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Original poster

Children’s books you don’t like?

274 replies

MagnaDoodle · 09/09/2018 19:36

Anyone got a book or two that makes them inwardly sigh and weep when DC asks for them?

I had to read my most disliked book today. Burglar Bill. Dirge.

OP posts:
parrotonmyshoulder · 09/09/2018 20:21

The Large Family. Ugh.
Most Julia Donaldson, although I love the Paper Dolls, the Everywhere Bear and Jack and the Flum Flum Teee.

parrotonmyshoulder · 09/09/2018 20:21

Tree!

WhereBeThatBlackbirdTo · 09/09/2018 20:22

Hug!

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Children's books
Crispmonster1 · 09/09/2018 20:23

I could go on and on but the first one is Cat in The Hat. Scary. As. Hell

AnElderlyLadyOfMediumHeight · 09/09/2018 20:24

We enjoyed a couple of David Walliams but gave up on Billionaire Boy because it was just so incredibly one-dimensional, and not engagingly so. There are several Roald Dahls I avoided reading to my older two because of the descriptions of child cruelty in them - upsetting, however unrealistic.

I kept my dc away from the Mr Men.

Burglar Bill's lovely. And I think with the Highway Rat you need to know the Highwayman to get it to scan.

StorminaBcup · 09/09/2018 20:25

Noddy. I hate the series, hate the books. Ds1 on the other hand loves it. I've hidden it so ds2 doesn't get hold of it!

lauryloo · 09/09/2018 20:25

The harry and the bucketful of dinosaurs. I dread ds picking one

LadyMetroland · 09/09/2018 20:28

I used to dread Postman Pat books too, but the children adored them.

Now they're older, I do think Harry Potter is so overrated.

Rainbow Magic Fairies are dross, but a brilliant money spinner for the author who has written about 150 of the things

SoftSheen · 09/09/2018 20:28

Thomas the Tank Engine

Beatrix Potter (with a few exceptions- I quite like The Flopsy Bunnies).

In The Night Garden books (thankfully now outgrown and cast out of the house forever).

happypotamus · 09/09/2018 20:37

Mr Men. Why are they such classics? The writing is terrible, the punctuation is incorrect and the stories are not that great.
Thomas the Tank Engine. Boring. The engines moan all the time and wind each other up. I have enough of that in real life.
DD2 loves a book with Thomas in that is basically just pictures labelled in English, French and German. She insists on it as a bedtime story but there isn't a story. We don't bother with the French and German, but it is educational for 3 year olds with pages about shapes, numbers, days of the week etc, but so dull. DH hides it sometimes so he doesn't have to read it.
Rainbow Magic Fairies. Secret Magic Unicorn/ Puppy/ Kitten are all nonsense that DD1 reads and asks us to read.
A lot of Enid Blyton books. I loved them as a child but they are terrible for reading out loud.

YolandiFuckinVisser · 09/09/2018 20:44

DS loved his Bob the Builder book, I hated it and tried to miss pages but he could tell.

DD loved the Percy the Park keeper books. I could't bear those either but not as bad as Bob the Builder.

They both had some lovely books but would default to these horrors.

I quite enjoyed the Noddy books (especially the one where Noddy Goes to Sea and promises Tessy Bear a pearl necklace on his return) Also enjoyed reading Famous 5 to DD and discussing feminism and racism with her (lots for her to be shocked by in there).

purplepandas · 09/09/2018 20:46

Little Rabbit Foo Foo. I hate it.

Agree re David Walliams, they are just full of grimness.

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 09/09/2018 20:50

I hate Squirrel Nutkin. It’s nonsense

ipswichwitch · 09/09/2018 20:54

The tiger that came to tea. Why in God’s name are Sophie and her simpering mum just sitting there watching that greedy arse tiger eat everything in the house? That’s a mn thread in itself. The dad seems to take it all rather well though. I have a theory that Sophie’s mum is in fact off her tits on gin, dreamed the whole thing then realised she’d not made the tea so came up with the first bullshit excuse she could think of.

Even DS1 couldn’t get his head around why anyone would sit and let a random tiger come in and eat all their food, and he was 4 when I first read it to him.

Pancakepoop · 09/09/2018 20:54

The Hairy Toe - worst story ever!

Original poster
MagnaDoodle · 09/09/2018 20:55

My 3.5 year old loves the tiger who came to tea. Knows it by heart. I love the dads facial expressions 😂

OP posts:
Swishswish26 · 09/09/2018 20:58

Charlie and Lola!

llangennith · 09/09/2018 21:00

Charlie and Lola
All the Mister Men books

DressageNut · 09/09/2018 21:04

Those books about a kid called Sophie who wanted to be a "lady farmer". No she didn't, she just wanted to be a FARMER ffs. Annoyed me every time.

weekfour · 09/09/2018 21:05

BARRY THE FISH WITH FINGERS.

Boils my piss.

holidaylady · 09/09/2018 21:05

I don't like the tiger who came to tea either. The author is still alive, she just had her 90th birthday I think.

The tiger represents the nazi soldiers coming into their house and taking their stuff and eating their food. Grim.

Gorgeous illustrations though, she wrote mog too.

tinofbeans · 09/09/2018 21:06

Flat fucking Stanley. I absolutely hate it. And DD has a waste of paper called Bad Mermaids which I can't get my head around, let alone attempt to follow the plot.

As a child I hated Michael Morpurgo's books, but I've just read Kensuke's Kingdom with DD7 and it was fantastic :-)

Niminy · 09/09/2018 21:06

Julia Donaldson, possibly the most over-rated books ever. Terrible doggerel, boring, repetitive and twee.

Thomas the Tank Engine, Mr Men, Harry Potter all are awful.

Regressionconfession · 09/09/2018 21:07

You Choose Series by Nick Sharret. I'm sure they're excellent for engaging children but they're hard work!!!

drspouse · 09/09/2018 21:07

Any books of children's TV series - the language is always way way beyond the age they are designed for.
And "that's not my". DD is 4 so you'd think we'd be beyond them but she keeps finding them in odd places.