Please don't hate me, but...

[mommylawyer]

I've come to the realization that I really don't care for Beatrix Potter books. I find them tedious and boring - as a matter of fact, I have a hard time getting through them (except for Peter Rabbit).

 

What am I missing?

 

Am I alone? *Enter sounds of crickets chirping.*

[EKS]

I have an issue with Beatrix Potter books as well. They are so weird. A lot of the characters are totally neurotic!

[Hot Lava Mama]

go to the library, my dd ALWAYS wants to get some. I always whine about it but then give in. Dd has such a pretty face, how can I resist!

 

 

I find them annoying for some reason!

Hot Lava Mama

[Suzanne in ABQ]

They're much better with a British accent. Have seen the videos? I love those, and they really bring out the characters in the story.

[laylamcb]

NOT a huge fan here, either, I'm sorry to say. Even Peter Rabbit gets a bit old after the 25th reading. ;)

 

Now, Meryl Streep's reading of The Tailor of Gloucester is sooooo good that I bought it--and that's really saying something. Maybe that's what it takes: just the right reader. And I guess I'm not it.

 

As someone else mentioned, many of the characters are just...a little weird and neurotic. And it's not that they're old and quaint--I LOVE old and quaint. It's something else.... :glare:

[Crissy]

Oh, my! I love Beatrix Potter.

 

Now, if you're speaking of the squinty-eyed Renee Whats-her-name and her portrayal of Ms. Potter, then I'm with you.

 

:D

[Gretchen in NJ]

I love Beatrix Potter too. My daughters laugh out loud while reading them.

[Sharon H in IL]

I find the Peter Rabbit story too anxiety-provoking for little ones. It's all chasing, like some bad dream.

 

But everyone has a 'classic' that they find absolutely horrid. Everyone else is in love, and you stand there with a confused look.

 

I can't stand Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. It's beyond insipid. Small children find the swing poem trite and overdone. Same for A.A. Milne's Now We Are Six, though I found the BBC audio version of Winne-the-Pooh absolutely perfect. Maybe it takes the perfect reader to win us over, as laylamcb said.

[cin]

Fortunately for me, dd7 likes to read them to dd4 :D Cause I too, can hardly stand them.

[Guest]

lol - the timing of this post is quite apropos - my son just won The Tale of Peter Rabbit in our library's summer reading program and I read it to him just 1 hour ago for the first time. I actually found it quite disturbing, as well. Especially the page where Peter's father was said to have been put in a pie. I can't say I'm one for the videos, either. I guess this is just one that I'd prefer to pass on.

[Sarah in FL]

How can you not like Mrs Tiggywinkle? What about Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb?

 

But I suppose you are entitled to your own opinion :)

[Jami]

Oh, my! I love Beatrix Potter.

 

Now, if you're speaking of the squinty-eyed Renee Whats-her-name and her portrayal of Ms. Potter, then I'm with you.

 

:D

 

I'm with you, Crissy. A fan of Beatrix Potter; not a fan of Renee "Squinty" Zellwenger. :001_smile:

 

Though I agree with whoever said some of the characters in Potter's stories are a bit neurotic. Poor Jemima Puddleduck. And Mrs. Tittlemouse.

[Homeschooling6]

My kids love listening to this on cd.

[Nestof3]

For me, what's most important about a children's book is whether my children like it. I cannot stand reading Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories. My boys LOVE them. My boys also adore Beatrix Potter. My 8 year old is listening to everything Frank Baum has written. I just scratch my head at the stories that man came up with. Odd if you ask me.

 

BUT

 

I think a great children's author really connects with a child -- despite us.

[WTMindy]

Oh, my! I love Beatrix Potter.

 

Now, if you're speaking of the squinty-eyed Renee Whats-her-name and her portrayal of Ms. Potter, then I'm with you.

 

:D

 

Oh, you beat me to it. I was just going to post and say that I like the books, but couldn't stomach the movie. Why couldn't they have cast someone with a GOOD (maybe even real) British accent that isn't annoying?!

