The princess and the wizard -Julia Donaldson

[pocketdoor]

Not one of her best. My god it goes on, and it doesn't even rhyme. And it's boring. And the plot is actually quite shit.

Aibu to give it to the charity shop and hope my toddler doesn't notice? Would rather read What the Ladybird Heard for the 177th time.

I loved A Squash and a Squeeze and, Zog.
We recently got Tyrannosaurus Drip and Cave Baby from the library and they’re pretty good too.

They are clearly shagging in Fox's Socks. I wonder if Axel put that mouse in - she's not mentioned in the text. And she totally knows where the socks are too.

...although I had no idea the gruffalo was in the other books I’m going to start looking more closely..

YANBU I hate that book. The manky bathroom and toenails made me feel sick. Fortunately DD wasn’t a fan either so it went to the charity shop.

For the record Tiddler and Zog are awesome

Not fussed on that one, but there are worse stories. If you hate it give it away. I must confess to giving away some awful princess Barbie books my mum allowed DC to choose in a charity shop. I couldn't bare to read them any more and change the subject every time they ask where they are 🙄

I’m sorry but Tabby McTat is beyond doubt a fine piece of work: simultaneously a love story, a quest, and a coming of age saga. The Princess and the Wizard on the other hand is a self-indulgent, misogynistic dirge.

I had to read it to dd tonight. It's long and boring but she likes it .. possibly because her name is Eliza!

Tiddler is particularly rubbish. We’ve just had Tabby McTat for the 100th night in a row. I’m really starting to hate that fucking cat

Blasphemy!
Tiddler, tabby Mctat and charlie cook are brilliant. Snail and the whale is my favourite though. Mine loves smartest giant when they were very small but it is repetitive.

The (lack of) rhyming in The Smartest Giant annoyed me so much that I sent it to the charity shop.

Specifically the scarf / giraffe thing that several pp have mentioned.

HATE Highway rat - saying everything 3 times gets on my nerves. Love Room on the Broom though!

Paper Dolls makes me feel like Joey from Friends - like I need to put the book in the freezer.

Scarf DOES rhyme with giraffe though....

Does nobody else hate zog as much as me? I feel like it's really forced. I wanted a good female role model to read but not as he zigzagged into the fucking blue. It's the sky. No one has ever or will ever say the blue instead of the sky

I don't know why it makes me so angry

The Highway Rat is so much easier to read if you know The Highwayman. I might have suggested this to the woman murdering it at storytime in the library.

I charity shopped What the Ladybird Heard. Julia Donaldson is good, but massively overrated. There are thousands of amazing children's books I get frustrated with the JD obsession.

I must be a cold fish, as I find Paper Dolls to be utterly white.

ffs *shite
Phone trying to censor me!

Wonky Donkey

@PolkadotsAndMoonbeams is right, everyone who whinges about the highway rat is completely missing the Highwayman references. It’s actually really clever.

I like looking for the cross referenced pictures in the boos after the Gruffalo - Stickman in Tabby McTat, etc. I assume it’s the Gruffalo drawn on the back of the door in Charlie Cook but it’s not very quick.

There are some that miss the mark but on the whole I love JD’s books for their re-readability.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: The Gruffalo’s Child just doesn’t work. In The Gruffalo, the Mouse cleverly convinces the Fox, Snake and Owl of the existence of the Gruffalo to save himself, then when he finds out of the actual existence of a Gruffalo, uses their fear of the Gruffalo to scare the animals, thus making the Gruffalo think HE is actually scary.

But in the Gruffalo’s Child, the animals don’t bat an eyelid when an actual Gruffalo comes up to them, but instead are talking about a scary Mouse. Fox, Owl and Snake were never scared of the Mouse! They should be running away from the Gruffalo’s Child under the assumption that she too likes roasted fox, owl ice cream, and scrambled snake.

Pisses me off a bit.

Oh and yes, the Highway Rat is inspired by The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, but when you read that it flows beautifully. The Highway Rat is just a shit version that doesn’t flow at all. It’s not clever, it’s just a poor imitation.

DS isn't into the Princess and the Wizard. Thankfully.

I can't believe some of what I'm hearing on here. Tiddler is awesome. I adore The Highway Rat. If the rhythms don't work for you, you're doing it wrong.

I'm not a fan of The Smartest Giant in Town though (that giant is a fucking sap) and Sharing a Shell is total drivel.

We have all the CDs, which are great. But Julia Donaldson cannot sing. Not even a little bit. Stick to what you're good at Julia.

I can't find a Gruffalo in The Ugly Five. Has this been covered?

Stitches, are you me? I really hate the Smartest Giant for the lack of rhyming. I mean what is the point?
All you had to do Julia, was write a book that rhymes. That's it!
Not to mention how could the same genius that wrote Paper Dolls (we have even made a tune for the Oh no, no, no bit) have also produced that smartest giant monstrosity.
Still irks me, as you can probably tell!

I like to sing the "smartest giant in town" song in the style of billy Bragg.

*notbadconsidering I think maybe the Gruffalo's Child is her dream, therefore the animals behave as she would imagine them to. It's the only way it makes sense.

We just yesterday found the Gruffalo hiding in the dump where they drop the lizard in Superworm.

Also,Snail and the Whale is the best, and then Jack and the FlumFlum Tree, and Rhyming Rabbit is so bad it makes me want to grate my face on the glitter.

We have a birthday today,and waiting to be unwrapped downstairs are Tabby Mccat and the Highway Rat, after (now) four year old DD3 came to me last week having mentally crossed off all the ones we have on the pictures on the back page and politely demanding that we complete the set. Genius marketing ploy.

The princess and the wizard is indeed shit. And boring, I like Zog and Tiddler best, oh and Superworm. Paper dolls makes me cry