Read-Aloud books you've hated

[shawthorne44]

I am hoping y'll can tell me the read-aloud books you've hated, so that I can avoid them.

 

For the moment I am stuck reading a book I hate 4-5 times per week. If only I'd known! It is Dr. Seuss's The Lorax. The word "Thneed" just goes right up in my nose, and it is so dang preachy. I bought it in a 6 book collection of Dr. Seuss books. I was shopping for Horton and the collection was only a few bucks more. I hate the book so much I actually put in rules to discourage the reading of that book. She gets to pick 4 books at bedtime. I made the rule "Only one Dr. Seuss per night" and "The Lorax counts as two books. Because it is so long." When really there are longer books that I read her.

 

So, what other books should I put on my banned books list? We've got a Friends of the Library sale coming up, and I make quick decisions there.

[IHaveNoIdeawhatIAmDoing]

I'm sure it's different for everyone. I despise Amelia Bedelia. She does the stupidest stuff imaginable and ruins everything, but in the end it's ok because she bakes great pies.

[Mommyfaithe]

Pippi Longstocking! She was bad!

 

[PhotoGal]

Skippy Jon Jones. I feel like it is trying to make fun of someone's accent when read aloud.

[PachiSusan]

I thought "Love you Forever" was creepy. I know, I know - most people cry at that book and LOVE it and think it's the best thing EVAH, but I really was creeped out by it. I never read it again.

[Soror]

lol, I love Pippi and Amelia and didn't mind The Lorax either. My daughter always picks out a Barbie book at the library. I read one, I won't read them anymore. Dahl has a few books that I found hard to read with their language but I cannot remember which ones offhand, usually I like his books. Oh, and I tried to read this popular series with a girl that has atrocious language but I gave up on it(it is insanely popular but I cannot remember the name right now!).

[Um_2_4]

Ditto on Pipi but we do like Amelia, it teaches DC about literal meanings and "sayings". Like "Draw the curtains" means to open them, not literally "draw" with a pencil.

[ErinE]

Misty of Chincoteague. My fourth grade teacher loved this book and I was not a fan of hers. Too many bad memories.

[Julie Smith]

Pippi is great. I think I have read the first three books in the series three times each.

 

A few years ago we tired to read Pinocchio. That was the only book that no one liked for years.

[Julie Smith]

We own 43 books by Thronton W. Burgess.

 

I have read, on average each book 3 times, with the exception of the Mother West Wind stories. If you are going to read Burgess pick one of his good books. Pretty much any title beginning with, "The Adventures of...."

[reign]

It really is such a personal thing. I hated mr. Popper's penguins! My husband really did not like A Little Princess. My oldest is named after one of the characters and we have it in Audio and hardcover. It's just not his thing I guess.

 

 

[Ecclecticmum]

Brer Rabbit. Alice in Wonderland.

 

Brer Rabbit bored both the children & I

Alice in Wonderland, the kids kind of liked it, but I was tripping over my tongue trying to read it. It felt a bit like listening to Yoda.

Milly Molly Mandy I quite liked, the children didn't.

 

My eldest daughters loving The Wise Enchanter, and my youngest loves Tiptoes Lightly. I haven't actually read Pippi Longstockings I don't think) but I used to love the movie when I was younger....I hope its not like Alice in Wonderland, and ruins the movie for me (although to be absolutely fair, I think I just have a bad copy/version of Alice, one of those cheap classic reprints. I'm going to try looking on Amazon to find a better rated version for Alice.

 

There's been a couple of picture books that I've hated reading aloud. I don't remember the names of those though. Stuff that was recommended in good lit lists, then has people dying all over the place, or puppies dying.......I don't like puppies being hurt or dying in a book. Who would think up a childrens book like that? Theres been about 4 or 5 picture books, and after I've finished reading them, I've been crying for one reason or another, so they ended up getting tossed, very quickly, hence why I don't know their names.

 

I don't like Don Quixote much. Love the actual story, I don't like the way its written. It feels somewhere between stilted and listening to someone waffle off the storyline. And yes, I did read it "aloud" to my kids. It was a good way to get them to sleep quickly :leaving:

[Vida Winter]

I'm sure it's different for everyone. I despise Amelia Bedelia. She does the stupidest stuff imaginable and ruins everything, but in the end it's ok because she bakes great pies.

 

 

Hmm. Baking a great pie has gotten me through many a rough patch. I agree about Amelia, but don't ever underestimate pie.

[MommaOfalotta]

I hated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Dd loved it but I just kept picturing the movie, and I HATE the movie. For some reason it really creeps me out?

