to think that Spot books are just really really badly written?

[emkana]

I have to make up my own words to them.

And don't even get me started on the Mr.Men books. Hate them.

And as for Thomas the Tank Engine... they make me lose the will to live.

"it had DD shouting 'want go sleep now' by halfway through!"

Haha! That sounds fabulous.

My dds loved Spot. dd1 insisted on getting a spot book out of the library until she was in year 2. She also loved Rod Cambell books, her favourite being I Won't Bite. In fact, she has not let me clear her old Spot books out to the charity shop even now, and she is nearly 9.

The worst children's book I have ever read is a modern Famous Five one. Obviously, I was upset that anyone would want to modernise the series, but ignoring that, the writing was diabolical. It really was like wading through mud.

My ds loved this book
[[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ants-My-Pants-Wendy-Mould/dp/1842703765]

The authors Mum lives near me!

All disney storybooks are pants.
especially the winnie the pooh ones.
Love the original pooh bear stories though.
Also love mr men, mr bump rocks.

Thomas the Tank Engine - the originals - are soooo awful. The plots are so disjointed.

Mr Men also appalling. A couple of the originals (Mr Strong, Mr Happy) are OK but many are painful. The illustrations particularly annoy me. Storyline mentions a flight on an eagle but the picture is them walking down the road 5 minutes later - sort of thing.

Longer Beatrix Potter also tough going.

Not many other books make me want to lose will to live. I liked 'Sir Charlie Stinky Socks' book - the first one. The second one is really poorly written and structured. That one hurts a bit.

ooh yes hate thomas, mr men, spot.

i'd like to string up blardy rod campbell. rubbish. if you can't draw why not get an illustrator??!!

can i throw in a vote for ivor the engine? ds1 (4) loves it. fun for me to read too.

love love love charlie & lola, julia donaldson

my dd3 loves rod campbell - no eggs here oh dear - it is very very draining on the spirits

spot - very disappointing - i expect them to be great but then they fizzle out in a boring whimper

I hate Orange Pear Apple Bear!! All it does is swap the words around on the pages, I realise that maybe the author's idea was to help children learn to read, but spare a thought for the poor parents who have to read it first.
Dr Seus and Beatrix Potter get my vote and I can't wait until my dds are older so I can read The Faraway Tree.

my fav picture book is Fix It Duck
all the Jez Alborough Duck books make me lol,even after 50,000 readings (yes they are also 2.7 dd's fav books)

Hate Spot, loathe Thomas, but my pet hate is my dd's favourite - Dora the chuffin explorer. Love the concept of a go-getting girl, but the writing is so bad it makes your eyes bleed. And the DVDs - they're so SHOUTY.

We like orange pear apple bear. It only takes seconds to read and I swear the author was wasted when she came up with the idea .

Spot is a bit boring.

We love Miffy though. And Dr Suess.

But my new hated books are the modern Read It Yourself books. Talk about fecking dumbing down !!!! They only contain a few words and the stories are edited to the point of not having any 'flow' to the story, I have to add bits so ds knows what's going on. I have some original Read It Yourself books from the late 60's and even the easy ones were much harder and made more sense than the modern ones.

Thomas the Tank Engine books are dire.

And then when they made them into videos they got a man with the most boring voice in the world to narrate them - quite apt really!

I also can't bear Beatrix Potter.

Absolutely love Duck in a Truck by Jez Alborough, and anything by Julia Donaldson and the Ahlbergs.

We just had orange pear apple bear out from the library and DS (2.9 months) thought it was hilarious. I thought it was ridiculous but then after we read it 5/6 times and DS started saying "apple pear bear" in a funny voice I sort of saw the attraction.

Hated Spot
I also hate things which I hate reading.
Some of our faves:-
The Monkey with the Blue Bottom
Julia Donaldson books
Giraffes Can't Dance Giles Andrae

Also had a Superduck book recently and loved those too !

The thing that drives me batty is the number of times I have to add in 'please' or 'thank you' to conversations in children's books.
Very few authors must have any manners!

Oh and I refuse to watch TTTE on the telly (or read those "pocket sized books"). Boring narration, boring viewing.....Dire Dire Dire.

