Originally Posted by
moonjunio
Golden books. There may be some gems in there somewhere but the ones we've been given have almost all been boring or horrible Disney nonsense. The worst is "Cheer up, Eeyore!" Gahhhh! Why bother when you can break out the real Winnie the Pooh.
The new Berenstein Bears caught me by surprise, they have a strong religious agenda now. Some actually quote Bible verses and "listen to the Bible" becomes the lesson of the day, rather than learning through experience. That series was always a bit too wholesome and preachy, but they were a bit helpful for kids going through new experiences like starting school, new baby, etc. However the newer editions are either LITERALLY preaching, or else rehashes of old stories with far worse art!
What else drives me crazy... Obviously "noisy books" and marketing books... And yes you do have to be careful with classics and fairy tales as they can be disrespectful to kids or plain scary, but I'd still break them out eventually when the kids can absorb the culture but have a reasonable conversation about any troublesome messages.
I hid our Junie B. Jones book. Kids learn spelling from reading, I don't want to confuse her yet!
Rainbow Magic. This inane series about various themes of fairies (colors, flowers, sports, pets etc.) always comes in "collect em all" sets of seven, and the plot is the SAME in every darn book! Jack Frost's goblins stole the seven fairies' magic thingies that fuel their fairy ability, and the two grade-school girl heroines must help get them back. I figured at least they had my daughter devouring a ton of books, but the tide turned for me when I learned that the Soccer Fairy doesn't actually play soccer in the book! She just worries about getting her magic token back so soccer can be fun for everyone again. So, she's essentially a cheerleader?
I suppose I'll still let her get Rainbow Magic at the library, I know forbiding things just extends the fascination (I was forbidden video games even as a high schooler, so just jumped ship and played them to my GPA's detriment at friends' houses. This bored my friends who were "over it"). However I will try to screen the next series more carefully...