To think 'Not Now Bernard' is unsuitable for children!

[HelloKitty76]

Y'know that book about the boy whose parents ignore him. Then he gets eaten by a monster and they don't even notice.

Seriously, it's a really disturbing story! There's an important message there for adults perhaps. But I'm really struggling to see anything positive that children can take from it.

There's a lovely quote I read somewhere before. 'Fairytales don't teach children that dragons exist. They already know that. It teaches them that dragons can be conquered'.
I like that.

And instead of the mum taking him up milk, I changed it to organic kale smoothie!

I don't think I'd give to a sensitive small child, but IMO the likes of Struwwelpwter were much worse - horrible book.

Not to mention some of the books my father had as a child in the 1920s. There was one called Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories, including one about a little boy who died in the night - 'of what cause even the doctor was not quite sure' - but it was OK! -because he'd prayed and 'repented of his sins' the night before!

Lovely story to read to a kid at bedtime!

Not that this sort of stuff seemed to affect my father at all - he was a very jolly type.

My kids both loved it and found it hilarious.
David Mckee is an amazing illustrator & childrens author. Kids also loved the one about the Two monsters who destroy their mountain (that does have a message if you like messages), and the King Rollo books are brilliantly funny.

Kids like things to be a bit dark - many classic children's authors have a dark humour about them. We often totally underestimate children's abiity to 'get' humour and to distinguish fiction and real life. And monster books or stories with a potentially scary idea in them, let children face and explore fears in a controlled and safe way.

You don't do your children any favours if you protect them from even thinking or talking about things that aren't fluffy and innocuous.

It is brilliant. And most children I've read it to loved it. I always assumed that the monster IS Bernard with the parents to blame.

See also Little Rabbit Foo Foo.

Strange how children cannot be frightened by some frightening things. My dgd brought a book back from school and I found it so upsetting I stopped reading it to her and she just wanted more and more.

My children have all loved it too. I've always assumed that there isn't a monster too but my children just enjoy it as a silly story rather than a sad story about parents ignoring children until they get eaten by a random monster that's lurking around. No need to overanalyse imo.

I love it. (The monster is Bernard, btw). But I have to sensor the bit about smacking.

Censor. Censor. I really hope that was auto correct.

I remember accepting the story of Noah's ark as a child as a sort of adventure, survival tale.

Read it with my youngest who said "this is horrible!" And had to agree!

I read it because there is a poster on here with that as her username, so when I saw it was a book I bought it. I added a bit to the end with him getting thrown back up again

Not Now Bernard is one of my absolute favourites. I remember really enjoying the pictures when I was little. My kids really liked how surprised the monster is when he suddenly realised he has been tucked into bed at the end. I find it a bit sad reading adults overanalysing it. Kids love dark stories!

DON’T CRY, DARLING, IT’S BLOOD ALL RIGHT

Whenever poets want to give you the idea that something is particularly meek and mild,
They compare it to a child,
Thereby proving that though poets with poetry may be rife
They don’t know the facts of life.
If of compassion you desire either a tittle or a jot,
Don’t try to get it from a tot.
Hard-boiled, sophisticated adults like me and you
May enjoy ourselves thoroughly with Little Women and Winnie-the-Pooh,
But innocent infants these titles from their reading course eliminate
As soon as they discover that it was honey and nuts and mashed potatoes instead of human flesh that Winnie-the-Pooh and Little Women ate.
Innocent infants have no use for fables about rabbits or donkeys or tortoises or porpoises,
What they want is something with plenty of well-mutilated corpoises.
Not on legends of how the rose came to be a rose instead of a petunia is their fancy fed,
But on the inside story of how somebody’s bones got ground up to make somebody else’s
bread.
They go to sleep listening to the story of the little beggarmaid who got to be queen by
being kind to the bees and the birds,
But they’re all eyes and ears the minute they suspect a wolf or a giant is going to tear
some poor woodcutter into quarters and thirds.
It really doesn’t take much to fill their cup;
All they want is for somebody to be eaten up.
Therefore I say unto you, all you poets who are so crazy about meek and mild little
children and their angelic air,
If you are sincere and really want to please them, why just go out and get yourselves
devoured by a bear.

– Ogden Nash, Parents Keep Out

I think it's a great book! Spent many enjoyable evenings reading that and other "unsuitable children's books" to my friends DC, who loved them and clamoured for more. Will definitely be reading them to DDs in a couple of years.

Does anyone remember The Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids?

Surely it's pretty obvious that the Monster IS Bernard? He chooses to become the Monster to see if it would make a difference and it doesn't. I think that most children's relate to Bernard and find it amusing.

Children can. No idea why that auto corrected to Children's.

I first read this more than 30 years ago and I've always thought the monster ate Bernard and it was the monster's punishment that he was then ignored by Bernard's parents.

My children love “not now Bernard”. They laugh hysterically at it every time.

My kids always loved it and thought that Bernards parents and the monster were each others punishment

I loved it and so did my kids and now my grandchildren enjoy it.

Oh ffs really?
It’s a great book , I loved it and now my dd loves it , it’s very funny.
Not all books have to have a lesson or a moral