 

Guess what dd is obsessed with now? Yep, the movie.

[PachiSusan]

I hated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Dd loved it but I just kept picturing the movie, and I HATE the movie. For some reason it really creeps me out?

 

Guess what dd is obsessed with now? Yep, the movie.

 

I can't even watch the Johnny Depp one. Talk about creepy!!!! The original with Gene Wilder is much better and more faithful to the book IMO.

[Rosie_0801]

Pinocchio is at the top of my list. Winnie the Pooh is lovely, but a pain in the bottom to read. Sometimes audio books are the right and true path to not burning, recycling or burying in the back yard in the dead of night.

[stripe]

We just finished Pinocchio and the kids loved it! Ha. I have an edition by Geoffrey Brock, I don't know anything aboutother translations. I found it a bit dull, but hey. Amelia Bedelia is funny, and they're all homonym confusions, aren't they, or overly literal? I read a book wherein the author claimed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory provided the moral compass for Generation Xers. I think he's on to something! I think it'a a hilarious book, and I am not a huge Dahl fan. Pippi is great. I think I like her more than my kids do. But just barely.

 

Winnie the Pooh didn't go over well until I got a hardback copy with lovely color illustrations. The dull b&w paperback had been a bust. I also have the Helen Oxenbury illustrated Alice books. Very, very nice. I almost couldn't read it, I was laughing so hard.

 

We hated Mary Poppins. I donated our copy we had received as a gift. But I got it out of the library to see how it reads now these 4 or so years later.

 

My daughter requested we stop reading The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode, due to the anti-girl statements. My son read it on his own, but he said he skipped the first half. We also stopped reading Peter Pan as it apparently got too scary.

 

I find Burgess a bit difficult. Our current read aloud is Swallows and Amazons. I don't think any of us know what the heck is going on with all the sailing lingo, but we'll see.

[Julie Smith]

I find Burgess a bit difficult.

 

 

At first I found him difficult to read. Then I could read everything except the things his southern characters said. (Written in a southern accent.)

 

But I have read Burgess books so often now that I have no problem with them. I find I can even start talking like a Burgess book. You just have to master of the art of sneaking in little breaths since his sentences go on forever without stopping to let you breath, even for a small breath, just on and on and on.

[BarbecueMom]

I'm going to give Winnie the Pooh one more try, but I really don't like it, never have. Hated the Mother Goose book, too.

 

I wish I never had to read a Curious George story again, but alas, my boys love that naughty monkey.

[poiema]

 

At first I found him difficult to read. Then I could read everything except the things his southern characters said. (Written in a southern accent.)

 

But I have read Burgess books so often now that I have no problem with them. I find I can even start talking like a Burgess book. You just have to master of the art of sneaking in little breaths since his sentences go on forever without stopping to let you breath, even for a small breath, just on and on and on.

:lol: and :iagree:

[delaney]

The Enchanted Castle-very weird

A Day No Pigs Would Die is hard to read due to the bad use of language but a great story

[Chris in VA]

Stone Fox.

 

Let me spoil it for you. Highlight below.

 

D@mn dog dies. All of the sudden. No lead up

Up til that point, great book.

[Julie Smith]

:lol: and :iagree:

 

 

Two days ago we started rereading the series again; as in the 20 original bed time stories, also know as the Green Forest series, followed by the 8 Green Meadow books, then 2 of the 4 Smiling Pool series, (I can't get the other two), then the 3 books about Tommy, otherwise know as Farmer Brown's Boy. So I am rereading all 33 books, likely one a day for the next 33 days.

 

Lipperty Lipperty Lip.

 

I have for the most part read all those books 3 times before, and my husband one time each.

 

By the end of it I have GREAT lung capacity, and a difficult time talking or writing in anything other than long run on sentences, that contain many commas. Perhaps I will not try introducing proper grammar lessons for Eldest until we are done this series since starting it now may make him confused about the problems with a run-on sentence.

 

ETA: I just reread that and realized I put in too many commas since I can easily read the above with less than half of those commas. I can also read very quickly and just keep going and going before even feeling a need to take a quick short breath. Some kids train or teach kids to be speed readers, but I teach my kids to be speed listeners since I can get out one of those Green Forest books read in record time. (But wish me luck when I have to return to a NORMAL book)

[shawthorne44]

You guys are hilarious.

Maybe I'll put Burgess on the Wait-Until-It-Is-A-Reader list.

