My toddler has terrible taste in books [lighthearted]

[UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa]

Come and rant about the books you hate to read to your toddler.

My worst offender at the moment is Peppa Goes to Playgroup. Terrible illustrations, meh storyline, hardly anything in the pictures to point at, and a huge percentage of the text is names. DD loves that book and has never even seen Peppa Pig (we got the book in a bundle of used books that I bought). We had to hide it for a while for our mental health, but I took pity on DD and put it back in the rotation.

Anyone else have an unreasonable hatred toward an innocent book?

Another one was an Octonauts book. The Sea of Shade or something like that. Octonauts usually bright and cheery, with some marine biology chucked in. This book was just creepy. It was the complete opposite to the usual TV and books.

Even DH found it unsettling.

DS2 (5) likes to get out ‘finding’ books at bedtime (Where’s Wally etc etc). I frequently refuse to ‘read’ them on the basis that there’s no story and they can take forever. Argh!

My mum saved a book that I loved so much at that age that I asked her to read it to me so many times she apparently thought she was going to lose her mind.

She was pretty outraged when she shared it with me as an adult and I had absolutely no glimmer of recognition whatsoever for the book she had endured again and again because I once seemed to love it so much.

I do remember lots of other lovely books she read to me, but not that one...

Alphablocks and numberblocks although used in nursery schools and Early Years is educational is a bit meh! Glad we moved on rapidly from those years!

Some of the Peppa Pig books are terrible!! I remember filling in bits about the fruit and vegetables when I was reading one about them being in Grandpa pig's house and another one with weather-I started having to add in some of the weather, they had the pictures but they didn't really name it! In general ds has good taste, but we've a few that are terrible, no moral to them really, or the main character is awful! If I had to pick my least favourite book though ... 'We're going on a bear hunt.' Hate. Hate hate hate!!

@bonbonours I despise the Rainbow Fairy books. It is the exact same plot with almost word for word dialogue, just with a different fairy each time. I had to read about 6 one after the other to a child I was babysitting and I thought I was going to lose my mind from the boredom of the same book, over and over again!

DH can't stand the Grinny granny wonky donkey one. If I'm feeling grumpy at him I remind DD what a good bedtime story it is

My toddlers found their Christmas book stash in the spare room a few days ago. I’m reading Christmas books on a loop in a July.

My DC are teens now but this made me laugh! I think I could still remember verbatim every word of The Gruffalo 12 years on, DC2 insisted on it every night without fail, multiple times. Didn't even need to look at the book. Likewise Thomas The Tank Engine, Cranky and Boulder.
Also, Mr Tickle and the bloody Gingerbread Man from a book of stories, it was always the Gingerbread Man!
For DC1 it was Peter Rabbit over and over and over..I remember pushing him in his buggy through town one day and he shouted really loudly " Stop thief!" Inspired by Mr McGregor and everyone stopped and stared
Annoying at time but this made me wish for my little toddlers back again.
Enjoy them whilst you have them.

@UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa I will not be able to read another “that’s not my” book without humming little drummer boy, now😂
Brilliant

We’re currently rotating through several Peppa books and I’m loosing the will to live. ‘Grandpa pig, granny pig, mummy pig and dad pig said to peppa and George… have the writers not heard or pronouns I skip through them now ignoring all names and pointless repetition.
Another I got rid of was Rhyming Rabbit by J. Donaldson. Compared to her others it just doesn’t flow and I found it so hard to read.

It was peepo, we’re going on a bear hunt and goodnight mr bear here. I can still recite them off by heart ❤️😂

@ImNotWhoYouThinkIam

Diggers are good at dig dig dig digging. Lifting up the earth and scooping and tipping. They make huge holes with their dig dig digging. They can work all day.

DS is almost 17 and I still know that one by heart.

DS2 went through a phase of loving Captain Flynn and the pirate dinosaurs. Only my mum changed all the characters to his friends names and he'd get really cross when I couldn't remember who was who. That book went to live at Grandmas!

I loved the really random Beatrix Potter stories. The one about the roly poly pudding was great!

I bet our diggers are still dig, dig, digging on the shelves downstairs

I'll take that over any spin-off character shite. We suffered through some Fireman Sams. There was also a Peppa Pig one thar I stupidly bought because it had wheels. The wheels were by far the best bit!

Generally dd has pretty good taste.... but urrrgh all of the peppa books! I don't understand it at all especially as she never watches peppa if given the option on TV.

I hated reading Postman Pat stories when teaching.

Hated the V Hungry Caterpillar too.

I was very careful what to buy for my kids.

[quote Willwebebuyingnumber11]@UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa I will not be able to read another “that’s not my” book without humming little drummer boy, now😂
Brilliant[/quote]
@Willwebebuyingnumber11 It works best if the main "character" only has one syllable. I also have to add a phrase to the last page to make it scan. "That's my bee its wings are so shiny, (pum-pa-pa pum-pa-pa) sing it with me." I think the sleep deprivation is starting to take its toll...

Dd likes reading a LOT. I've developed the ability to read without it really entering my brain, I be reading a book and thinking about something else entirely. I get to the end of a book with no idea what happened. I also can look at the book quickly, take in a couple of sentences and kind of recite them while looking at something else.

The worst books are always TV spin offs like Peppa, or cheap crap that doesn't scan. I always wonder who writes the terrible ones? Is there a factory of Chinese teenagers somewhere producing them?

I have an irrational hatred for Dora the bloody Explorer. The books just seem cheap somehow and very contrived with all the rescuing, quests etc. But DD loves them and always asks for 'Dowa'

The You Choose books.

In theory, lovely books designed to foster imagination in the reader.

In reality my DD considers every single item in turn on every page for 10 minutes before settling on the same thing every time.

I'm smiling along while silently screaming "COME ON" in my head

To my shame the books based on tv characters never come home from the library. Toddler always comes over with at least one duggee/ peppa book which I make interested noises about, then sneak back into the shelf when her back is turned

Lovely memories!! @ImNotWhoYouThinkIam .. yes yes yes to the Dig dig digging books. DS is 17 and I still have the books on my shelf!! DS2 was born 4 years after him and he loved them too, so much that his childminder bought him the book for his birthday. I didn't have the heart to tell her we had it already.

The first book DS2 could recite was a looked called Pants.

I loved You Choose!!

Haha, You Choose is well loved here by 2.5 year old and us alike, but we don't read it but use it as who can spot a particular item first.

What does "not scan" mean? (Sorry, non-native speaker here.)

One I remember my brother and SIL hating was one called Fluffy Chick that they recalled Chuffy Flick. They hid it in the garage!

However, Aunty Deathraystare got serious brownie (brown-nose) points for getting my nephew "Not now Bernard" and one about an orange jelly monster!

I can't stand the wonky donkey one, fortunately DS not fussed either. He's had some really tedious book obsessions, the Peppa pig ones being among the worst, especially the sound books. Current obsession is Spot bakes a cake which luckily I don't mind!

Make the most of them enjoying any book. My grandson, now a teen, became addicted to a magazine called Tractor Weekly or somesuch. At about 2yrs old he would seek it out in the corner shop and spend large parts of the day cooing over autocar-type adverts for tractors of all shapes and sizes. You try reading that at bedtime! He's never liked books or stories despite all our efforts but neither has he become a farmer - the fixation waned a couple of years later.