To not merrily give away my Christmas lunch to a German family I've never even met?

[HarrietKettleWasHere]

Ok not me but Jo March.

I'n watching the travesty BBC adaption of Little Women.

The mum comes home and makes them feel awful just as they are about to tuck in to all the lovely food, because of the poor immigrant family, who are, by all accounts, having a really horrible time. Even though Marmee has already given them all her firewood. And they skip out the door so jolly, with all their bacon, sausages and maple syrup, and cream that they get only at Christmas to bestow upon the family. Even selfish Amy!

I was just wondering if I'd have been quite so joyful about doing that at a similar age

Beth then gets scarlet fever from the baby, which goes to show no good deed goes unpunished.

It looks like it'll be a clementine for dinner, 1 segment apiece, but luckily the rich family from down the road then take pity on them and send a lovely ham.

This is lighthearted by the way. It can't be serious really because the adaption is quite awful.

I don't know is where they filmed it but it can't be Massachusetts as I keep hearing a Great Tit call and they don't have those there pedantic

Also Amy is supposed to be 12 and she looks 27.

What other classics has television managed to ruin for you with their adaptions?

@KeiraTwiceKnightley as far as I can figure out the underwear was baggy. Or at least the legs were. So could be pulled up and across.

I teach year 6 and most of the books adapted are seriously boring. We love Alan Garner and Susan Cooper, just brilliant! Weirdly, a whole class book we all loved was The 39 Steps. Bit of spy war stuff. We usually get stuck with Morpurgo, and all the animals die.

Well said MadGardener! There are some appalling "Miss Marples" out there - Julia Mackenzie in particular (Agatha Christie's "Marple" - what? What's wrong with MISS Marple) - is so appallingly arch and smug I could hit her. With a rock. A BIG rock.

Only Joan Hickson (and of course, Margaret Rutherford) are worthy of the role.

I think most TV Miss Marples have failed to capture her snobbery (as written by Agatha Christie) because it wouldn't be popular.

My son is a huge reader - currently working his way through Alex Rider, he's read Potter, the Pullmans, Cressida Cowells, Lemony Snickets, Pittacus Lore, all manner of modern kid's novels. It's not that he doesn't read - he inhales books - he just doesn't like older books. He finds them boring.

I don't know. Maybe the imaginative worlds they create are too long ago, now? He's high functioning ASD as well so that may be why. I'll have to hope for more interest from DD! She's into imaginative play, which he never was at all (think of the extreme male brain theory of ASD, essentially...) I loved sharing Harry Potter and Star Wars and so on with my son, but most books from more than 30 or 40 years ago have been misses, to date. Maybe he's too young for them, too, and a more modern style is easier at this age.

We have the Mopurgo books - will give that another go, thank you. He did like Stig of the Dump when we had it as a bedtime book a few years ago; will try and see if he will read it now, too. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is in the shelves but I am nervous about that as he's an anxious child, and while he's immune to fear in fantasy, Hitler was very real, and DH is Jewish... so maybe a bit small still. He won't go for the Borrowers - tried that. Wouldn't do any Lynne Reid Banks, either.

The Four Story Mistake was recommended on Amazon - will have a relook! I also bought The Tree That Sat Down and one about a snowball because of MN recommendation, which sit in the shelves, so will have a look again and see if he might like them.

His favourites are things like Who Let The Gods Out? Modern, preferably comedy, and always adventure. But he is young still, so hopefully as his horizons expand, so will his reading tastes.

Loonoonow I loved Anne of Green Gables as a child... then reread them again recently and was so disappointed. It hasn't aged that well to me past the first few. The later ones are not great. Rilla of Ingleside is abysmal. She had a heartbreaking life, though, the author. I suspect the books reflect that loss of hopeful realism and joy, as they collapse into trite sentimentality. I can sort of understand your DD's feelings. And as for What Katy Did - they joined the Twilight series, as books I bought for the kid's shelves, read, and actually binned. I didn't even want them returning to the charity shop from whence they came. Just awful messages for kids on relationships and values (and at least What Katy Did was Victorian...)

My real sadness was the lack of interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder. I so loved those books as a child. They opened a door into a wholly different life. Again, perhaps I should try again as he rejected them a year or so ago.

Weirdly, a whole class book we all loved was The 39 Steps. Bit of spy war stuff.

Ooooh, that's a thought! Thank you. Sounds exactly his cuppa.

The Dark Is Rising! Thank you, no, we don't have that but it could well be a hit! Will see if it's in the local Oxfam bookshop, which is brilliantly stocked, but if not I'll be getting them new.

He's currently home educated, with a tutor 2 days a week, hence the volume of reading possible. Good recommendations are amazingly helpful, thank you so much. If anyone has more I would greatly appreciate that.

DS2 just read Hill Of The Red Fox - old fashioned spy caper set on Skye. Quite like a gentle Alex Rider. He loved it. I bought it for him because I remembered it from primary school.

I think Laura Ingalls Wilder is a gender thing, sadly .

How old is your DS perfect ?

By the way, my DS has never read a Harry Potter. Just can't get into them!