 

With the others, I've made mental notes. With the exception of Pippi. She has my "Pippi" books already. I didn't think much of Pippi when I was a kid. But, she loved loved loved the TV show. So, she'll probably love the books too.

[Chava_Raizel]

Someone gave my youngest a Dora the Explorer Storybook Collection. She went through a phase where it was the only book she'd let me read to her - for maybe 2-3 months. It drove me nuts! It's bad enough I have to sit through the tv show, now I have to read the books too! I eventually hid it, in the hopes that she'd be forced to find new books for me to read to her.

 

When my oldest was younger she adored the Berenstain Bears. She collected probably 40 of the picture books. I got so tired of reading them that I put a ban on those books. I told her if she wanted to read them, she'd have to do it herself. Thankfully she was a good reader. Now guess who has discovered them? I usually make the oldest read them to her sister so that I won't have to. :blushing:

[nmoira]

I have never disliked any read aloud more than The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

[Vida Winter]

I have never disliked any read aloud more than The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

 

:iagree: :iagree: :iagree:

[sewingmama]

Stuart Little...which we just finished reading.

 

He invites a girl out for a date and when his canoe breaks he can't focus on anything but how the date is ruined and even though the girl offers other ideas for activities he basically tells her to turn around and go home...which she does. I thought it was so rude and egocentric.... especially since the couple of chapters beforehand focused on how excited he was to meet this girl.

 

Then after getting to the end of the book I wondered if there was a sequel because he starts out trying to find the bird and somehow never gets to that part. So the last chapter has him going off to find her again???

 

I didn't like the character, I didn't like the story and I didn't like the ending. I dont know if my kids liked it or not...they listened till the end of the book and didn't complain whatever that means.

 

One book I will not be re-reading to my 3yo.

[beaners]

 

I can't even watch the Johnny Depp one. Talk about creepy!!!! The original with Gene Wilder is much better and more faithful to the book IMO.

 

It's funny you say that, because I had always heard that Dahl himself didn't like the Gene Wilder version, so his family approved the Depp one. I had to look it up, so I checked Wikipedia.

Author Roald Dahl hated the 1971 film adaptation and refused the producers the film rights to make the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.^[3] Warner Bros. and Brillstein-Grey Entertainment entered discussions with the Dahl estate in 1991, hoping to purchase the rights to make another film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The purchase was finalized in 1998,^[4] with Dahl's widow, Liccy, and daughter, Lucy, receiving total artistic control and final privilege on the choices of actors, directors and writers. The Dahl Estate's subsequent protection of the source material was the principal reason that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory languished in development hell since the 1990s.^[5][6]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory_(film)

 

I do prefer the Gene Wilder movie, but I can see where it wouldn't fit with the books by Roald Dahl. A lot of his stuff is odd and a bit dark. I loved it as a kid though.

 

 

OP, I feel you on some of the Dr Seuss books. I'm so mean. I've told my children that there are books that I don't like, so only Daddy can read those ones out loud.

[PachiSusan]

It's funny you say that, because I had always heard that Dahl himself didn't like the Gene Wilder version, so his family approved the Depp one. I had to look it up, so I checked Wikipedia.

[/sup]

 

http://en.wikipedia...._Factory_(film)

 

I do prefer the Gene Wilder movie, but I can see where it wouldn't fit with the books by Roald Dahl. A lot of his stuff is odd and a bit dark. I loved it as a kid though.

 

 

OP, I feel you on some of the Dr Seuss books. I'm so mean. I've told my children that there are books that I don't like, so only Daddy can read those ones out loud.

 

 

It's not even odd to me, Johnny Depp's character is flat out creepy to me. I cannot stay in the room with the movie. I have to leave. LOL If that's the way Dahl wanted it, all power to him, but it's not anything I would watch again.

[MommaOfalotta]

 

I can't even watch the Johnny Depp one. Talk about creepy!!!! The original with Gene Wilder is much better and more faithful to the book IMO.

 

 

See... either one creeps me out. Ive never watched the Johnny Depp one and I have no intention of ever watching it because it looks really creepy (him mainly.) Also, he is much too gorgeous and I would like to remember him as Jack Sparrow ;)

 

But I hate the Gene Wilder version. Haaaaate it.

[shawthorne44]

I don't know if it is true. But, I heard the actors/set people were really mean to the fat German kid. They say because he was a snot. But, I really don't want anything to do with mean, so the background makes it even creepier.

[alisoncooks]

Stuart Little.

Hated it.

[Joyoustxmama]

Lol! I like the Lorax, and most Seuss books, so guess that is different for everyone. I found the lorax useful... My son used to like to unravel all the TP rolls in the bathrooms, until I told him "TP is made of trees! You're wasting trees like the Onceler!". He never did it again.

