Comments on: Children’s Books From Hell

By: Cidu Bill

Cidu Bill — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:52:45 +0000

Marin, “The Runaway Bunny” was my wife’s favorite book to read to our first son.

By: paperboy

paperboy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:39:57 +0000

I think “My Two Daddies” is a sit-com, not a children’s book.

By: jonah29

jonah29 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:39:42 +0000

“My Two Daddies”

By: Paperboy

Paperboy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:11:22 +0000

That’s because he never talks about it…. and DON”T ask him, man; just don’t ask him.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:11:13 +0000

I would never doubt the wise and powerful Wikipedia, I just didn’t know Papa served in the ‘Nam.

By: paperboy

paperboy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:03:13 +0000

Mathew, #75: Are you doubting the veracity of Wikipedia???

By: Mark in Boston

Mark in Boston — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:03:42 +0000

Hey Adam! Try Roald Dahl’s “My Uncle Oswald.” Would you read that one to your kids? Does your library have it in the children’s section? It certainly would be educational, in a way.

By: Powers

Powers — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:22:07 +0000

Not all of the Berenstain Bears books feature “dumb Papa” and Mama solving the problem. I know there was at least one where Mama had a problem that she had to be made to realize.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:34:08 +0000

I have a 5yo Daughter, and we read lots of things together. A fair bit of it is old Seuss books from when my husband was a kid, or Disney princesses or Barbie. I’ve tried the Ramona books, but we just never seem to find the time to finish a whole chapter in one sitting. So far, other than being bored out of my mind re-reading the same story for the 25th time, we haven’t said no to any books.
However, after my daughter brought home the original HC Anderson version of The Little Mermaid, I will be more careful about those stories. She loved it, but as I read it, all I could think was “what a horrible story!”. Unlike the Disney version, the mermaid has her tongue cut out as the price for her legs, and ends up dying because the prince treats her like a pet instead of marrying her. There was more that I really didn’t like, but I don’t remember right now. I guess my daughter liked it for the same reason Marin said about the Grimm fairy tales.

By: Cidu Bill

Cidu Bill — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:04:35 +0000

Mkilby, more of a punchline really: A few months after I made the comment to my son about being free to read Berenstain Bears when he learned how to read, just before his fourth birthday, I was reading to him (Little House on the Prairie) and I noticed his eyes moving in sync with what I was reading. I should add here that I work at home and therefore I’m the parent who had by far the most day-to-day contact with the kids.

I stopped and said “Zachary, do you know to read?” He said yeah, and it turned out he’d been reading for a while but didn’t want to tell us because he thought we wouldn’t read to him anymore.