[sdWTMer]

Oh, my! I love Beatrix Potter.

 

Now, if you're speaking of the squinty-eyed Renee Whats-her-name and her portrayal of Ms. Potter, then I'm with you.

 

:D

I grew up with her. Tread lightly. No, just kidding. We grew up together, but she hangs with George Clooney, so she's a little bit above me. :D

[Amy in Orlando]

:lol: You're not alone. I don't like them. Unfortunately, my youngest son loves them.

[jedbel]

Potter is a favorite here but now that you mention it there is disturbing content in some of the stories LOL. My kids laugh and laugh when I read Milne for some reason. :confused:I do try to make different voices for the characters so that might be it :tongue_smilie:

[lighthouseacademy]

My mom used to read me Peter Rabbit, Mrs. Tiggywinkle, and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. I LOVED Nutkin. In fact, I passed on that love to my cousin (male) and my brothers when I would read it to them when they were small (I am 10 and 11 yrs older than them). I have found that I also like the Tale of Two Bad Mice (as does my son) and a few others, although as a kid I had a hard time reading them (my mom would only read the ones she liked so I never read the others to myself even though we had the complete books). I find she uses a lot of big words that small ears don't usually hear and she has a rather quaint way of expressing things sometimes.

I love some of the poems in the Garden of Verses mentioned, but there are some that are just plain lame. My baby begged me to read the puffin one just tonight though (I always loved that one).

[newlifemom]

I too have a confession to make. I check a few of them out now and again but I have never read them myself. :blush: I have never had the desire. What kind of a classical educator am I? :D

[Philothea]

We like Peter Rabbit, but we've read other "versions" of it too.

 

As far as the actual BP books, my kids won't sit still for them, but they love the cartoons. I think they are difficult to read out loud for some reason, like Milne, which I also dislike not only in books but also anything on-screen.

[chaik76]

We ignore the very existence of the Peter Rabbit books, due to my dislike for them.

(slinking:leaving: away now)

[Aubrey]

Oh, rats, this is discouraging! I couldn't *stand* BP when I was a kid, but people kept giving me gift copies once I had kids. They all eventually ended up at 1/2P. I felt guilty, becausae BP was the 1st biography I ever read, so while I feel close to *her*...I don't want to read her books, kwim?

 

But I finally broke down & bought the "BP Treasury" just. last. week. Because I'm supposed to. Because, like someone else said, I am a classical educator. How can I *not* own BP?

 

I sort-of hoped that I'd come around. Reading these posts...disheartens me. I'm thinking of returning the treasury now.

 

But it's not really about the stories, is it???? I mean, it's the pics, right? I can do the pics. I could leave off the stories or make up my own or something. Right??? ;)

 

Ack. & the only thing worse than having bought it & my dc not liking them would be having bought it & having them LIKE them. I can hear dd5 now, "But you *never* read me *that* story!!!" <insert pouty lip>

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! :lol:

[laylamcb]

I sort-of hoped that I'd come around. Reading these posts...disheartens me. I'm thinking of returning the treasury now.

 

:lol:

 

Don't return them yet.... :001_smile: As Dawn said, it's really about whether your kids like the stories. And one thing that I've done is put on The Tailor of Gloucester on CD (another plug for the Meryl Streep recording--WOW!) and handed them the book at the same time. They listen closely and flip the pages to match the pictures with the action. My kids do like the stories, there's no denying it.

 

Jim Weiss also recorded a few; his Tailor can't hold a candle to Meryl's, IMHO, but the other stories are read pretty well. (Hey, I'm not reading them, and that's what counts, right?) The kids loved them.

 

 

One final note: My kids do a funny dance together that, I just discovered the other day, they call the Hunca Munca. :lol: Yes, though I may think that her characters are weird, BP certainly was able to connect with kids.