 

The toddler/preK books that drive me nuts are the Richard Scary books. I think they have value and do read them dutifully when cornered, but oh did I ever dread every one of them: I used to detour my son to my husband, a grandparent... Anyone around... When he was in his Cars and Trucks and things that Go phase. Banana cars and cheese cars and 5-seater pencil cars and Ma/Pa pigs - ugh, ugh! I must have read about how to build a smooth road 500 times in all the various Scary books.

 

I also hate most kid books based off popular cartoons characters like Dora or Disney. I'll read them rather than make an issue, but have no qualms hiding them, giving them away at the first opportunity, or 'losing' them on a trip. the one exception was Thomas the train books. We did read a lot of those, and they were ok.

[Julie Smith]

I also hate most kid books based off popular cartoons characters like Dora or Disney. I'll read them rather than make an issue, but have no qualms hiding them, giving them away at the first opportunity, or 'losing' them on a trip. the one exception was Thomas the train books. We did read a lot of those, and they were ok.

 

I read TONS of Thomas the train books. I even had one that contained all the original books by the Reverend. Youngest use to wake up and call for Percy in the night.

 

I also read Dora books. Mind you I loved reading picture books, and I really liked ones in a collection. So ALL the Thomas books, ALL the Dora books, ALL the Franklin books... Pretty much if it was a series, or an author wrote lots of similar books such as Eric Carle I would get them all and read them again and again.

[Tohru]

I Detest 'Fancy Nancy'

[Mom-ninja.]

The Holes in Your Nose but I only hate it because I've had to read it so much. My kid loves the gorilla part.

[Alte Veste Academy]

OK, well this is probably more of a pent-up rant than something that you really need to hear...or maybe... I don't know.

 

Every DK and Usborne and similar book in the whole wide world. I like the books. I like the content. But UGH! My boys would pick them for story time and I was too short-sighted in the beginning to make a policy against it. :lol: Oh my gosh, the titles, the broken narrative, the captions, the diagrams and labels, the snippets, the blurbs... Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh! I would sometimes hide the current favorite at bedtime. DH happily read them but I hated reading them with a purple passion. But my boys loved them, so I did.

[Guest Lumpy]

I thought "Love you Forever" was creepy. I know, I know - most people cry at that book and LOVE it and think it's the best thing EVAH, but I really was creeped out by it. I never read it again.

I hated that book so much I got rid of it!!

It was creepy and I just couldn't stand reading it to my DD... glad I'm not the only one!

 

I also dislie reading Dr. Suess...

To me, it is nonsense.

[Paige]

I hate The Giving Tree. It's more like The Depressing Codependent Tree.

 

I really disliked The Waterbabies. I could barely make it through it was so preachy and just plain weird. My kids love the movie, though.

 

I also really dislike all of those Dora, Princess, Barbie, and assorted TV character books. I don't mind Thomas the Tank Engine though. I think it might be because the books came first and aren't so dull.

[shawthorne44]

This has been so helpful! I love the Usbourne books, but I can see how they should be banned from read-aloud time. Adding them to "readers only" list.

 

For anyone else interested in the same thing, I'd like to add the picture book "Big Plans" to the list. A kid gets bored in school, and he ends up steamrolling everyone into letting him take over as POTUS and then do something to the moon that could be seen from earth.

[Mom2TheTeam]

I thought "Love you Forever" was creepy. I know, I know - most people cry at that book and LOVE it and think it's the best thing EVAH, but I really was creeped out by it. I never read it again.

 

 

I didn't like it at all either! Creepy! We still have it because it came with a lit package I bought, but I'll be happy to sell it with the package when it's time. I won't read it again, ever!

 

OK, well this is probably more of a pent-up rant than something that you really need to hear...or maybe... I don't know.

 

Every DK and Usborne and similar book in the whole wide world. I like the books. I like the content. But UGH! My boys would pick them for story time and I was too short-sighted in the beginning to make a policy against it. :lol: Oh my gosh, the titles, the broken narrative, the captions, the diagrams and labels, the snippets, the blurbs... Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh! I would sometimes hide the current favorite at bedtime. DH happily read them but I hated reading them with a purple passion. But my boys loved them, so I did.

 

 

I love those books, but NOT for read aloud time. I'll read them with you to learn about something during school time, but NOT as a read aloud for "fun."

 

I hated that book so much I got rid of it!!

It was creepy and I just couldn't stand reading it to my DD... glad I'm not the only one!

