to really dislike it when picture books are just wrong?

[mousyfledermaus]

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

[BoffinMum]

Another one.
In our Pingu VHS, Mummy cleans Pinga's bottom after she uses the potty, and then apparently sniffs the same bit of paper and wipes her own nose on it.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY?????

[Tiggles]

The Gruffalo is full of nocturnal animals out for the day .

[kipperandtiger]

But in The Gruffalo, it doesn't actually say it's broad daylight, although I accept it looks very bright in the illustrations, even though it says "took a stroll in the deep dark wood", and they do mention lunch and tea - it could well be lunch and tea later on in the day though. I'm splitting hairs, I'll admit.

[HerdOfTinyElephants]

In fact, the owl in The Gruffalo has yellow eyes so will be diurnal rather than nocturnal (titbit of information from an owl sanctuary -- you can tell an owl's waking/hunting hours by the colour of its eyes, apparently)

[grumplestilskin]

why is the cover of Honey Hill Noisy Day covered in bees? COVERED in them! my toddler asks for his bee story, I say "you don't have a book about bees"?, goes and gets Honey Hill Noisy Day and shows me the ELEVEN bees on the cover, yes eleven bees and one maybeabearmaybeadogmaybearabbit creature.

See mummy, THIS story about bees!

There are no bees in the story at all, not even a picture of ONE inside and there are ELEVEN buzzing about on the cover, ONE could have made its way inside because now its all mummies fault for not having any bees in the BEE BOOK and bed time goes downhill from there...

and the butterfly wings on hungry catapillar

[pookamoo]

Yes definitely about the butterfly wings.

moomin I thought owls do say "twit twoo" ?

[mousyfledermaus]

the male owl says twit the female twoo, at least that's what they told us on autumnwatch

[ReshapeWhileDamp]

Maureen McNally is the longed-for, but very, very late, only child of Mrs and Mr McNally. Mrs McNally's own parents (first generation Irish immigrants to London) had had a large family and she'd always wanted to do the same. However, no children were forthcoming. Mr and Mrs McNally reconciled themselves and developed little foibles, as childless couples often do. And then, just when Mrs. McNally thought she was experiencing the early onset of menopause, along came Maureen! They were pleased, of course, but that boat had almost sailed and it took a lot of getting used-to. They're old before their time and rather set in their ways. Maureen finds it all rather frustrating, especially since they treat her like a middle-aged sister rather than a 15 year old girl - she gets a lot of beige M&S cardis and pot pourri at Christmas. She's planning to move out as soon as possible. To which end, she's mercilessly over-charging Alfie's mum for baby-sitting.

[IndigoSunshine]

This may be off topic but I absolutely can't stand the story and song of 'There was once an old lady who swallowed a fly'.. why would you want to sing or read '...perhaps she'll die' to a young child!? Who invented that?!

Breathe :o

[HerdOfTinyElephants]

It's important to teach young children about the dangers of swallowing large domestic animals, just as it is to teach them about not running out in front of traffic or not sticking their hands in open flames, Indigo. Otherwise no pet could roam our cities in safety.

[IndigoSunshine]

It's ok though, those domestic animals can safely roam our cities again once they are burped out. Well, they may cower in dark alleys for some time.

[LadyInPink]

My sister sings 'perhaps she'll cry' instead of die in the Old woman who swallawed a fly book. Not sure what will happen when they are old enough to read the book themselves

[SmethWitchBelle]

ReshapeWhileDamp I applaud you for that moving insight.

It all falls into place now, I see Maureen as being hands-on and practical as a rebellion against her earlier years; you just KNOW the feminine Mrs MacNally would have had Maureen in rufflebum pants for longer than was strictly necessary.

[mousymouseprice]

another one: forrin picture books that leave the article out. have a german picture book that just says: hund katze kamel instead of the correct der hund die katze das kamel...grrrrr

[lurkerspeaks]

But it isn't just books for children that have a problem.

I've recently read a Rosie Thomas novel in which two of the main characters microwaved food in foil trays... has Ms Thomas never put anything metal in the microwave?

In case you haven't I can assure you that you get sparks. Even if you only accidentally put in your mothers best dinner service which is platinum rimmed. In case you are tempted to try this i can also reliably inform you that the platinum dulls after this and is consequently different from the rest of the dinner service and will forever be cast up to you at family dinners.

I can envisage this happening even when I'm 60. My siblings still haven't forgotten that I once dropped the custard jug (thus depriving everyone of custard) when I was about 8. I'm now almost 38 and it still gets mentioned every bloody time we sit down for a family meal.

[mousymouseprice]

yes, adult books as well. but I don't tend to read them 10x in a row on the same day :o

elisabeth george in one of the lylney mysteries talks about an eldery lady going to a gyncologist for a smear. with a special gyn chair. snurk.

[MrsHarryPearce]

You cannot skip the Santa page in stick man because that is the page with the grufflalo tree decoration and you have to point at it EVERY SINGLE TIME!

[Kennyp]

I am always agog at Spot's fine motor skills. He is definitely a can do kinda dog/pup.

[JollySergeantJackrum]

After some discussion with DM about Mrs MacNally's Maureen, we discovered this on the official Shirley Hughes website. So Maureen is definitely their daughter. I rather like reshape's explanation too.

Alfie's mum must be a social worker, although DM says nurse which I suppose is pretty close.

The wings in the hungry caterpillar bug me too. I didn't notice the cocoon though.

In Bear Hunt, the oldest female is required to do quite a lot - carrying the younger ones, putting on their shoes - and she's awful snuggly with the dad and has VERY frumpy knickers so I just assumed she was the mother. I am quite disappointed to find out this is not the case.

Books which only rhyme on some pages bug me too. We have one called 'Dig dig digging' which DS loves. Some of the pages rhyme perfectly while others don't even attempt to rhyme. Why don't they just not use rhyme on any page?

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy has ONE page which I can't get to rhyme. Although wikipedia suggests here that at that point, when they encounter Scarface Claw, the type of verse changes so maybe I just didn't get this subtle difference. I have put the book back to the library now though.

[catgirl1976]

I have one called "If I were a zebra"

Shiny hooves yes, furry tail yes, squashy nose, ok

"I would live in a forest filled with rainbow trees"!?!?! WTAF??

NO. No I fecking wouldn't. I would live on the African Savannah. There are no such things as rainbow trees.