[Jennifer in MI]

Oh - we love them here. I love the vocabulary. I mean, what other children's book has the word soporific? I just started reading them to my dd (2.5) and she can't get enough of them.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

I love Beatrix Potter too. My kids will listen enthralled to even some of the ones that are more difficult to understand. The ones we have are read over and over as bedtime stories, but the kids don't really read them on their own. I think they are much better as read alouds. I find the style and the language fascinating.

[Gretchen in NJ]

I love Beatrix Potter too. My kids will listen enthralled to even some of the ones that are more difficult to understand. The ones we have are read over and over as bedtime stories, but the kids don't really read them on their own. I think they are much better as read alouds. I find the style and the language fascinating.

 

:iagree:. When my girls were young, I used them as read alouds. This past year I had dd10 read them on her own. At first, she fought me since is wasn't a "chapter" book and it was a "baby" book. But, she loves animals and I wanted her exposed to the vocabulary. She has now started to read them on her own. I hear her laughing out loud when she does.

[Nestof3]

If you just cannot bring yourself to read the stories aloud, there are audio versions available. Check your library. Your children may like them even if you don't. I just wouldn't refuse to expose my kids to a certain literature, unless it were for moral reasons, simply on the grounds that I did not like it.

 

The videos are well done as well.

 

I came home from the grocery store one day to find Nathan had written (when he was 6) the following Potter poem on a piece of paper and taped it to the window I see when I pull up in the driveway:

 

We have a little garden,

A garden of our own,

And every day we water there

The seeds that we have sown.

We love our little garden,

And tend it with such care,

You will not find a faded leaf

Or blighted blossom there.

[Testimony]

I do not hate you for hating Beatrice Potter books. Not every book is for everyone.

 

I wanted to say that once I tried to ask people here what grade do they really think the Beatrice Potter books are? I asked the librarian too. I asked why they were in the easy readers.

 

Maybe in a British library they would be easy readers, but some of those terminology is difficult for an American 5-7year old to comprehend. There was a word or two that I read that I had to look up.

 

I know the tailor book had terms that you had to be a tailor to know what it meant.

 

The struggle with the books is I think that they are mislabeled. I believe that they should be on a 4th or 5th grade reader. At least, some of the books should be labeled higher than easy reader.

 

I think the drawing are outstanding. Ms. Potter, in my opinion, is on the level of Michaelangelo when it comes to those drawing. For the art, a child should be expose to those books because they are well done and with excellent details.

 

Blessings in your homeschooling journey!

 

Sincerely,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony:thumbup:

[~Tara~]

Oh whew, I'm not alone. There *are* a few others who don't like BP's books. I really just don't care for them. But...I don't like Pooh either. Does that make me a total freak?

[Gretchen in NJ]

I do not hate you for hating Beatrice Potter books. Not every book is for everyone.

 

I wanted to say that once I tried to ask people here what grade do they really think the Beatrice Potter books are? I asked the librarian too. I asked why they were in the easy readers.

 

Maybe in a British library they would be easy readers, but some of those terminology is difficult for an American 5-7year old to comprehend. There was a word or two that I read that I had to look up.

 

I know the tailor book had terms that you had to be a tailor to know what it meant.

 

The struggle with the books is I think that they are mislabeled. I believe that they should be on a 4th or 5th grade reader. At least, some of the books should be labeled higher than easy reader.

 

I think the drawing are outstanding. Ms. Potter, in my opinion, is on the level of Michaelangelo when it comes to those drawing. For the art, a child should be expose to those books because they are well done and with excellent details.

 

Blessings in your homeschooling journey!

 

Sincerely,

Karen

www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony:thumbup:

 

I agree with you Karen. I think there is a tendency to label these books for younger children because of the pictures, but the vocabulary is not easy.

[Gretchen in NJ]

If you just cannot bring yourself to read the stories aloud, there are audio versions available. Check your library. Your children may like them even if you don't. I just wouldn't refuse to expose my kids to a certain literature, unless it were for moral reasons, simply on the grounds that I did not like it.

 

The videos are well done as well.