 

I also dislie reading Dr. Suess...

To me, it is nonsense.

 

 

Agreed!

 

As for Willy Wonka....We just finished reading it. I told they kids they could watch the Gene Wilder version of the movie after we were done. My oldest, 7, really disliked it. He did not like them adding the Slugworth stuff, the part about Charlie drinking Fizzy Lifting Drink, that they changed the squirrels to geese, or the end where Wonka yells at Grandpa Joe and Charlie...oh and he didn't like the boat tunnel either. I just told him that Dahl didn't like it either and he was all smiles. I'm happy he preferred the book. :D

 

I find that interesting though because I really disliked the one with Johnny Depp. I won't even watch the whole thing and won't let my kids watch it. Way too creepy. I also think the first version was much more popular...

[mysterious_jedi]

Misty of Chincoteague. My fourth grade teacher loved this book and I was not a fan of hers. Too many bad memories.

 

This was the most boring book I read as a child. It's just about horses, not people. And it's not anthropomorphized horses either---just regular horses. What on earth is the point?

[kristi26]

DD and I tried to get through "Five Children and It" this year as a read-aloud...that did not go over well. :(

[ByGrace3]

 

 

This was the most boring book I read as a child. It's just about horses, not people. And it's not anthropomorphized horses either---just regular horses. What on earth is the point?

 

 

Too funny, I loved this book BECAUSE it was all about horses! I was obsessed. Lol

 

I am fairly certain my kids have not met a read aloud they didn't like.. I practically begged them to let me drop Augustine Farmer Boy of Tagaste, but alas....they LIKED it. ugh. My dd loved Amelia Bedelia, it i could never have done them as read alouds. They are readers only around here! :lol:

 

I despise most any TV show book... Dora, Diego, Backyardigans. We have shelves full of them and I almost always refuse to read them. I am a board book snob, kids are free to look at and read for themselves anything on the shelf but I only read aloud good literature (to the over three crowd anyway... I am a sucker for littles) ;) :lol:

[warneral]

Alice in Wonderland. I didn't know what I was say ing and the kids were even more confused

[Staceyshoe]

I don't appreciate some of the children's attitudes and sibling relationships portrayed in some of the Beverly Cleary books (though I do find them amusing as an adult). My kids love Ronald Dahl, but every possible aspect of his books grates on my nerves. (100% personal preference without any real "reason"---I admit it!) We've done a couple of his books, and I know my kids would adore more of them. But with so many other choices, I just can't go there any more. They are welcome to read Ronald Dahl silently at any point they choose to do so.

 

ETA: I prefer audio books when there is A LOT of dialogue. I can do a few different voices and such, but it can still sometimes be confusing as a read aloud. I find that books that rely heavily on dialogue require a lot of my energy to read, so I read less at each reading and can sometimes feel drained afterward. Granted, I am not someone who just adores reading aloud regardless, so I'm sure that has an impact.

[Alte Veste Academy]

I am fairly certain my kids have not met a read aloud they didn't like.. I practically begged them to let me drop Augustine Farmer Boy of Tagaste, but alas....they LIKED it. ugh.

 

Oh my gosh. This is my kids. I swear they will listen to anything! A few times, I have strongly hinted and twice I have pretty much begged to drop a book. Nope. They want to hear the end. Sometimes they will even be kind of meh, but they always want the end. It's puzzling really.

 

Roxaboxen is so dumb.

 

:ohmy:

 

:lol:

 

My kids basically lived Roxaboxen in our back yard in Texas, and they have recently found like-minded friends to start anew here, so I have a very sentimental attachment to it.

[Incognito]

Wonderful books, but I do not like reading aloud the Usborne Puzzle books (Puzzle Planet, Puzzle Train, etc.). Hunting for all those things on each page is not on my fun list.

 

I also did not enjoy readling the Magic School Bus books aloud to the kids, purely because there are so many threads on each page - the regular story, the reports, the dialogue, sometimes more. The books are great, the content is great, but hard to read aloud. Unfortunately my kids found out I didn't like how they jumped around, so they didn't let me read the report parts to them anymore (trying to fix the dislike), but it ended up making me just feel guilty when I'd read the books!

[shawthorne44]

...Sometimes they will even be kind of meh, but they always want the end. It's puzzling really....

 

This is me. I don't know why I do it. In my 43 years as a bookworm, I've dropped less than 5 books.

Sometimes it is like a train wreck, you know you shouldn't finish, but you have to anyway.

Actually, I'll even finish a series I hate. I HAVE to know how it ends.