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

The f*cking Old Bear books by Jane Hissey. Mawkish, quaint and tedious! MIL gave DS#1 a boxed set of these when he was small - after 6m I hid them DD found them the other day - 'Mum, look what I found, what where they doing at the back of my wardrobe?'

As you can gather ds is a huge fan of Thomas the Tank.

There is a world of differecne between the original books and illustrations and the smaller TV seried led ones. We love the original ones, especially when they refer to real places and engines such as the Tallyllyn railway.

Dd is an avid reader, we are reading Little House in the Big Woods together at the moment, she loves Enid Blyton and are just about to start Lion Witch and Wardrobe (she saw a stage version last month and has to learn a monologue for an exam.

Am surprised the unspeakably tedious Spot hasn't appeared on this thread yet. Our copies got "lost" as the only viable alternative was for me to chew my own arm off.
Hate Thomas, but think all the backbiting, unpleasantness, and unhealthy level of competition among the engines is an excellent preperation for working life.

I loathed reading Mr Men aloud but understood the appeal of the format and the illustrations. Amongst many loved books I really enjoyed reading "The Wind Blew"

Leaps to the defence of the Elephant and the Bad Baby - the illustrations are particularly fabulou. I realised when I bough the book for my children that I had totally mixed up my memories of a sweet shop in my home town with the sweet shop in this book. It's the most beautiful place in the world....

I LOVE B.Potter, such rich language:

"Mr Drake Puddleduck advanced in a slow sideways manner and picked up the various articles" is my favourite EVER sentence.

I think people underestimate the savagery and brutality of Beatrix Potter. Death is everywhere - count the corpses in Jemima Puddleduck. Read The Tale of Samuel Whiskers and quake. The latter is like Cormac McCarthy's The Road, retold with kittens. There's a great essay by Graham Greene about this.
Personally, I think Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy is hugely over- and the rest of his work (eg the brilliant I Was A Rat) under-rated.

I love that Peter Rabbit's dad was put in a pie - talk about risk!

On another note, I don't much enjoy Squirrel Nutkin but it was my grandfather's favourite - born 1903 - and I love reading it to my kids born over 100 years later and watching them enjoy S.Nutkin's antics as much as he did.

that bloody hungry caterpillar one. i hate it with a passion, luckily ds does too.

I agree about the Thomas books. Ds was never really that fussed with them but he had a little friend who always wanted me to read them to him. I found it very difficult to put any enthusiasm into reading them, they really are very dull.

Tis refers to older children but Michael Morpurgo books are pants - I realise this is not going to be a popular view but I always think these are the books that adults think children should be reading and liking but in fact children don't like them - they are children's books for adults iyswim

Enid chuffin bloody lardy dah Blyton

Little Miss - written by the son who really has none of his father's talent
Marvin Wanted More
Bob the Builder
Thomas the Tank
Winnie the Pooh
Charlie and Lola - by the time they're old enough to read it, they're into Judy Blume
Smartest Giant in Town
Charlie Cook's Recipe Book
Quite a number of the Little Princess books

Meg & Mog
On the Way Home

Any TV tie in books for me, they all read sooo badly, but DD loves them

I don't really like reading out loud sadly, though I quite enjoy rhyming books so like Hairy McLairy and the Julia Donaldson books.

Don't like Mr Men either.

We love Good Baby Bad Baby in this house which is sweet as my sister loved it when she was little (she was always Bad Baby ).

Oh, and I find all of the Eric Carle books a bit weird - beautiful, but a bit crap to read.

Anything by Jacqueline Wilson

anything 'retold' by michael rosen. bloody thief he is.

anything by nick butterworth

charlie cook's favourite book is utter rubbish.

oh how could i forget anthony browne. laureate!

I HATE readint eh mr Men books which is a shame as I loved the cartoon as a child...the books are drivel. Repetitive, annoying in the extreme and the newer ones seem to have been ghost written by someone with no skill whatsoever.

I'm glad I've come across this thread, I've hated the Thomas books for years - used to skim read them to the kids - awful things, dull and badly behaved trained are not good for frazzled parents.

Also have an aversion to Winnie the Pooh - nothing happens and nothing keeps happening for a long, long time - even I'm usually asleep before we finish a story.

I read Jemima Puddleduck today to the little girl i look after, and there are no corpses. Anyway i love Beatrix Potter, (although i do skim read and change the language a bit!) i think they are wonderful bed time stories.

Apart from Samuel Whiskers as it still creeps the hell out of me.

Bear hunt is fun when you all sing it together. Kids love rhyming and repetiton. Sometimes with Dr Zeuss i get to the end and say 'oh...thats it.......THE END!!'

dr seuss awful
thomas - yawn
mr men - ffs why?
postman pat etc - no thankyou toddler
any AA Milne - whoever decidedthis was readable?
Nick Butterworth -dull and too long
Little Grey Rabbit -zzzzzzz
Beatrix Potter errr noooo

Tiger who came too tea is fab - Samuel Taylor Coleridge for preschoolers

Very Hungry "Capitillar" -

Love julia Donaldson though - for every single word but especially for "BUZZ OFF! That's my witch!"

Rainbow Fairies. There are gazillions of the things and they are all exactly the same. Publishers, I'm begging you, please don't produce any more of this shite, I can't stand wasting any more of my precious evenings reading it to DD.

Laragazza, where do you think all the feathers in the shed came from? I don't the foxy gentleman had bought a duvet from John Lewis. I think he might have had nasty plans for poor Jemima.

And what about the foxy gentleman's violent end at the hands of the fox hounds?

I've always suspected that something unmentionable was happening to all those eggs that Jemima was not allowed to keep.