I realise this is children's literature blasphemy so please don't look if you have a sensitive disposition but...

[OrmIrian]

....I am going to come clean and say that I really do not like Roald Dahl's books. I know that children love them and I'm sure they are an excellent excouragement to reading but I can't stand them. OK, they are meant for children not adults but there are plenty of fantastic authors who write for children without everything being a written version of a cartoon, or like the script for a panto. Every emotion has to be written large - sorry for large read HUUUUGEEE! Can't children do subtelty?

I guess I'm just pd off because I can see myself having to read the f Witches again for DC no3 in the nearish future and I really really don't want to ...

I farkin hate Charlie and piggin' Lola

My mum detests Roald Dahl for moral reasons.

Unsurprisingly I lvoed it as a kid solely because she hated it so much.

Looking back I can see why she hated it, but still don't have a problem with ti.

Moral reasons armadillo??? Am I missing something?

Never read it as a child. Think I was too late TBH

I never read them as a child either. What were the moral reasons?

Fantastic Mr Fox was about the first thing that got DS1 reading on his own, and we went to see a great production of The Twits last Christmas.

I hate bleedin' Winnie the bleedin' Pooh...

can you swap it for 'tales of the unexpected' orm?..its still roald dahl lol

i never read him either as a kid apart from charlie chocolate

ds asks for bus time talbes to read sometimes! think yerself lucky!
mind you its handy when yo need to know..

Now there's an idea

I'm sort of hoping that DS#1 or DD will read them to him since they love the damn things so much....

I have never liked reading them aloud either - alwys feels like such hard work. But my ds loved them and fantastic Mr Fox got him onto proper grown up chapter books.

moral reasons - using violence against your oppressors being seen as right.

She mostly hates them cos of the violence and the detestable way people treat each other in them.

I dislike how he portrays women. He clearly didn't like them much - the Witches is the most obvious example. It's more obvious in his adult works, to be fair.

That is true nqc. There are the aunts in Giant Peach, the Witches of course and the granny who is about as un-feminine as she could be.

I just don't like the constant black and white simplistic portrayal of life.

I agree with NQC and indeed your OP OrmIrian.
I've never liked Roald Dahl's books

DD(6.5ys)hates Roald Dahl with a passion. She's tried several and they've all been dismissed. She doesn't like the unkindness of them apparently.

I dislike them too. Apart from Revolting Rhymes for some reason.
My children like them though. DD1 is reading his autobiography at the moment.

Not that keen either.

Nothing wrong with leaving some books aside till dcs can read them themselves... why should you suffer?
Still remember a revelatory moment with Dahl's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar -- have vivid memory of sitting in an orange chair at primary school reading it. Totally blew me away. Fabulous.

Hurrah! I hate them too. He was a vile old misanthrope as well as gynophobe and it comes across loud and clear in his books. No RD for my DS until he can read them himself.

I liked him when I was younger and ds loves the Enormous Crocodile!

I made the mistake of reading ds the story that was my favourite when I was a little girl. It's called The Shiny Buttons and it's from a Listen With Mother book that is older than me, only ds wants me to read it again and again and again and again...

Sometimes you have to stand up and fight, though .

Agree that he didn't like women much, not sure he liked people much, actually. Mr Twit is as revolting as Mrs Twit and in fact reading between the lines it's pretty clear that Mrs Twit got as horrible as she is as a result of being brutalised by Mr Twit.

Message withdrawn

I like some but not others. IMO Danny the Champion of the World is the best we've come across so far, but its realistic rather than full of grotesques.

If your kids adore them but you can't stand reading them aloud, you can get a huge set of CDs from - I think - The Book People for a not-too-extortionate amount. I even shoved them onto my iPod so DD can listen on long journeys without DH and me having to listen.

Do you remember George's Marvelous Medicine read by Rik Mayall on Jackanory? Now that was good storytelling!

ah but if you screen children's authors for misogyny you'll have a pretty short list...

FWIW I think parents should express strong disapproval of some books to their kids - they need something to rebel against

I remember that MrsArchie....and I was waaay too old for jackanory at the time

i cannot, cannot, cannot bear (haha) winnie the pooh.

emsmum - I agree about Danny I must admit. Nicest of the lot.

I did get a set from the Book People a few years ago before I realised how much I loathed them.