[cholderby]

I think my son has a sixth sense about which books I just hate. He's been alternating between The Pokey Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey and A Day at the Fire Station by Richard Scary. The first book is just mind numbingly repetative (and it doesn't help that a single book session often involves 2 or 3 reads). The second book involves a lot of sound effect noises which I dislike, plus the text is broken up into strange bits all over the page. The only slightly redeeming quality is that the pig firefighters are served a giant pizza with both pepperoni and bacon on it and that bit of cannabalism is just a tad amusing.
We also own the original Cuious George book where CG gets kidnapped by the Man with the Yellow Hat, brought to America, smokes a pipe and ends up in jail. Kind of frightening and not such a great thing for the 2 yo mind to dwell on.
So what are the worst books you've ever had to read?

 

[elmh23]

"Henry and his (or the) Dragon" It actually wasn't all that bad but now dd is scared of shadows! I was hoping she'd be able to work through it after we returned it to the library, but 3wks later we're still dealing.

"Tuesday" It's just a picture book with very few words (I think maybe 5 total.) Great illustrations but OMG I hate having to explain to dd why there are frogs flying and what they're doing!

 

[ktbug]

Oh, bummer, I LOVE Richard Scarry books. At least people are still reading them. They were totally my favorite when I was a kid.

My least favorite childrens' book, sadly, is The Giving Tree. Sneaky misogyny.
Sends a message I just don't like. It took me a quarter of a century to figure that message out, but once I saw it, I got the creeps.

 

[AugustineM]

DS loves the "David" books but mostly they drive me insane. Poor David. His mom is always yelling at him to stop doing this or stop doing that. And lots of the books are like, "Look how bad david is!!! He's such a BAD boy!!! He's always in trouble!"

And in one of the books there's a page where David is in his crib and he's crying and his mom is yelling (from another room) "GO TO SLEEP, DAVID" and poor david looks like he's 9 months old.

Oh, and DS also loves Curious George, and they're borderline imo. I hate the line, "Be a good little monkey and don't get into any trouble." DS has memorized that and always comments on "trouble" now. Also he's gotten too many bad ideas from george.

 

[cholderby]

I completely forgot about potty training books! We have something called The Potty Book for Boys and the kid NEVER washes his hands. Yuck. And we've checked out a Caillou uses the potty book where he puts the potty on his head! Why must these ideas be planted in my son's head???

 

[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.

But the worst book I've ever read is this stupid rug rats book that my husband picked up on clearance. I hate reading it because it's in the voice of one of the characters, so the grammar and pronunciation is all messed up, and I feel like my reading it is an endorsement of speaking that way!

 

[cholderby]

Quote:

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.

I've never heard of that book, but that really is creepy!

 

[ChelseaG]

Quote:

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.

OOh - I think that book is creepy too - I had several people rave about it and ask me if I had that book when DD was born and I had to lie and say "yes" just because I didn't want people to buy it for me...

 

[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.

 

[AnyMama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChelseaG OOh - I think that book is creepy too - I had several people rave about it and ask me if I had that book when DD was born and I had to lie and say "yes" just because I didn't want people to buy it for me...

Good for you! my mother gave it to me, and I've always been wondering if she was trying to send me some kind of weird co-dependent message with it 'I won't let go" or something...ick!

 

[Thalia the Muse]

I don't really like most product tie-in books -- I have to admit that DD brought one "Disney Princess Treasury" book home from school with novel-length retellings of Disney movies, and it was almost shockingly well-written, considering. But generally, they're just total crap.

As far as actual books, we checked out one picture book from the library, The Pirate's Parrot, that was just disturbing and bizarre. The pirate captain's parrot dies so the crew ties a teddy bear onto his shoulder as a replacement, and it ends up being weirdly violent. I was glad when that one was due!

 

[North_Of_60]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cholderby I've never heard of that book, but that really is creepy!

I love that book.

I didn't think it was creepy at all. For being in a society that frowns upon holding and rocking our babies, especially as they grow older (you know, "that child is over a year old, you'll spoil her by rocking", etc) that it was really quite endearing.

I took the message to be one of unconditional affection that doesn't have to change as the child ages. Just because your "baby" is no longer a baby, doesn't mean you can't love them as so.

Plus, I think him and his wife suffered something like 7 miscarriages, so I think there is a little bit of the "enjoy them if you have them" thing going on there.

I dunno, I thought it was sweet. But, I still lay my head in my mom's lap so she can rub it. I think it's more metaphorical then literal, and I took it to understand there was a much bigger message then following your grown kids around, and actually sneaking into their room to rock them while they sleep. (I mean, as if my mother could pick me up out of bed and rock me without knowing.. come on!)

 

[MissSJ]

The original Curious George! George is captured and sad, then he goes with the man with the yellow hat and smokes a pipe before bed, then he accidentally calls the fire dept so he goes to jail, last he is taken to live in the zoo (which is the original reason for his capture). ICK!

We have a lift the flap book called The Cat in the Hat's Great Big Lift the Flap Book. On the page that is similar to the 1 fish 2 fish book there is a big fish looking at a small fish and it says "And some are..." then you lift the flap and it says "very very bad" and the picture is of the big fish back handing the small fish in the face!!! I couldn't believe it when I saw it.

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[arlecchina]

my son loved "the giving tree". which had me in sobs at the end every.single.time. I read it.

 

[naismama]

Quote:

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.

 

[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."

All of this is described and illustrated in detail. And this book is a Weekly Reader Editor's Choice! We received the book as a gift and there is *no way* I will be reading this to ds!

 

[*Amy*]

I have Love You Forever, and it actually made me cry, so I only read it once, when I was pregnant, and haven't read it since! But my mom pretty much abandoned me and my brother when I was like 6, so....issues much?

Anyhoo, hands down, the saddest/freakiest children's book I've ever read is called Mabel the Whale, and it's about a whale (natch) who is captured from the sea and brought to an aquarium. She gets really depressed, so they sedate her and give her medicine, and then she's happy again. Seriously. It's horrible. It was given to me by a friend who doesn't have children, and she said she loved it as a child because it was the only book about an animal that she had, because her mother hated animals. Yikes.

 

[Mihelinka]

I can't remember the title, but it was a cute looking book w/ animals on it, forest animals that is. When I read it it was about a hunter going into the woods to kill some deer

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Can't judge a book by its cover i guess

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[rzberrymom]

The Very Grouchy Ladybug. That book is horrible--it's so mean-spirited and violent, I can't believe it got published!

And we have a few Thomas The Tank Engine books, and they're all about how the trains should behave this way or that way. But then the author keeps referring to the "fat controller." I mean, sure, it's important to teach kids to take a bath, but how about not teaching kids to call other people fat!? (then again, I think I have a British version of these books--do they call him the fat controller in the American version too?)

 

[Thalia the Muse]

I love the Very Grouchy Ladybug, out to kick some BUTT! It cracks me up.