Awful, awful children's books - Page 17

[Thalia the Muse]

Is that the one by Robert Lawson, about his Confederate ancestors and how terrific they were? I honestly haven't read the book so maybe I shouldn't spout off opinions about it (although when has anything stopped me from spouting opinions?), but it sounds very problematic to me. I'm usually a "read everything, they'll sort it out" person, but I think I'd save that particular book for older kids. As I said I haven't read it, and it's possible that the controversial aspects are overblown in the things I've read about it, I don't know ...

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by monkeys4mama

After a couple weeks, the kids lost interest in it and it died down until the next time the in-laws visited and brought (you guessed it) the sequel.

It would serve your in-laws right to have your kids go off about them farting when they visit. :

[sapphire_chan]

Anyone else getting the impression that a Caldicott award is about the same as rating something for older teens?

[clothdipemomof2boy]

Was wondering your thoughts on the armadillo books. Such as #1 and the book 10 just wanted to know your opinions. My kids these books.

[frontierpsych]

I'm not a fan of censorship, but I do understand making age-appropriate selections.

One of my favorites as a kid was Heckety Peg. It was pretty violent.

Basically, a mom leaves her 7 kids at home while she goes to the market. She tells them not to touch the fire and not to talk to any strangers. A witch named Heckety Peg asks the kids to light her pipe, and they do, then she turns them all into food and brings them back to her house to eat them. The mother finds out what happened and goes to the witch's house but she says her shoes are dirty so she takes them off, says her socks are dirty so she takes them off, says her feet are dirty so she goes into the woods and pretends to cut them off. Then the witch says she has to identify each of her kids by what food they are, and all the foods go with what they asked her to buy from the market. (the kid who wanted butter had been turned into bread, etc) so she gets her kids back from the witch and they throw her off a bridge. The artwork in the books was excellent. My sister loved it too, and she was generally easily frightened.

I try not to read too much into the books. I figure if I don't get the "bad" message, my kid probably won't. I also see books as good for starting discussions (when he's older, of course)

[felix23]

Originally Posted by frontierpsych

I'm not a fan of censorship, but I do understand making age-appropriate selections.

One of my favorites as a kid was Heckety Peg. It was pretty violent.

Basically, a mom leaves her 7 kids at home while she goes to the market. She tells them not to touch the fire and not to talk to any strangers. A witch named Heckety Peg asks the kids to light her pipe, and they do, then she turns them all into food and brings them back to her house to eat them. The mother finds out what happened and goes to the witch's house but she says her shoes are dirty so she takes them off, says her socks are dirty so she takes them off, says her feet are dirty so she goes into the woods and pretends to cut them off. Then the witch says she has to identify each of her kids by what food they are, and all the foods go with what they asked her to buy from the market. (the kid who wanted butter had been turned into bread, etc) so she gets her kids back from the witch and they throw her off a bridge. The artwork in the books was excellent. My sister loved it too, and she was generally easily frightened.

I try not to read too much into the books. I figure if I don't get the "bad" message, my kid probably won't. I also see books as good for starting discussions (when he's older, of course)

I forgot about that book! I always liked it too, and I used to read it all the time.

[umami_mommy]

how about mass marketed books from the dollar store? my mom bought a bunch and left them here at her house for us before she went to florida. they are all cartoon characters from TV and the books are just terrible! of course my kids want me to read them to them over and over again. :

[WeasleyMum]

Originally Posted by boadhagh

Another great book that should be on this list: Uncle Shelby's ABZ book ... It's brilliant!

Originally Posted by irismama

Hilarious, but very much not for children.

LOL! My dad got in trouble for buying this book for his niece, my cousin (he was a young brother/BIL, in his 20's at the time, and she was a preschooler)-- that cousin is in her 40's now! I guess Uncle Shelby's suggestions have been causing problems for many decades now.

Originally Posted by momileigh

I cannot BELIEVE the Boynton hate.

