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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:
EsmesBees · 09/09/2018 22:03

Elmer. Some of the jokes he plays on the other elephants border on cruel

Parttimewasteoftime · 09/09/2018 22:05

Horrid Henry he's such a git and his brother is the favourite no wonder he hates him! DS2 wants his hair like Henry 😈

museumum · 09/09/2018 22:07

I love reading cat in the hat / foxes socks etc. It’s a challenge to read them fluently without stumbling, adds some interest.

Mr Men are f-ing awful though.

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Children's books
slippermaiden · 09/09/2018 22:17

Hi hated reading the Mr Men books to my two, short uninspiring sentences. I liked the pictures though. I don't really like David Williams books but the children can read them for themselves now. So many authors mentioned on here that I love!

bonbonours · 09/09/2018 22:18

I love loads of the ones mentioned here including Charlie and Lola - the proper books not the TV spin offs, Julia Donaldson and Dr Seuss. Except I don't like Donaldson's Princess Mirabelle chapterbook which was really dull.

But I agree that Mr Men/Little Miss books are awful and really wierdly written.

The Rainbow Fairies are total rubbish and actually written by a group of writers not an actual author (Clue the "author"s name is Daisy Meadows). Repetitive crap. I was so glad when my daughter could read them herself. On the other hand they are good for giving confidence to kids who are just moving onto reading chapter books themselves as they are very simple and repetitive. There's a similar Dinosaur series by an 'author' called Rex Stone.

I also hate Little Rabbit Foo Foo. I don't get what the story is.

I can't think of others I hate right now, only lots that I love...

BikeRunSki · 09/09/2018 22:22

Yeh, but Parttime Perfect Peter is just as bad. Smarny git.

LivingDeadGirlUK · 09/09/2018 22:22

I had to get rid of Mig the Pig because it was so annoying although my son was equally unimpresed. His fav at the moment is 'thats not my otter' and I thought it was great the first 60 times I read it but have started to go off it now :p

CakeNinja · 09/09/2018 22:29

Oh god I used to hate going on a bear hunt and quietly seeth at the non rhythmic way the words are written. You’d think you could get it into a sing songy kind of pattern and all of a sudden it would abruptly change. Such a clunky and awkward book to read.
I binned it before ds was old enough to choose his stories from the book shelf!

A couple of years ago I convinced dd we should read more classics and bought wind in the willows. Ffs, I’ve learnt my lesson! What a slow, rambly nonsensical whimsical wishy washy load of old shite that was. I don’t think we even finished it!!

Other than that, I’m pretty easy going and love thousands of other kids books, some mentioned on this thread too so I don’t think 2 out of all the ones I’ve come across is too bad.

Personally I could do without all the marvel/avengers type stuff ds loves at the moment but that’s just because I’m not into that kind of thing at all and find it quite boring.

skankingpiglet · 09/09/2018 22:30

Urgh, Rainbow Magic Fairy Whatever series. DH started them with DD1 so I now say it can only be read with him as I couldn't possibly know which page they'd reached. Only Daddy knows that... Wink

Peppa Pig books are awful, although slightly better than the TV show (I'm not forced to listen to Peppa's voice with the books). We've made it slightly more bearable by having a large collection so they can be rotated.

Roald Dahl is far more problematic than I remember as a child. I recently read DD1 Fantastic Mr Fox and felt quite sorry for the farmers! Quite like The Enormous Crocodile and Revolting Rhymes however!

I really enjoy reading the Dr Seuss books.

I've mostly enjoyed pulling my old books out of the loft though. The Giant Jam Sandwich is as good as I remember it, and both DCs have developed a love of Meg and Mog, and the original Mog series Smile
Based on this thread I may check over Burglar Bill before handing it over to the DCs.

Witchend · 09/09/2018 22:32

Sophie books by Dick King Smith

I see exactly what he wanted. A little girl who puts all unlikeliness aside to get her dream of being a farmer.

What he's actually got is a brat of a girl who only uses other children as friends to get what she wants and bullies children that don't agree with her.

madeoficecream · 09/09/2018 22:34

Any generic books about cars, diggers, boats, trains.... with those push buttons for noises... I just hate them all they are so boring.
My son loves them.
So we compromise, I get to read him one narrative based book and then we can do some book about transport/construction

He did use to love Old Bear.... and I used to hate them because they go on for bloody ever... but I kind of miss them now, at least they had a plot

Catquest1 · 09/09/2018 22:38

Nothing, nothing will ever ever be as awful as the Minecraft "search for mine mountain" book ds has. 20 odd chapters with so many characters I lose track, poorly translated which makes it really horrible to read out loud, endless peril and pulling out of diamond swords.

