Awful, awful children's books - Page 3

[Cersha]

Originally Posted by onlygirls

The Story About Ping

I think I had this one when I was little. It seems eerily familiar.

[Aliviasmom]

My family really likes Love You Forever. I grew up with it, and my daughter and I read it too. As weird as it sounds...it's something that I could see my mom doing. My only problem with that book is how she would have to crawl across the bed to pick him up when she visits his house, since the window is right next to the bed.

I also grew up liking Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and was just recently thinking about them. Guess I'll have to pre-read them!

One of the books I'm not a fan of is the version of Henny Penny that we have where Foxy Loxy eats all the birds. I know there is a version where they all out-smart Foxy Loxy and get away.

I hate Where the Wild Things Are. It creeps me out and I refuse to read it.

[Aliviasmom]

Originally Posted by onlygirls

The Story About Ping

This book is pretty bad too.

[Mary-Beth]

I like the story of Ping...it made for a wonderful discussion about ways people try to motivate others to do things (sometimes with violence) and we discussed other ways we can try to motivate others to do things. My kids were so creative in the ideas they had. However, I agree it's amazing how many books have hitting and violence. Some you can learn from and use as a way to start a discussion and others are just not worth it. And it's really hard to get published. Nothing is impossible but it it is one tough business to break into. It sure amazes me how some of these books ever got published. Some are old and reflect a different generation such as Beatrix Potter, but others are rather current and reflect this idea that teasing and such is the norm and tolerated.

[JSerene]

Originally Posted by Aliviasmom

One of the books I'm not a fan of is the version of Henny Penny that we have where Foxy Loxy eats all the birds. I know there is a version where they all out-smart Foxy Loxy and get away.

We love the version where the fox eats the birds (only Henny Penny gets away). The very first time we read it my daughter said, "but mommy, foxes eat birds!" when the fox appeared. I replied, "well, this is a storybook, I'm sure they'll all be friends." Oops, the very next page he eats them all up. I swear I never laughed so hard. My dd was very pleased that she was right and we've loved it ever since.

We also enjoy the 3 little pigs version where the first 2 get eaten, so maybe that's just us.

[rmzbm]

I <3 The B'stain Bears!

Originally Posted by nabigus

the "I'll love you forever" book. I know a lot of people adore it, but the love the mother displays seems... I don't know, needy and stalkerish and downright weird to me. I can't even read it.

I agree, that book is WEIRD!

[snoopy5386]

one of my daughter's current faves is a book called Pizza Pat...It is all about this guy named Pat making a Pizza...."This is the cheese, all gooey and gloppy that covered the sausages spicy and choppy, that sat on the sauce all gooey and gloppy, that sat on the dough all stretchy and floppy that lay on the tray that Pat bought." Really nice fun rhyme-y type book to read until you get to the end. A bunch of mice steal and eat Pat's pizza. He is sad and cries....The end....WTF!!!??? No moral, no repercussions for the mice, just you make something, you put a ton of work into, and someone will come along and steal it. Oh well, too bad for you! But yeah, we have lots and lots of crappy books. My mom enrolled us in the Dr. Seuss book club or whatever, I think it is through Scholastic and some of the books are just downright awful.

[the_lissa]

I love Where The Wild Things Are. What is wrong with that book?

I know a lot of People find Love You Forever to be creepy, but I think it is sweet. I don't think it is supposed to be literal.

[the_lissa]

I know a lot of people think Runaway Bunny is creepy and stalkerish too, but I can't imagine any parent who wouldn't go to the ends of the earth to find their child if they ran away.

[julie128]

Originally Posted by waiflywaif

I really hate those parental stalker books, such as The Runaway Bunny. Creepy.

A friend of mine who is a social worker and worked with foster kids told me that foster kids hate this book because no one ever loved them enough to go after them. That's what this book is about.

I hate Bedtime for Francis. Threatening a child, especially at night, will just give her nightmares.

[Breeder]

This is the reason I try my best to pre-read books before I read them to DS.

I learned my lesson with Beatrix Potter and the Frances book!

[mercy589]

This makes me want to go through and dump a bunch of DDs books. We have a ton that were dh and mine as kids and we've been suprised how many we can't read to dd because they will scare her. Looking at books through her eyes makes me realize how awful alot of them are.