I Sandra Boynton. And that's as somebody who doesn't have any kidlets yet.

Originally Posted by momileigh

We have both of those too! I sing Snuggle Puppy to my girls. (Not so much the older one now, she has kind of outgrown it.) It was the first book (I think) that they memorized and would then sing to themselves or their animals. So cute! "Everything about you is especially fine!"

DH bought me that book... and (please God may he never read this) has been known to sing it to me... "Ooooh Snuggle Puppy of mine!"

Originally Posted by Katielady

I hate Eric Carle. It's not so much that the books are boring, it's that they're UGLY. The colors, the chunky collages, everything about them repulses me. I don't get their popularity at all. Although DS did love the bear book when he was a baby.

Love Hungry Caterpillar too...I guess it's just totally subjective. I really like the tissue-paper-looking college look, the way the moon looks in the sky.. I own this book in anticipation of having someone to read it to.

[katmann]

Anyone have strong feelings about the Serendipity series? I loved these books as a kid, but I realize there are some strong themes in them. Like Morgan Morning, where she has to give her family and home in order to live. The illustrations in these books are also beautiful.

But I'm not against reading these to my kid (yet to be born) when the time is right. I read almost all the books discussed in this thread as a kid, particularly the Bearenstein bears (didn't care for particularly) and Beatrix Potter (loved and still love) and I turned out okay.

My parents had the philosophy that as long as I was reading, I could read anything I wanted, and I think that's given me a lifelong love of books.

[OakBerry]

I don't censor books at all for ds.
We have a huge collection of kids books, some of them were mine and quite old.
I did wait until he was older (five-ish) before I introduced some of them.
There are things that make me cringe a bit but I find them to be good discussion points.

My husband doesn't agree though, when I bring home Roald Dahl from the library he makes ME read them to ds. He especially hated "The Twits". They are an awful couple who play mean tricks on each other. Ds and I really got a kick out of it though.
Ds also thought the songs about the "naughty" kids in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" were hilarious. In fact he calls himself "Mike TV".

We share the same sense of humor, apparently.

[jeanine123]

I don't like "Guess How Much I Love You". I thought it was pretty cute when I first started reading it to my oldest. But the more I read it and thought about it the less I liked how the older bunny always had to "one up" the younger bunny. It just didn't sit well with me.

[jeanine123]

Originally Posted by redhotmama

I won't read Oh, the Places You'll Go by Suess

I won't buy that book for my kids, if they come home with it from another source and want to read it then I will, grudgingly. Both the valedictorian and the guest speaker at my high school graduation based their speeches on this book. Long, boring and since the gym was not air conditioned during an early heat wave, hot and miserable. It does not bring about good memories.

[jeanine123]

Originally Posted by spughy

I actually like Beatrix Potter FOR this reason. It's a far more realistic portrayal of the relationship between animals (yes, foxes eat ducks, and duck eggs, dogs eat duck eggs, cats eat mice, fish eat frogs, kittens play with mice but don't usually eat them (I LOVE Miss Moppet ), etc. Farmers eat rabbits so the rabbits don't eat their vegetables. IT'S LIFE! I don't want DD to all of a sudden discover when she's 8 that animals get eaten by us and other animals. I grew up knowing that, and I've always been pretty comfortable with the natural world and the realities of an omnivorous diet and what you need to do to keep your veggies safe. Thanks, Beatrix! Plus they are beautiful books, aesthetically, and they build interesting vocabulary like nothing else.

Yes it is life. But when you put little dresses and coats on the critters and they're running around on their hind legs when they normally wouldn't do that in real life the rules change. At least for me. I grew up watching plenty of PBS and Wild America and all of those shows. Between that and living on a farm I had a darned good idea of how the "circle of life" worked. But seeing a cutely drawn critter, wearing a dress and acting like a human being eaten--let's just say that I can see how that could be disturbing for some and why they would not want to expose their toddlers/pre-schoolers to it.