I regret every penny of that 2.99 I spent buying it as a "treat"

guiltynetter · 09/09/2018 22:38

i’m so glad people have mentioned julia donaldson. i’ve hidden a few of hers so my DD can’t choose them at bedtime anymore and get a feeling of dread when she picks one! they just don’t flow well, they’re hard to read and wordy...especially bloody room on the broom.

stick man is okay i suppose.

i hate reading going on a bear hunt too.

AnElderlyLadyOfMediumHeight · 09/09/2018 22:40

Oh yes to the heart-sinking feeling following a request for You Choose/Just Imagine. Dc2 loved those for an inordinately long period - until he was at least 8, IIRC Confused He can do penance by being the one to 'share' them with dd when she's old enough Grin

Argeles · 09/09/2018 22:40

Henny fucking penny.

Totally awful and repetitious book.

madeoficecream · 09/09/2018 22:40

Oh I forgot 'Mog and the Baby'

WTF is going on in that book? Oh great Mog has saved the baby from a car without really meaning to but everyone is pleased. Including the babies mum and mogs owner... who was supposed to be watching the baby.... the baby that manged to get into the street and crawl into the path of a car.....

CarrieBlu · 09/09/2018 22:43

@MagnaDoodle I’m with you on The Great Dog Bottom Swop - it’s vile. A child I used to look after loved it so I had to read it all the bloody time! If anyone ever buys it for my DC it will be going straight into the charity shop bin.

RiverTam · 09/09/2018 22:43

David Walliams is an awful writer, his sentence construction is dire. Luckily DD also hated the only one we got from the library.

She’s recently got very into Jacqueline Wilson and I worry that she’s reading ones that are really too old for her, so when I’m reading them I never know whether to skip something or inwardly sigh and read it and then get into a long discussion about it afterwards.

I don’t like reading graphic novels because I find them impossible to read aloud well.

AnElderlyLadyOfMediumHeight · 09/09/2018 22:44

I like most of Julia Donaldson's books, but it's true that some of them are unnecessarily sexist, or perhaps normative - in Stick Man it's the male stick who goes on the adventure and leaves his wife at home holding it together, similarly Tabby McTat (and she could at least have made the busker female without damage to the plot), then there's the mum at the kitchen sink in the background in Charlie Cook and the fact that ALL the characters in the Gruffalo are male. I make the owl female when reading to dd in order to remedy that a bit. (And tbf it'S partially redeemed by the Gruffalo's Child).

purplepandas · 09/09/2018 22:52

Clarice sodding Bean. Even worse than Charlie and Lola. Gives me the rage.

KatharineHilbery · 09/09/2018 22:53

Mr Men and Little Misses - patriarchy in action.
Percy the Park Keeper - dull dull dull
The Large Family - patriarchy and fat-shaming. What’s not to hate?
Elmer the Elephant - just so tedious.

allthegoodusernameshavegone · 09/09/2018 22:54

Mr Men & Horrid Henry, love some of the old ladybird books though.

Paddingtonthebear · 09/09/2018 22:55

Oi Frog. So annoying.
Mr Men
Rainbow Magic - they are formula based books written by a team of writers, same as Beast Quest. They are good for encouraging independent reading. They aren’t for parents!
The books about the elephant family - particularly 5 minutes peace. Really grates for some reason.
Alfie books. So dull and old fashioned.

Some of my faves:
Mr Big
How to catch a star
The Paper Dolls
Lost & Found
Snail and the Whale

DrMidgeryMargery · 09/09/2018 22:58

MadeofIcecream is spot on with Mog and the Baby. What the fuck? Why wasn’t Mrs Thomas watching the baby? Why wasn’t the baby’s mother reeeeally fucked off with Mrs Thomas?

And it’s been said before but the fucking Dinosaurs Who Pooped A Lot has a special place reserved in hell for it. The idea is terrible and I can never tell if it’s meant to rhyme as it does in some places and not others, and when you think you’ve got into a rhythm it changes. I’ve conveniently lost it down the back of the bookcase.

Artesia · 09/09/2018 23:03

I thought it couldn’t get worse than Thomas the Tank Engine or the Mr Men, but then my son developed a strange fascination for My Little Pony and Magic Animal Friends books (Magic Animal Friends also by “Daisy Meadows” and there are bloody hundreds of them). I could weep when he finds new ones in the library.