"Genteel poverty could be pretty horrid though. Think of the poor Brontes: that vicarage is bloody freezing. Keeping up appearances on bugger all must be worse than being lower class but comfortably off, in trade for instance."
Yes, it's a very different poverty from that of the Hummells. Reminds me of Cranford with the endless worrying over looking generous with the cream while hoping guests wouldn't use it etc.

He's 9. He's academically very gifted, but very behind emotionally and physically in some ways, too. He has what they refer to as a 'spiky profile'. Peaks and troughs are at wild variance from the average for his age. He has areas he's very weak in, developmentally speaking. It makes, recommendations a bit tricky.

A great thing about books is that they've taught him a huge amount emotionally, because he just doesn't learn osmotically, as most kids do. We had no idea he didn't understand friendship until he was nearly 7, and we discovered he thought a teddy bear and Brian Cox from Wonders of the Solar System were his friends. Reciprocity wasn't on his radar, or even that they have feelings. He thought a friend was someone you liked a lot. Now, he understands complex relationships, simply because he reads about them all the time and he can parse that in a way he can't the behaviours of people around him. I don't know if that makes sense? He's come on in leaps and bounds that way.

We've just bought some Terry Pratchett, as he absolutely loves puns and wordplay. He doesn't take them for granted because he is very literal himself, so ironically they strike him more than they would someone who grasps this sort of thing instinctively. It's sort of a mathematical fascination for him, if that makes sense? Sarcasm and sardonic jokes fascinate him beyond belief for the same reason. The only issue is that he will carefully explain them to us, because to him, they are incredibly clever, complex and tricky to master... we keep having to explain that this will piss other kids off, unfortunately. But his joy in them is fab. Books like that will always be a hit, and make him happy - he honestly laughs out loud reading them - which is lovely.

My real sadness was the lack of interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder.
I think Laura Ingalls Wilder is a gender thing, sadly

perfectstorm could you try Farmer Boy (Almanzo's story) as a way in? seemed to work with my DS, after that he was more keen to try out the Laura-focused ones.

My ds loves Garner, Cooper and Scott Card. We love the Dark is Rising, Elidor, The Owl Service, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, and all the early Scott Cards. You can't beat Garner, Cooper and Susan Hill. They knock the socks off bloody Potter for adventure, grit and true feeling.

I'm of the generation that was horrified by their parents gatefold sleeve of War of The Worlds. Genuinely one of the most meaningful literary experiences of my life. We drove to Edinburgh with it on tape and k was amazed.

perfect he sounds like my friend's son, who tells people a joke every time he sees them!

I am so glad to hear people are still reading Susan Cooper!

Does he like cricket? My boys both adored Bob Cattell's books.

My Year 6s liked The Boy Who Swam With Piranhas (David Almond) and The Mysterious Benedict Society (can't remember author). They liked several different Eva Ibbotsons too. I can't read Morpurgo myself because of all the suffering animals.

Haven't read the whole thread but I'm another seemingly in the minority, who loved this adaptation. I much preferred it to the 1994 film version.

Also thought Maya Hawke did an excellent job as Jo... I thought she gave her many layers, not just the stereotypical tomboy.

I read an aricle about this adaptation which said writer Thomas and the director went to visit the Alcott house and found it to be far more pastoral / rural / bucolic than anticipated, so tried to feed that in. I think it worked.

I think a lot depends on how attached you are to the book and previous adaptations. Little Women was never a seminal text for me so I'm open to different interpretations. However Anne of Green Gables was everything to me and my Anne will always be Megan Followes. Netflix's Anne with an E is a bastardisation... yet I can appreciate that those who are of a later TV generation may find it far less stylised.

I’m not enjoying this adaption much, I do prefer the Winona Ryder version. I hate Beth in every version though, she’s such a pious little madam.

One of my favourite adaptions is the film version of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, it makes me cry every time!

Forest Gump is a laugh out loud funny book. The movie is horrible. Maybe if i had not read it first. Years later, decades, i still.want to throw things at the television when i Tom Hanks running.

Oooh, thank you, so many good recs! I'd completely forgotten about Farmer Boy (still remember the exploding potatoes!) so that is definitely on the list now.

He was really obsessed by Rick Riordan a couple of years ago, and Eva Ibbotson was a success around the same time, but he has read all they've published, for now at least. He's not a fan of following a series from the start - discovered that this Xmas with the new Pittacus Lore and Cressida Cowells, both 1st in their new series. He found that upsetting, the realisation there'd be cliffhangers for years ahead. So that's a huge advantage of older books - they mean a complete series! Dark is Rising series sound perfect and I will check out the rest - thank you so much.

No, he's not at all interested in most sports - other than ice hockey, oddly. DH tried football, playing and watching, but DS was polite, but um... detached.

perfect try Diana Wynne Jones - it sounds like he would love her books.

phlebas the 1980s BBC adaptation of Green Knowe has recently been re-released on DVD - I got a copy as soon as I heard and it was so delightful to revisit a lovingly-remembered adaptation that I only saw once! It has aged well, actually - beautiful, very atmospheric, and stands up much better than the BBC adaptation of The Box of Delights (which is still charming as a piece of nostalgia, but the use of early CGI looks a bit wonky now).

I thought the adaptation of Little Women was beautifully done.