 

I came home from the grocery store one day to find Nathan had written (when he was 6) the following Potter poem on a piece of paper and taped it to the window I see when I pull up in the driveway:

 

We have a little garden,

A garden of our own,

And every day we water there

The seeds that we have sown.

We love our little garden,

And tend it with such care,

You will not find a faded leaf

Or blighted blossom there.

 

Awe...........

 

That is so sweet.

[Peek a Boo]

You are not alone.

 

I don't think the accent will make any difference in my opinion of how the Two Bad Mice reconciled their actions, lol.

 

neurotic...to put it mildly.

 

i do like the illustrations tho ;)

 

but i can't stand the regular Mother Goose rhymes either.

or most fairy tales for that matter.

 

Thankfully my kids aren't too impressed w/ them either. We'll stick w/ Virginia Burton.....

[clwcain]

I just don't understand...do you have specific complaints about the stories, or is it a more general, amorphous dislike that you can't articulate?

 

I didn't grow up with them. BP's books and Milne's work were around the house, but I never read them and they were never read to me.

 

One of the great joys of parenthood is that I can now read these tales to my kids. So far, only the oldest pays attention. But he has also, so far, had no issues with vocabulary.

 

This is probably a spin-off topic but, What children's books do you like? What books, in general, do you like?

 

And, perhaps it's my ignorance of WTM, et. al., but what does BP, or Milne, etc. have to do with classical education?

 

ETA: No hate for the OP or the others. I understand de gustibus and all that. YMMV, etc. I'm just curious as to whether or not it's specific objections or a general dislike.

[Sharon H in IL]

And, perhaps it's my ignorance of WTM, et. al., but what does BP, or Milne, etc. have to do with classical education?

They have nothing whatsoever to do with classical education. They share the label 'classic' because they have been loved by generations of children and the parents who read to them.

 

And Beatrix Potter's artwork is world-class. You can leave the stories, but hey, you have to admit the pictures are glorious.

[Mom to Aly]

I adore them! Have you seen the movie about her? I think it makes you love them more!

[Peek a Boo]

I just don't understand...do you have specific complaints about the stories, or is it a more general, amorphous dislike that you can't articulate?

 

both. the actions of the characters in some specific stories and the general attitude. but then again, i hate My Father's Dragon, the original mother Goose, and most Grimms fairy tales too ;)

 

I didn't grow up with them. BP's books and Milne's work were around the house, but I never read them and they were never read to me.

 

One of the great joys of parenthood is that I can now read these tales to my kids. So far, only the oldest pays attention. But he has also, so far, had no issues with vocabulary.

 

me neither. i was kinda hoping for the same reaction of "finding them as an adult" but was severely disappointed. vocabulary isn't a problem here either.

 

 

This is probably a spin-off topic but, What children's books do you like? What books, in general, do you like?

 

I tend to be more practical. I don't care for fantasy too much. i love a LOT of children's lit --esp Virginia Burton, Carl the Dog, William Tell by Terry Small, and a host of others. I have literally over a thousand picture books in my home. So we're not missing B. Potter :)

 

 

And, perhaps it's my ignorance of WTM, et. al., but what does BP, or Milne, etc. have to do with classical education?

 

as was posted -- nothing. but I also don't follow WTM ;)

[yorkshire_parkin]

just so stories is the book that drives me up the wall!

[Nestof3]

[just so stories is the book that drives me up the wall!

 

Yep -- me too. And again, my 8 year old loves these. He just had my husband read The Elephant's Child last night.

 

I'm beginning to think my son has strange tastes when it comes to books. LOL

[Annie Laurie]

My kids love one of the weirdest Beatrix Potter stories- The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit. My middle two, at the ages of four and five, constantly played their own game inspired by the story, which they named "The fierce bad baby game", it involved their dolls and I don't know what all. I chose not to pay attention. :001_huh:

[Stacia]

Ok, totally off topic, but...

 

every time I see this thread pop up again on the front page, the subject line makes me think of the "Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful" commercials. Were those L'Oreal???? It's driving me batty now, lol.

