There have been a couple of books I’ve read with the kids that I’ve found to be completely inappropriate or just a total snore. It can be frustrating dealing with children’s books. My ten year old reads everything so I have to be careful with her to at least browse everything she’s going to read. But my eight year old just doesn’t love reading yet so when her summer reading list came home and we dove into the books they were sooooo booooooring mainly because their attempt to be politically correct I feared that it would make her even more of a non reader.
I’d imagine every family has their horror stories. Arwen Mosher at Faith and Family Live is asking about your experiences with children’s books.
A while ago I asked about children’s books you love, which led to a thread full of suggestions. It’s been very helpful to me on our library visits.
But – as I’m sure we’ve all experienced – not all literature is created equal, even literature for little people.
I always cringe when my daughter heads for the rack of made-from-TV books. You know the ones: books that consist of the storyline and pictures from an animated children’s television show. It’s like they figured that if they went to the trouble of making an episode, they might as well use it for a book too. But (shockingly) television doesn’t translate well to the written word. Why, TV execs? Why?
Fortunately, I’ve been able to (mostly) keep the TV-books out of our house. (The rare one that turns up in a bag from a used-book sale makes a quiet disappearance soon afterward.) UN-fortunately, there are also plenty of children’s classics that are, frankly, kind of a snooze.
Finish reading this at Faith and Family Live and be sure to comment.
October 1, 2010 at 1:31 am
I like, "Help there's a liberal under my bed." Now that's a good children's book.
October 1, 2010 at 1:47 am
Hey, thanks for the shout-out!
It's fun to talk about good literature, but in a way I think it's even more fun to mock the awful stuff. Even literature for little ones. 🙂
October 1, 2010 at 2:23 am
My sister and I hate, oh ya, HATE "The Giving Tree". What a lot of baby-boomer rubish! We could mock that book all the live-long day.
Kate
October 1, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Here are a few really nice books:
http://heartofthefather.com/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=2&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2
KM
October 2, 2010 at 12:35 am
Best picture book ever- "The Maggie B." -girl power and everything but NOT forced
worst kid book- Chesterton's Orthodoxy- why did she start it- why???
October 2, 2010 at 1:28 am
…I can't list any of the books I can't stand, because the folks who (very kindly!) gave them to me might get hurt– maybe when it's long enough ago that they can just laugh and say that I read them too many times!
Agreed on the boring books, though.
I have no idea what her interests are, but a series often does the trick… Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Hank the Cowdog, that one about the horse club, the baby sitter's club, those cat tribe books that Lilkes' daughter reads….
October 18, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Adventures of a Beagle by TL McCready, illustrated by Tasha Tudor <3