the most overrated childrens books

[swottybetty]

two thomas tank books have somehow made their way into our house. pre-kids i really had no idea just how shite they are. even the bloody drawings are awful. why does my otherwise discerning dd love them so much?

and that feckin beatrix potter? were there no other kids books published at the time thus they achieved popularity simply by existing? seeing as there are loads and loads of kids books now, surely publishers can just write BP off as a unseemly blot on the otherwise wonderful world of childrens books

Where the Wild Things Are- zzzzzzzz.
LOVE Dr Seuss though, our favourite bedtime story ever is What Was I Scared Of? (Sweet Jesus, he's being chased by a pair of empty green trousers!!)
The newer Thomas books are shite- really phoning it in, just to wring more cash out of the franchise.

I can't stand the Peter Rabbit books, agree the hungry caterpillar, my ones love Thomas though but hate Gruffalo

That's not my........- crap

postman pat / fireman sam / bob the builder books - utter crap

Thomas the Tank Engine. We have about 30 of them and they make me want to put my head under the Fat Controllers arse so I don't have to hear them.

Mr Men. So deceptively Looooonnnnnggggg.

Beatrix Potter - yawn.

Love Dr Seuss - so trippy, like one great big acid festival.

And no-one else diss the Hungry Caterpillar

Where The Wild Things Are

DS1 was possitively terrified of it...DS2 and DD have been most uniterested.

DH and I have a deal that he never has to read Dr Seuss, and I never have to read Enid Blyton.

Mr Crap and his friends
Miss Shite and her sisters

Harry Potter

All of the Thats Not My Fanjo Crackpipe Whatever books

Any of those interminable series 'written' by students who are paid by the 1000 words - Rainbow Magic Fairies, Secret Unicorn etc.

Oh god...no...not Fanjita the Fanjo fairy...

Not the same plotline...again...and again...

Awful aren't they!

My cousin's GF works for the publishing company and occasionally brings bags of freebies for DD who of course is delighted [groan]

Mind you, dd and I both loved the Little Bear books - let's go home Little Bear etc. with really beautiful illustrations too.

Currently detest anything by Julia Donaldson, she forces all her rhymes and very few of them feel 'natural'. Traumatised myself even further by buying The Gruffalo song book - and now have inane tunes going round in my head for 'his eyes are orange, his tongue is black' etc etc. Can't think it without singing it in my head.

Also hate Bear Hunt. Made worse by the fact that we bought the copy with the DVD on the front and now the sodding DVD is on all the sodding time in the car.

I do love Beatrix Potter(altho' I do change the words as I read to make them a bit more 21st century).

Oh, can I please add all of the Usborne Phonics books - in a desperate attempt to lob words with the same sound together, none of them actually make any sense.

I can't believe that anyone wouldn't like Julia Donaldson books. They are fab!!
I'm not keen on Bear hunt either. (thought I was the only one).
You can make bear hunt more interesting by doing voices and actions. That's probubly why my daughter likes it more than I do.

In the Night Kitchen. Great drawings, but what's it about?

I HATE HATE HATE Dr Suess!!! Torture!

For those of you who don't like bear hunt have you seen Michael Rosen reading it? Totally fab and makes you see the book in a new light. here

I agree with you about Julia Donaldson, Quiltedrose, although I like Tiddler (with the exception of the icky writer friend on the last page).

I don't find Julia Donaldson's rhymes forced at all! I love reading them aloud...

My most overrated children's books:

Mr Men (but I sense DS will love them)
Sodding Thomas, won't have them in the house

MIFFY books! They are appalling. My mum got DS a boxed set of them, I thought 'aw, Miffy, blast from the past, nice little Belgian rabbit, etc' and then tried to read them to DS. They are trite beyond imagining. Maybe they didn't survive the translation?

That's Not My Arsehole, It's Too Hairy, etc. Usborne has a lot to answer for.

In the Night Garden tie-ins, as pointless as you'd expect.

Guess How Much I Love You - does anyone actually like that book?

Pretty much all TV spin-off books including the new Thomas series (the originals are just fine)

We're Going on a Bear Hunt - at least I thought so at first, but it grew on me and DS liked it

I like a lot of Beatrix Potter but some of them go on a bit and I cannot stand Squirrel Nutkin - I just don't get the so-called riddles at all.

Mr Men, definitely - absolute pile of tedious rubbish

In fact I really struggle to choose books for my 3 year old as on a first look almost all of them look complete rubbish IMO.

Some of the Beatrix Potter ones are a bit strange -- I agree with gaelicsheep about Squirel Nutkin, which gave one DD nightmares. There are others that all the DCs loved so much I could actually recite them in the dark. I can't stand preachy books like the awful Berenstain Bears series. Give me a plot and lots of words with more than one syllable, right from the start. And Dr Seuss is fine if the DCs read them for themselves, but it gets very, very tedious very fast if you allow any to creep into your bedtime story rota.

I HATE WINNIE THE POOH - so condescending

Going on a Bear Hunt, don't really get why it's so popular...

Anither vote here for being v disppointed at modern Miffy, has anyone seen "Miffys Dream", it's not got any text just Miffy and a brown rabbit floating about on clouds, wtf!!