Which is your most hated book for reading aloud to your DCs

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It has to be almost any of the Mr Men books, for me. They are unreadable. I seriously doubt that anyone bothered to read them aloud at any point during the editorial process (a criticism that could be leveled at any number of books published today too.)Reading them aloud is like the verbal equivalent of walking barefoot over broken bricks.

Come on, dish the dirt. Which ones really make your heart sink when your child hands them to you to read out?

paws - it's crapola isn't it? Such a lame ending. 'Handwash'. WTF? And now every time I read it, through gritted teeth, I am reminded of Claire Balding reading it badly, which makes it even worse. Ugh.

The Elephant and the Bad Baby

...makes me want to chew my own arm off

Bob the builder - ghastly, luckily ds has grown out of them.

I'm with FallenMadonna. I quite like Mr Men books and have even bought them for dd

I always think of Arthur Lowe when I'm reading them, he did the voice in the tv series brilliantly!

but totally agree about Thomas Tank and Noddy. And Dora Explorer.

And - and I bet I am in a MN minority here again - do find Lauren Child books a bit draggy. Not just charlie and lola but the long ones she did like Princess and the Pea and Hubert Horatio. I just find them really wordy and cutesy and predictable.

The Miffy books.

I love the illustrations but the rhymes are really clumsy and don't scan well (probably because they are translated though).

LOL I thought it was just me but no!

Noddy
Fireman Sam
Thomas the Tank
Mr Men
Bob the Builder and

Mighty Machines

And no matter how much I try to steer them towards choosing a different book (I think we should have The Snail and the whale tonight...) they always choose one of the above.

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It is horrific! And we have read some bad books! . Most things that look like they have really good illustrations too-no story to them at all! Oh god, we have so many, let me think (threw most of them out when we moved!) Little red tractor books are worse than mr Men IMO, I don't mind them. The thomas ones with photo pics from the show were ok (can still recite Bulgy rides again off by heart!), but the cartoon ones were dreadful!

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is it Lettice Christiana? That is shite.

anything tied in to a kids TV prog or film is likely to be pants and a large waste of money. The excitement content is always inversely proportion to how much my dcs love it

I'm so relieved. I thought I was a bad Dad for hating Mr Men.

We are just starting with the Rainbow Fairies. DD1 has only had the two so far.

It's two too many...

I was wracking my brains for the one I really hated. Bingo! It's the Lonely Giraffe.

is it this one christiana?

thomas the tank and his 5 million friends..... topsy and tim (bleeeuuuuggghhh)..... the stupid mr men (which i threw away after someone gave ds a huge set as a pressie)......

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What Harpomarx said about Lauren Child.

I know I know, ever so very really pretty and ever so awfully actually cute but enough with the typefaces already.

It's as if she just discovered the font list on her mac. My kids say no no please not those books. They are too very silly.
I will not never read another. Ever.

We all love Richard Scarry though!

Thomas the Tank Engine (any thereof)

Runners up include:
Miffy
Squash and a Squeeze (failure to scan properly makes me ridiculously irate)

All are hidden so that ds1 can't request them.

Also loathe any Noddy books and all that Charlie and Lola crap. Fortunately we don't have any.

We're obviously on the same wavelength, Merrylegs! this is absolutely one of my favourite and my best books in the world. Ever.

(did you see what I did there?)

Agree with Mr Men; also Thomas books and the Harry Potter stuff.

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OK Harpo, now am actually seriously actually freaked. Do you know me? That is my kids' fave bedtime story book! DH (yes, H) was given it on his 6th birthday and we still have the copy.

'And my, that bunny is getting fatter.'

erm, it is my book from childhood. Perhaps I know your dh!

go on, name another fave...

I loved Busy Busy World and What Do People Do All Day when I was wee.

Lowly Worm and Farmer Alf Alfa were heroes in our house.

Another one hating the Mr Men. I go through phases of disliking certain books just because they are the current favourite. DD1 (nearly 5) has got wise to the fact that, if she promises to find books we haven't read for a long time, then she might get 2 stories instead of one. When she was about 2, though, her big favourite was Duck in the Truck. Just caught DH in time one night as he read 'Say hello to Mr Duck. Where's he going in his truck? I don't really give a ....'

Rainbow fairies used to make me squirm, I really dreaded those.

Earlier though when dd was smaller we had a truly awful book which she ALWAYS wanted me to read out: One of the Teletubbies finds a guitar and then plays it and the others run away, one by one. It is so mind-numbingly idiotic to read out. I dunno, sort of "ooh what that?" "guitar" "twang twang twong" "run away, run away"

Then it's time for tubby toast "tubby toast! tubby toast!". I kept hiding it behind the other books on the shelf but she somehow always dug it out.