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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to really dislike it when picture books are just wrong?

445 replies

mousyfledermaus · 18/10/2011 21:44

for example "a squash and a squeeze" the house from the outside does not match (windows/doors) the inside.
not to mention funny proportions.

OP posts:
IHeartKingThistle · 20/10/2011 00:45

I'm with TeamEdward on Bear Hunt - it's a game they're playing. No actual bear!

Doitnicelyplease · 20/10/2011 02:22

Can't believe people get annoyed at Tiger came to Tea "drank all the water in the tap" is meant to be funny/silly, BECAUSE we know it is not really possible, how you can be pedantic about that when the whole story is ridiculous!

Also isn't the Bear Hunt story based on a very old marching rhyme/song, sung by cubs? I always thought it was a Dad with his kids and I like the idea that they are in bed telling the story.

sleepywombat · 20/10/2011 04:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bubbaluv · 20/10/2011 05:14

ElaineReece my DS had the same issue with The Tiger That Came To Tea, but I explained to him that they were on tank water so it was indeed possible. Makes more sense if it were set in Australia.

Bubbaluv · 20/10/2011 05:25

I have to put on an American accent to read Lama Lama Red Pyjama - otherwise the rhymes don't work properly.

iskra · 20/10/2011 05:44

Amazed nobody has mentioned the lack of punctuation in Meg and Mog stories. Not a full stop to be seen, but there is the odd colon!

BridgetBust · 20/10/2011 06:48

How are you able to accept that a tiger might come to tea and NOT eat his hosts but get in a tizzy about drinking all the water from the tap? Maybe tiger guests are a frequent occurence in your households ...

VioletNotViolent · 20/10/2011 07:09

This reply has been deleted

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ElaineReese · 20/10/2011 09:06

Because the point of the story is the juxtaposition of the fanciful (tiger to tea) with the mundane - all the packets of spaghetti and the buns and so on. So plumbing should still work according to the rules of the real world!

birdsofshoreandsea · 20/10/2011 09:08

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
mousyfledermaus · 20/10/2011 09:20

but pluto was (classed) as a planet until a couple of years ago. publishers can be forgiven for not updating their books, I think.

my ds has a science picture book about the universe and planet earth. they are so full of mistakes, or rather false simplifications. I always have to correct, it really grates.

maybe I should write to the publisher.
has anyone done that and got a reply?

OP posts:
nickelbabe · 20/10/2011 09:49

besides which, a lot of us refuse to downgrade Pluto in our minds.
I wouldn't be upset if it said "planet" rather than "dwarf planet"

PootlingAndDoodling · 20/10/2011 09:50

What was the one about a rabbit on a motorbike that got turned into a grinch-like thing by a witch - no redemption, no chance to turn back etc. - terrified DS2 when he was little...

onefatcat · 20/10/2011 09:55

OHH!! Little Rabbit Foo Foo!! We loved that one- he did have lots of chances to change though, I think he deserved what he got! Grin

"Little rabbit Foo Foo, riding through the forest, scooping up the wiggly worms and bopping them on the head"

Ha ha ha!

PootlingAndDoodling · 20/10/2011 10:04

That's it - thanks Grin

I'd forgotten he was so horrid!

FaithfullBorderBinLiner · 20/10/2011 10:21

The Tiger Who Came to Tea - spoiler, it isn't happy...

Judith Kerr lived in Germany pre WWII and the Tiger Who Came to Tea is the story of her family fleeing to London. So the Tiger came took away all the food, nice beer, etc, turned the water off at the mains, etc. Daddy bundled them up and shipped them out so quickly that the little girl had to leave behind her pink rabbitt - but that is another story. The happy ending is that the family prepared for the Tiger coming back but he never did.

Peetle · 20/10/2011 10:33

I frequently get requests for Little Rabbit Foo Foo from DT1. We are both bothered by the page with the tigers; the text may say "scooping up all the tigers" but his net/bag is clearly far too small for anything larger than a cub.

I quite like the book otherwise - he gets enough chances to mend his ways and when he doesn't the fairy godmother clouts him with her handbag. A lesson in personal responsibility...

ThePsychicSatsuma · 20/10/2011 10:54

re; squash and a squeeze -

her spare teapot?
Grin I havent got a spare, considered myself quite posh just having the one...

VioletNotViolent · 20/10/2011 12:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

frightstick · 20/10/2011 12:19

I'm finding dinosaurs a tricky one these days. I finally come to terms with the demise of the brontosaurus but we have a multitude of books, some of which have feathered velociraptors, some scaly. Good for explaining scientific discovery to DS but tricky nonetheless.

I also demand Stephen Spielberg goes back and digitally adds feathers to Jurassic Park.

LegoundertheInstep · 20/10/2011 12:32

Nice big plain simple fonts for me, AND the right way up! We want them to learn to read, don't we, so why make it more difficult? I don't mind about the pictures or plot errors though - it give you an extra thing to talk about!

coraltoes · 20/10/2011 12:45

Can anyone share how they say peepo? I sound so odd saying it that i switch it to peekaboo.

Most annoying book has to be Wendy the wide mouthed frog. I cannot do a hand puppet, turning pages AND wrestling things out of DDs mouth!

BertieBotts · 20/10/2011 13:22

I find "peekaboo" sounds odd to me. Probably because it was always "Peepo" when I was little.

nickelbabe · 20/10/2011 13:27

i say peekaboo, but for Peepo I seem to end up pronouncing it "peebo"

I hate those books with the hand puppet - fantastic in principle, really, i do love them, but I can't twist them round without thinking i'm going to rip the cloth off!

Arkady · 20/10/2011 13:36

More Tiger Came to Tea. Personally, I'm with ElaineReese on the factual accuracy facilitating suspension of disbelief in fantasy. But not with Faithful about the origin of the plot, as Judith Kerr herself disputed that in an interview in the Guardian this year

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/may/28/judith-kerr-my-family-values?INTCMP=SRCH

When I wrote The Tiger Who Came to Tea, my husband, Tom, was very busy, so my daughter Tacy and I used to get bored, I suppose. We'd been to the zoo and thought the tigers were ravishing. It started as a bedtime story that I made up for her, partly because Tom was so busy, and I think we thought it would be nice if somebody came. It seemed to be a good idea if it was a tiger. Later, after the book was published, people said, was it a reference to the Gestapo? But I never thought about the tiger being dangerous. But I did think that if a tiger came, it would eat a lot.