We should ban children's books with unhappy endings

[RosaTransylvania]

Says this lady deluded bint

Discuss with reference to your own favourite books.

[HairyIrene]

scary! them, not the book endings

book bonfire ..wtf ..

[snowleopard]

I think they're wrong. But OTOH if the snowman is allowed on their list of OK books, I don't think there's much to worry about. It's the saddest ending ever, I can't read it with DS without bursting into tears! I start crying when they take off into the sky and by the time he melts I'm a blubbering wreck. So the ones they've banned must be pretty bloody traumatic.

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Does it just apply to fiction, or should we ban the Diary of Anne Frank?

[FCH]

Well, now I know what's wrong with me... Obviously being encouraged to read and read and read as a child must have brought me into contact with all sorts of "unsuitable" endings leaving me completely unbalanced...

[marthamoo]

Oh one of this lot, I'm ashamed to say, was on the front page of our local newspaper yesterday - she's rewriting the Lemony Snicket boots so they have happy endings. They'll only be available online, obviously, as no-one would actually buy them.

She, or the woman who founded this bonkers organisation (can't remember which and don't have the paper to hand), reckoned her 13 year old daughter got depressed after reading the series of books. Er...so don't read them?


Perhaps we should rewrite everything to have a happy ending...

Lord Capulet: You know, that Romeo seems quite a pleasant young man, maybe I misjudged his family. Let's get him over for dinner one night.

[claricebeansmum]

Burning books?

Burning children's books?!

Of course books should not always have a happy ending - that is completely deluded. And anyone it is subjective - if you happen to empathise with a baddy in a novel then you could see it as a happy ending.

Wouldn't you be depressed if your mother suggested burning books?

[TWIGgerhappy]

I suppose those children who experience deaths in their family and those who are subjected to abuse should also be rounded up and put elsewhere in case they taint the happiness of others. Oh lets not forget those in the poverty trap, and children of separated parents

farkin' idiots

[claricebeansmum]

Need to ban sad films as well.

Shoot Bambi.

[edam]

Oh for heaven's sake, book burning? What a stupid, stupid woman. Sad endings allow children to experience emotions at one remove, as it happens, so they are actually A Good Thing. But even if they weren't, she'd still be mad.

[edam]

I was very pleased to discover, btw, that our local library had 400 children taking part in the Big Read over the summer. They had an event where they gave out certificates and everyone went up and got a round of applause. Lovely.

[foxinsocks]

Hope she's never read Not Now Bernard. She'd never recover.

[saltire]

Next they'll be telling us that Cinderellas ugly step sisters weren't really ugly,and they discovered that Prince Charming actually had 2 cousin called Dave and Kevin who married the non-ugly ugly step sisters and they all lived happily ever after

[claricebeansmum]

And Hansel & Gretel were left in the woods with SatNav so they could find their way home

[saltire]

And the wicked fairy godmother in Sleeping Beauty was sent away on anger management courses to help her overcome her jealousy, and was able to sit down and talk through her anger with the Princess instead of sending her to sleep

[snowleopard]

DS loves Not Now Bernard! So do I actually.

More seriously, these people are so short-sighted and dim. Do they really, really think they can protect their children from unhappy events by making sure they never encounter one in a book? Or perhaps, just maybe, could it be that unhappy things in fiction actually serve a purpose and help children to learn about life? Erm.... erm....

And could it conceivably be that you could actually help your child to become depressed by denying and suppressing all things negative so they never get to explore those things in themselves?

They should all be forced to read Grimm's Fairy Tales.

[claricebeansmum]

What about books with unhappy middle bits? I am thinking of Jacqueline Wilson books which can be quite sad with children and their dysfunctional mothers. And what about the Alex Rider books where he finds out his father was killed? Gosh and the Gruffalo is quite scary too.
And the Very Hungry Caterpillar - could that not lead to eating disorders?

[UnquietDad]

Barking , barking, barking.

One of them is on the radio now.

Who the hell seriously argues for burning books, FGS?

[MaryAnnSingletomb]

it's madness

[niceglasses]

Wasn't Bible belt US tho?

'nuff said.

[Anna8888]

What total crap.

Sad endings in books help prepare children emotionally for overcoming adversity in real life.

[Marina]

Someone should wallop her over the head with a copy of Michael Rosen's Sad Book. What a deluded bunch of people!

[ThreadyKrueger]

My mum had to stick in a completely new ending for our Labybird book version of Chicken Licken -- one in which chicken and his pals didn't get eaten. This was to save the sobs of my little brother.

Agree, though, that sad endings are as important and beautiful as happy ones, and that the idea of doing away with them is deluded (apart from my mum)

[spookybatoscar]

Oh FFS

Many people burned their books, many others burned their fingers burning their books' to misquote Eric Idle

So we can have Raymond Briggs Snowman but what about his 'When the Wind Blows or Ethel and Ethel and Ernest then?

And 'Not Now Bernard' is great.

Some people huh