Comments on: popular children’s books I hate

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:59:14 +0000

Hey, Jenni! So I’m late to the conversation, but this list & the great posts got me laughing. Feels like sacrilege to admit not liking children’s books!

That said…for me, it was Jumanji. Call me uptight, but I could not handle all those animals and weather phenomena wrecking the house. “Fun for some but not for all” indeed.

And I’m with you and Steve about The Giving Tree. Read it as a kid and felt squirmy. Revisited as a grownup and felt downright queasy.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 24 May 2009 23:16:23 +0000

And what about Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle? I had never read any of them and bought one thinking I’d read it aloud. It’s a classic, right? I pre-read and then took it right back. Sometimes, as in this case, “classic” is synonymous with hopelessly dated. Other words that come to mind are repetitive, sexist, didactic, and condescending.

By: Your Librarian Friend

Your Librarian Friend — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:17:19 +0000

Yes. The repetition. Just like nails on chalboard. I know what’s coming, and I hate having to say it all again and again. Same with any song in that vein.

By: Jenni

Jenni — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:42:53 +0000

Cumulative tales? Like The Napping House? Is it the repetition that drives you nuts?

Oh, Meg liked Despereaux well enough and she may enjoy Phantom Tollbooth in a couple of years (I have a feeling that may be one you have to discover at just the right moment in childhood, when the door to the world of wordplay first swings wide), and she’s welcome to them, but someone else will have to read them to her. Roald Dahl we all enjoy. We recently read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory over a few nights as a bedtime book and she lists it among her favorite books.

By: Your Librarian Friend

Your Librarian Friend — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:25:16 +0000

Cumulative tales. Any and all cumulative tales. Hate ‘em. That “No, David” book makes me feel all itchy and nervous. The art in kids’ books is important to me, and that art looks like it was drawn by a psych ward escapee.

Tale of Desperaux made my 8-year-old cry, but she loved it (did you get to the end? I would personally say that’s a great book for much older kids). She loved Phantom Tollbooth around the same time as the Roald Dahl books, I think about age 5?

The dear-reader voice is all the rage right now.

By: Jenni

Jenni — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:56:16 +0000

Yes, I felt sick to my stomach on reading the Giving Tree. I don’t feel as strongly about Curious George, though I’ve never read the first one — yikes! Oh, yes, the Poky Little Puppy is unbearable.

By: steve

steve — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:21:16 +0000

Concur about Amelia Bedilia and Pippi. Also, I find The Giving Tree unbelievably offensive. To such a degree that I wonder if it was written with the objective of screwing with readers.

By: that other librarian friend

that other librarian friend — Sun, 17 May 2009 14:11:45 +0000

Way to take a stand! I don’t care for Curious George. The first one especially. The trapping of the animal, taking him from his home, the near drowning, going to jail for dialing 9-1-1, escaping from jail, flying too high from holding balloons. Scared the pants off of my son, who insists on reading it.

By: Shannon McClendon

Shannon McClendon — Sun, 17 May 2009 02:29:35 +0000

Ooh, I love this topic. Repetitive books bore the pants off me and I think The Little Engine That Could tops my list of books that make me fidget and inwardly groan with every page. The Poky Little Puppy is also torture. I can’t stand Polly Anna or Little Women, both of which suffer from the goody-goodies. And while I know retelling fairy tales to make them politically correct is wildly popular (as popular as it was in the Victorian era), I rarely find one I like. If you want to write tales about strong girls or women, write your own instead of needlessly rehashing & declawing long-cherished classics. A good author can do it, but it’s not usually the good authors who do. That’s not to say I don’t like some clever, playful and well-written satire or reversal of a tale, but can we stop adding fig leaves to tales that make us uncomfortable?

By: Kristyna MacLaurin

Kristyna MacLaurin — Sat, 16 May 2009 03:25:18 +0000

Amelia Bedelia – blech!