[_betsy_]

DD's still little, 19 months, but there's one book SIL gave her for Valentine's Day about where the little girl should put her very last chocolate on the night of Valentine's Day - hello, moderation, anyone?

This one by Kevin Henkes
http://www.amazon.com/Lillys-Chocola...8825284&sr=1-5

In the end, she just eats it. DD's only 19 months, so about 15 months when it was Valentine's, and has never had a candy/treat/chocolate/anything of that nature. So it went on the "Mama doesn't care for this book and doesn't want to read it over and over again a million time" shelf.

[Doodlebugsmom]

Originally Posted by julie128

.

I hate Bedtime for Francis. Threatening a child, especially at night, will just give her nightmares.

We love the Frances books! My mom read them all to me when I was little. (She was a non-spanker, too.) When we read it, we always roll our eyes and talk about how absolutely mean Frances' dad must be, and end up laughing at the absurdity. Any time questionable things pop up in a book, we just talk about it.

[pigpokey]

Originally Posted by birdie22

First of all, a spanking?! and second, since when is that going to magically make a child go to sleep?!

I love you people, but unfortunately "threatening" aka "informing" a child of a natural or parent created negative consequence to staying up at a bed or nap time will indeed make them go to sleep, so I assume threatening with punishment will as well (though I mean in no way to promote spanking at all, see below). I figure you are not familiar with the phenomenon of a child regularly failing to sleep because s/he chooses not to settle down. I assure you it is a well observed phenomenon of widespread prevalence. I do try whenever possible to keep them natural consequences, such as, if you don't get to sleep now we will not have time to go to the pool. Or the other common natural consequence, if you don't go to sleep now mommy will get really cranky.

[Surfer Rosa]

I remembered what else it is that I hate about the Love you forever book, aside from the mom-stalking-the-adult-son (which I know is just a metaphor, but still), the ARTWORK. It is atrocious. The perspective is all wonky and the proportions really bother me-they either need to be way better or way more deliberate in their distortion. Bleh.

[pigpokey]

Originally Posted by waiflywaif

Those kids were way too young to be left alone, for one! And then they just...OPEN THE DOOR to a bow-tied anthropomorphic cat??? Who taught them safety?

Hey, they got the house cleaned up before Mother got home.

I don't like Giving Tree, or the vast majority of the Berenstain Bears books (but I read them aloud at least every other day).

[Smalls181]

I remember LOVING "The New Baby". It was one of those golden book thingies. I wanted to find it so badly for dd. Well, my sister has the book that we had as kids, so I was reading through it, and yup, they used a bottle for the teeny tiny little newborn. blah. We are trying really hard to limit the "babies need bottles" message, so we decided to not get the book for her.

I am going to have to read all of my old B-Bears books. We have a huge stack of them, but DD shows no interest in them yet.

I want to be careful not to get too "censorship" with my kids. Thats what my parents did with us, and it backfired. It took me quite awhile as an adult to be able to objectively look at things and figure out why they were good or bad. We were never given the chance. I know for toddlers you can't have that dialogue quite yet, but I dont want to rule out books like the B-Bears or Beatrix Potter just yet. I want her to be able to look at these books critically, with our help if need be, and decide for herself what she values.

[waiflywaif]

Hmm, I sort of agree, but on the other hand you didn't let her "decide for herself" to read a book about a baby having a bottle, right? And to me issues like sexist family structures or terrible parenting or unnecessary cruelty and violence in a book will be way more disturbing and damaging to a kid than seeing an illustration of a baby having a bottle.

So no, I wouldn't let a small child decide to read things for herself that go drastically against my family values. If we do read something that I don't agree with, we talk about it---but I'm not going to go seek out books that I personally think are horrible just because of worries about censorship. Not at this age, anyway.

[prothyraia]

Guess How Much I Love You irritates me, for the reasons other folks have mentioned.

I used to HATE "Are you my mother?"...WHY was the mommy bird leaving? That's awful!!! Until it occured to me that mommy bird was a bird, and not a mammal, and so her lack of nursies justifys her excursion.

Runaway Bunny I found a little creepy at first, but I can see how it addresses a real emotional need for kids.