What books did you love as a child that really DON'T stand up to re-visiting?

I did my dissertation on Louisa Alcott!

I still love and reread the Little Women books, and the Chalet School and Moomins.

DS's fave is the one where she makes a tea cosy after gathering all the bits from various sources. DH bloody hates it. "And then Milly Molly Mandy had a black bit and a yellow bit and some rainbow cord and a blue bit and a pink bit AAARGH".

And my fave Milly Molly Mandy story is the one where she has a penny and manages to do all the suggestions with it...and ends up with a penny to buy herself sweets!! I have tried to explain the principle to the dcs although again they would never listen to the actual story when the right age.

Anne of Green Gables! So flowery... tried reading it to dd - she fell asleep
Chalet School...endless recapping and repeated storylines about headstrong girls running away, and well brought up Austrian girls.
Pippi Longstocking is actually much better read when you are an adult...I was laughing till I cried over the bit when Pippi is pretending to be a grownup lady talking about The Help/cleaning lady, whereas dd didn't get joke at all, aged 8
Tarzan series I dread reading again...I remember it being tremendously exciting aged 13 but even then I got a whiff that it was vulgar and violent and racist.

And I adored the Moomins, especially the rather elusive Exploits of Moominpappa, but I read it again and it seems...just well so tricksy and elusive, not meaty at all. The Treasure Hunt was my favourite part, but now I can't capture the emotion I had when I read it first or share it with dcs.

Winnie the Fucking Poo. I was so excited about the chance to revisit that series of books when I had children of my own to read to. But their saccharine, arch tone is just nauseating. As a child you only see the lovably vulnerable woodland creatures. As an adult you cringe at the writer's twee-but-somehow-still-quasi-lecherous idealisation of Christopher Robin.

gazzalw I think they do! But I think children like that. I used to like the fact that Nancy Drew books always opened with a description of red headed Nancy, tomboyish George and plump Bess and their various boyfriends and the fact that Nancy lived with her Dad and housekeeper!

Winnie the Pooh - such stilted, old-fashioned English and DW reckons the Milly-Molly-Mandy books start every chapter with the same paragraph about her family...

In general though I am still a big fan of old-fashioned children's books. I know they are wordier than is currently fashionable, but I think it's important that children get into the hang of listening to/ reading them (good ones obviously) as otherwise they may have difficulty getting in to literature later on, Shakespeare, Austen, Brontes etc, being thrown by words and concepts before they are able to "get" the story.

I think that would be a shame, but I did study English literature so others may feel differently. I have been reading DS Milly Molly Mandy and other older books and I hope that he will feel comfortable with and not thrown by "old-fashioned" words and concepts when he comes across them in other books. I hope that doesn't sound too snobbish, maybe it does

On the other hand, Willard Price's Hal and Roger books, which I loved when I was young, really haven't aged well either. Well done, "take 'em alive men", at least you're not killing the animals eh? Just dragging them out of their natural environment to stick in your dad's zoo.

x-post 41!

I am beyond shocked to hear about Mrs Pepperpot.

I remember when I was small my mother announcing a project to read "Little Women" together. And I remember her saying - o dear, this is really pretty dull, sorry about that. And what she said was the same as what posters are saying here - when I was small this is just what there was to read! Books are so much better now!

The Famous Five. I adored them and had battered copies of all the books.

I was aware of the sexism and just used to handwave it by thinking "this was written in the past".

But what shocked me on reading some to DS last week was the violence! We had to abandon Five Go Off in a Caravan because the boy who lived in the circus was getting more and more beaten up by his uncle. I remember a bit of "cuffing" but nothing so graphic!

Worrals was a female pilot in a series of novels written by WE Johns, who also wrote the Biggles books.

www.worrals.com/

I adored Famous Five books as a child. I re-read one recently and the most pleasure I got was the childhood nostalgia. It wasn't as exciting as I remember. I daren't read anymore. However my neice is reading them at the moment and loves them.

Point Horror. God I loved them! But they are shite.

Elf - never heard of her, she sounds FAB!

But Worrals of the WAAF is one of my top fictional heroines! She can fly a plane, defeat the enemy, come out with a cracking one-liner and still find time to ditch a dull date for a trip to the cinema with her best mate Frecks. 0

Oh I love Flat Stanley, never read it as a child.

When I first re-read Jennings and Just William I was struck by the difference - Jennings is quite flat whereas William is hugely witty and elegantly written. Not surprisingly, William was originally written for grown-ups and she only shifted towards writing it for children after she got feedback that the readers' children were loving it.

I reckon the moomins would have the same effect as mrs pepperpot. They were both quite subtle and calming books to read when I was a girl but wouldn't be exciting or funny enough for today's audience.

Oh yes, mrs pepper pot. Got one from the library - was shocked at how dull it is. In contrast Vlad the Drac which everyone was obsessed with in the last year of juniors had my kids in stitches - they loved it!

The Narnia books, specifically the later ones. Christian propaganda when you read as an adult