, but those books are a lot of fun. I like all the questions to the child in the story.

Oh! I remember one. My daughter was around 2 1/2 or three, and she was obsessed with mice, so I got all the mouse picture books I could from the library. One of them was called something like Goodbye, Mouse -- and it turned out to be a "coping with death" thing about a little boy whose pet mouse keels over. Which is great if you ARE coping with death, I guess, but not if you just want a nice story about cute pet animals. I felt like it should have a warning sticker on the front or something. We had similar problems with one about Grandpa's garden, where Grandpa bites the dust.

[a(TM)?Star]

Originally Posted by arwenevenstar

Oh and Max and Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuby - that is why I can't stand tv characters in books. I can avoid them on the TV as we don't watch it, but to have them thrust in my kids faces via so called "books" eugh!!!!!!!

Absolutely! All that little meany sister does is yell at her brother bunny all day! It's like listening to my mom nag me........Also, NOONE has this book, it was written by a old woman at my grandmother's nursing home in Florida, but it's called the "Runaway Red Shoes". It has the worst grammar, you can barely get through it...here's the kicker, DS loves it!:
Also- I can't stand "The Runaway Bunny", and also..when I was little, I had this book by a series ( I hope someone here will remember it) about Louis Pasteur, and how he developed the rabies vaccine. It's a story about a little boy who gets bitten by a horrible foaming mean looking dog, and almost dies........it is SO scary. If I remember the name, I'll post it.
Okay, I looked it up, and yes they are still selling it.....it's called "The Value of Believing in Yourself:The Louis Pasteur Story" It's a series of books called the "value" series, yuck!