DS had Where's Spot when he was v young as he loved flaps. When he went to his 2 yr health check they gave it out as a free book, and he sat there and read it to himself...ie/ "Spot here". (open flap). "No. Crocodile/monkey/hippo" etc. Hilarious. No wonder you all hate it if my toddler got the plot before he was 2.

Ds at 2.4 loves the Usbourne farmyard/new experiences books but never enough in library. Also Julia Donaldson, esp Sharing a Shell. Mr Men involve me having to read with lots of different voices and I get all confused with who I'm supposed to be. Mr Noisy has too much shouting, and I worry what the neighbours will think...

Jackstini - you need the Elephant and the Bad Baby...

have read spot so mant times but it doesnt bother me anywhere near as much as beatrix poter! maybe a few of them are suitable for little ones but the rest are just too long winded!

Love dr seuss and the gruffalo etc but my absolute fave childrens book is called "goodnight lulu" - its such a simple book and makes them all "comfy, cozy" in their beds!! might just go and get it and read it to myself before i go to sleep!

Oh Thomas the Tank Engine - I want to weep when ds presents me with one of those. The endless ones about one particular character I mean.

I like the Mister Men ones, some of them are quite funny.

At least though, none of you have to read this one aaarggh!!. DS has ASD and this is what passes for light reading in his world .

Hobbgoblin, Are you thinking of the Garden Gang?
The loved Roger the Radish and Lawrence the Lemon, who inexplicably had skis and wore a wolly hat.

Elephant and the Bad Baby is BRILLIANT - I love it. And Snip Snap, and the Emily Brown books, and Lost and Found.

Mainly, though, dd is obsessed with the Children's Traffic Club. Anyone else get that? We read it five times a day for at least three months. The Children's Traffic Club characters are her imaginary friends - they come for sleepovers every night. We visit the website so we can sing along to the Children's Traffic Club song. I even got nagged into purchasing a Chidlren's Traffic Club t-shirt and balloons: the woman on the phone was very startled that I actually wanted to BUY something from them. Rather eccentric, my dd, even by 3-year-old standards.

I hate ANY book that is based on a TV series- Thomas, Bob, Dora- they bank on kids seeing them and wanting them because they recognise the characters, and seem to make no effort to actually provide a decent story or be well written.

My 18mth old loves the Rod Campbell's (Dear Zoo, Oh Dear), because he likes the flaps and likes to make animal noises, so he can interact.

I like Dr Seuss (and happily so do my kids!) and Julia Donaldson gets my vote too. dd2 is really keen on DHs old book of classic fairy stories atm, and I'm surprised at how brutal some of them are- I mean, The Little Matchgirl??? Her fave is Jack the Giant killer, where she shows a worrying interest in the actual methods of killing Jack employs, and how that would actually kill someone- should I be worried?

Thankfully they are getting a bit bigger now (5 and nearly 4), so we have been able to move onto Roald Dahl, Faraway Tree, Peter Pan (the real one- the Disney book is cringy!)Although my recent rereading of Alice in Wonderland has been surprisingly disappointing- the kids didn't really get it, and it somehow wasn't as good as I'd remembered

Thomas - rule in our house that daddy reads those, mummy doesn't read them. Cue dd and daddy special time on a weekend morning.

Spot - dire, sexist, awful.

Mr Men, some really bad, particularly the ones not written by him, but kind of fond of some of them.

Good
Julie Donaldson - not all fab but Sharing a Shell great for some ecological concepts!

The Bog Baby my absolute favourite at the moment - a very special book with gorgeous illustrations.

I kept a lot of my Picture Puffins from when I was little. Some of them are horrendous. Some of them are fab. But dd seems to have no quality control! I have hidden/lost some of them accidentally on purpose.

Dp just said "can't see problem with Thomas, but Spot is bad".

The Elephant and the Bad Baby is FAB! Also see Meet Wild Boars for more subversive fun. And the best recent book we've found is I Really Want to Eat a Child. I've recommended it to loads of people and everyone has loved it (adults as well as children, it's one of those that you honestly don't mind reading fifty times).

I would like to know what happened to jayne fisher who wrote the garden gang. she was, iirc, about 9. So she'd be in her 40s or so now. Wikipedia is unhelpful.

maybe she has changed her name? Though the books were very good for a 9 year old.