 

For what it's worth, I don't care much for BP either, but the illustrations are just so darn cute. Pooh has never been a hit here either. I actually donated all our cute BP books to the library so that someone who might actually enjoy them could actually enjoy them.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I love Beatrix Potter - but it primarily because of the pictures. I do read the stories to my dc (well, not to ds11 anymore;) ) with the exception of one - I refuse to read them the one where the kitten gets rolled up in pastry crust. Maybe it's my vivid imagination but that's just too much!

 

I also love Milne and Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses". But then they somehow symbolize the preschool/kindergarten years for me. Oh, and I love Mother Goose too.

[SheilaZ]

You're not alone. I don't like them.

The illustrations are beautiful but I just can't read them aloud. I can't pull off that much sweetness.

[clwcain]

For those of you who don't like them, is it that you prefer your kiddie lit to be didactic or instructive in some way?

[Aubrey]

For those of you who don't like them, is it that you prefer your kiddie lit to be didactic or instructive in some way?

 

No, it's partly the violence that's off-putting. ;) The stories also seem...slow.

 

But I was reading Faulkner the other day (not to the dc, lol), & I noticed after a pg, that I couldn't pay attention, I was bored, ready to throw the book across the room. (And I love Faulkner.)

 

So I tried again, but the 2nd time, I pretended there was no TV, radio, computer, or other entertainment. That the best we had was the neighbors on the front porch at dusk, but until then, it was just hot & there was no entertainment. You know what? I read more slowly. The words sunk in, to be enjoyed one by one instead of in a Big Gulp size. Their flavor & meaning & texture had more value.

 

I still didn't finish it, lol, but I could better see how he'd written it, iykwim. I may have to try the same approach to BP. And I've noticed that dc have more patience than we adults do. They love to be read to, & they've got nowhere to go. The longer, the better. Mine don't even care if they can understand it. Goodness, they'd probably listen to Faulkner if he weren't so wildly inappropriate!

[laylamcb]

For those of you who don't like them, is it that you prefer your kiddie lit to be didactic or instructive in some way?

 

Not in my case; I think that Peter Rabbit, for example, certainly teaches that there are consequences to one's actions. And I don't mind the violence: I think it's quirky and funny (and appropriate) when the mother rabbit tells the babies to stay away from the garden because their father was put in a pie by Mrs. Macgregor.

 

No, it's something else. I can't explain it, really. The stories just...don't make a lot of sense to me. Am I too concrete?! WHY do these characters do some of the weird things that they do?! What's the motivation? (I know, I know: They are animals. But still--it bugs me! I must have meaning! I also often don't get jokes; could there be a connection?? ;))

 

I LOVE fairy tales, fables, fantasy...but I'm just not a Potter or Pooh fan. I can't explain it. It's not rational. I just don't care for them. My kids do, though, so I've sought out really great audio versions of the stories when I feel like I really can't do them justice.

[sdWTMer]

I actually had the audiobook of these and gave them away. I guess I figured that since I had two boys that they really probably would be bored to tears with them.

[Laurie in CA]

Ya mean you don't like Tom Kitten being made into a roly-poly pudding by some rats? I think my kids liked the books because they were tiny books and the pictures are pretty cute, except for the exploding bunny at the end of Fierce Bad Rabbit. At least the carrot survived.:lol:

[Peek a Boo]

For those of you who don't like them, is it that you prefer your kiddie lit to be didactic or instructive in some way?

 

no, not really. I mean, Carl the Dog is kinda weird cuz it's a DOG [a Rottweiler at that] watching the kid. Where's a responsible adult?? lol.... They just go out and have fun, wordless adventures. i like that ;)

 

i like fun. i like adventure. i don't mind the little bit of violence. i don't even mind "twaddle".... i just don't care for B Potter's stuff. it's just not...appealing.

[chaik76]

For those of you who don't like them, is it that you prefer your kiddie lit to be didactic or instructive in some way?

Nope, not at all. My ds is allowed to read (or be read) just about anything. This includes what other would consider "twaddle". I just plain don't like 'em!