Gil Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 I'm looking for children's and young adult books of all genres, that are poorly written with flat character, confusing or ineffective word choice, plots that are just lame or extremely predictable or extremely convoluted, stilted dialog, boring writing--the works! Bonus if they are chapter books or a series that are meant for 3rd grade and above. I know that these are subjective so don't take offense if someone mentions a series that you love. I'm looking for what some folks here would consider to be near to or worth of the bottom of the barrel as far as childrens literature is concerned. It might be a strange request, but I'm serious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Sassafras Zoology, It's a science "living book," an adventure story about two kids who travel around the world learning about animals. It is just about the most poorly written book for children that I've ever seen, complete with a swiss-cheese plot and oddly-resolved conflicts, incomplete sentences, incorrectly used verbs and dialog tags, and more. It certainly fits your critera! Perversely, my dd loves it. I do try to correct things on the fly as I'm reading to her - at least turning the sentence fragments into complete sentences and omitting or changing the most egregious usage errors. I can't do much about the plot, though. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Magic Treehouse. Try to read it aloud... Terrible sentence structure. 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raifta Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 I was also going to mention Magic Treehouse although it is below your target age/grade. I was initially happy when DS developed an interest in these books at age 3 because they were 'chapter books' and we wouldn't have to read the same 10 picture books over and over! However, they are awful to read aloud, predictable in the extreme, and by the time we read about 10 (my SIL had given us 50 from when her son had read them), DS was done with the predictable and boring plots. The same thing happened a few years prior with DD and the Rainbow Magic fairies series. It is also very boring and predictable. She soon tired of them. Not as soon as I did, but quickly enough. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Strawberry Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Look at any of the free Kindle ebooks with fewer than 4 stars. They are mostly awful, and often written by children. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Agreeing with Magic Tree House. My theory is that in order to make the reading level lower, they had to pare the sentence length down, which resulted in about a zillion sentence fragments. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted January 30, 2016 Author Share Posted January 30, 2016 I was also going to mention Magic Treehouse although it is below your target age/grade. I was initially happy when DS developed an interest in these books at age 3 because they were 'chapter books' and we wouldn't have to read the same 10 picture books over and over! However, they are awful to read aloud, predictable in the extreme, and by the time we read about 10 (my SIL had given us 50 from when her son had read them), DS was done with the predictable and boring plots. The same thing happened a few years prior with DD and the Rainbow Magic fairies series. It is also very boring and predictable. She soon tired of them. Not as soon as I did, but quickly enough. No, I said it'd be bonus if the books were meant for grades 3 and up, but any horribly written collection of pages that passes for a book will do. Provided it wasn't just raunchy smut because I'm compiling this list for my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizaG Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 (edited) - The "Tales of the RAF" series of paperbacks. This was recommended by other homeschoolers as a top pick for boys, and given the traditional subject matter, I was expecting fairly solid writing, but... no. :tongue_smilie: - The "Adventures of Munford" books that are used in the Trail Guide to Learning curriculum. As "living books" go, these are on life support. My younger children like the premise enough that I'd be willing to overlook the goofy plots and minimal educational value, but the writing style is also very poor IMO. (ETA: Ironically, I think these were written specifically for the curriculum, which is supposed to teach language arts through exposure to good literature.) Edited January 30, 2016 by ElizaG 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 I always swore I would let my kids read whatever they wanted for free reading... Until I read the first Junie B. Jones book. Dreadful, stilted, simply awful! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GailV Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 Look at any of the free Kindle ebooks with fewer than 4 stars. They are mostly awful, and often written by children. My first thought, also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 I always swore I would let my kids read whatever they wanted for free reading... Until I read the first Junie B. Jones book. Dreadful, stilted, simply awful! Yeah, those are pretty bad. Dd loved them, too. Uh-oh, I'm sensing a pattern? :huh: ;) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Geronimo Stilton. It is painful to listen to the audio book. Books that begin as blogs are often terrible too. They retell parts of the same story every other chapter or jump around in time line. It can be quite confusing and annoying if you have never read the blog. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) Magic Treehouse. Try to read it aloud... Terrible sentence structure. This. They have been great for my DD in developing fluency and they truly have taught her some history... she will mention various facts from the books when we hit certain periods in SOTW, etc. So there is value. But we went on a road trip last year and I brought a MTH audio collection and I COULD. NOT. LISTEN. So painful. I've been gently distracting her from them ever since. Edited January 31, 2016 by indigoellen@gmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Mind if I ask why? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 The "Elementia" chronicles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReadingMama1214 Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Twilight 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I think even "bad" books can often serve an important purpose in learning to read. And that sometimes there's an emotional connection to the plot or characters that children feel. I'll also say... if you're hoping to use bits of something to be illustrative, I have tried that a few times in my teaching career and I've mostly only had it fail. I think that it might work for older teens or adults, but kids tend to connect with books so emotionally and aren't critical about the quality of the writing at all. The only luck I've ever had with this is getting kids to see plot holes and starting with movies works better than bad books. That said, gosh, I so agree with the Sassafras Zoology mention above. And the last book we read here that I cringed through was The Island of Dr. Libris. The kids enjoyed Lemoncello's Library and I thought Libris would be a good, quick, light palette clenser read aloud between two thicker books but I nearly lost it reading it. Plot holes galore, terrible plot structure (the rhythm was way off), flat characters, and sentence fragments everywhere (sort of like this "sentence"... I have more tolerance for that in forum posts than read alouds). 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 kids tend to connect with books so emotionally and aren't critical about the quality of the writing at all. That's why it's so risky to re-read childhood favorites. You expect a charming romp through your memories of people going to live on the moon, and instead you find the entire book has been eaten by the suck fairy. (And this, dear reader, is why I threw "This Place Has No Atmosphere" at the wall and cried. Well, I didn't cry, exactly, but I was certainly annoyed.) 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wishes Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I second the Twilight series. Just reading the first sentence made me twitch Also, I really do not like the Divergent series. I just find the whole premise of groups of people devoting themselves to one emotion absurd. Plus, the main character is very Mary Sue-ish. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 We listened to the Audiobook of Whales on Stilts - I recommend that for your list. The kids really liked it (the story was unique), and I will admit to wanting to know how it all resolved because it was so bizarre, but the style of the writing bothered me. I was glad when it finished. So many odd ways of setting up events and phrasing things. I am sure that in written form it would be even harder to enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Oh, man, noooo, Whales on Stilts is awesome. Though it does have an admittedly quirky writing style. (And the audiobook? You miss out on all the great illustrations!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Divergent came to my mind. I'd also agree with Sassafras, Magic Treehouse and Junie B. Jones. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2bee Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 The Inheritance Cycle -- Eragon, Eldest, Brinsgr and Inheritance. Special emphasis on books 2-4 of that horribly written series. The Twilight Series -- I would tell you why these books suck, but I don't have the time to write a dissertation, you probably have less time to read one. Many of the spin-off books written in the Dragon Lance series are poorly written. I enjoy the ones by Weis and Hickman, but most of the others are not great. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desiree77 Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Yes, divergent. My dd and I are not that particular when it comes to dystopian novels, but we couldn't finish the series after book two. The writing was so bad and plot so weak that we didn't even care what happened in book 3. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess4879 Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Divergent and Twilight. And also The Maze Runner Series. There are numerous examples of poor writing, poor characters, etc. The author also has a love of the phrase (and variations of) "There was really no other choice." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Another vote for Eragon. I will never understand how that book got published. My god, is it awful. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BooksandBoys Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Definitely Twilight. So painful. As a rule, I don't continue reading poorly written books, but this one was so bad on so many levels that I couldn't walk away. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Eragon (and, sadly, Twilight) are, to me, good examples of books that I get why kids like them. In the case of Eragon, I think its ideal audience is kids who don't know from epic fantasy yet. Reading it if you've ever read any decent fantasy literature is like a slow slog through cliches. Reading it if you haven't or have read very little (and if you're 10 and are just a voracious reader) is a totally different experience. This is why I said if you're planning this list, Gil, to "prove" something about bad books to your kids, I think it could be a major misfire. Inevitably your kids will read one of the books on there, love it, and think all your opinions about "good" writing are a load of malarkey. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamppost Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 A personal least-favorite is The Land of Stories. It's on my list of series I refuse to read aloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) Another vote for Eragon. I will never understand how that book got published. My god, is it awful.Wasn't it written by a homeschooled 15 yr old whose parents owned the publishing company? (Or something like that I actually liked the storyline, but oh my god, it took forever to resolve.. I never finished the last book. My son loved them, but he was probably 8-10 then, before reading LOTR & better stuff;) Edited January 31, 2016 by Hilltopmom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto6inIN Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 In the case of Eragon, I think its ideal audience is kids who don't know from epic fantasy yet. Reading it if you've ever read any decent fantasy literature is like a slow slog through cliches. Reading it if you haven't or have read very little (and if you're 10 and are just a voracious reader) is a totally different experience. :iagree: My kids weren't quite ready for The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings type stuff yet at age 10ish ... but at around that age they have all devoured these books and emotionally connected with them like nobody's business. I haven't read them myself so I have no opinion on how good (or not) they are, but I do know that there's no way on earth anyone could ever convince my children that they are bad books, even now that they are older and have read and enjoyed the good stuff. They still talk fondly of Eragon and can't wait til the 7 year old can read them! Lol 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apple Bean Tripod School Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Wrinkle in Time. Oh so horrible!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) Wrinkle in Time. Oh so horrible!! This one might prove what others are saying. I loved, loved, loved that book as a child. Just adored it. I was sooooo excited to read it to my kids. And when I read it aloud to them as an adult, I hated, hated, hated that book! But my kids loved it! Edited January 31, 2016 by Garga 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I think the Time Warp Trio books are horrible writing. I don't know if the plots are good because I can't get past the first few pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) ITA with Farrar and am not contradicting myself but nobody has mentioned the Babysitter's Club yet! You might also find what you're looking for in Lurlene McDaniel's YA medical dramas, unless I am guilty about making premature assumptions about how male tastes in literature differ from female. I have fond memories of reading them with dd26 during the same period of time that we were watching Days of Our Lives, but they are predictable, cliched, bad literature. The Magic Treehouse is truly awful and my personal choice for brief quotes to illustrate a point in a DIY language arts program for third graders who read well. I simply can't bring myself to survive that series again, even though I've had 16 years to recover and I know intellectually that all I have to do to turn my "reluctant reader" who CAN but DOESN'T into an independent reader and make my daily life so much easier would be to take the computer to the shop for a few days or a week tops and take out a grocery bag full of those hideous things from the library. Edited January 31, 2016 by Guest 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 This one might prove what others are saying. I loved, loved, loved that book as a child. Just adored it. I was sooooo excited to read it to my kids. And when I read it aloud to them as an adult, I hated, hated, hated that book! But my kids loved it! I just reread it with my kids. It was just as good for me. Okay, maybe not just as good, but I definitely wouldn't call it poor writing. But this is where we start getting absurdly subjective. That book won the highest award in children's literature. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) Yep. Not liking a book, and a book being poorly written are two separate things. The worst books I ever had to read aloud were The Saddle Club books. They were so bad that I outsourced them to dd, then 8. She read them to her sister? Man, I'll bet she got a lot of good read aloud skills from that! Which sort of proves the point that even the bad books have a purpose sometimes... Edited January 31, 2016 by Farrar 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Wasn't it written by a homeschooled 15 yr old whose parents owned the publishing company? (Or something like that I actually liked the storyline, but oh my god, it took forever to resolve.. I never finished the last book. My son loved them, but he was probably 8-10 then, before reading LOTR & better stuff;) Homeschooled kid and his parents helped him self-publish it. It did pretty well and he got "discovered" by a publisher. The story became part of the selling of the book. Sometimes I think, poor Christopher Paolini. Maybe he would have grown up to be a good writer if that hadn't happened. Then again, I'm pretty sure he has some money to comfort him... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyMountain Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) The series I despise most is Junie B Jones because not only is the grammar really bad but she is a really mean spirited child. I am not crazy about the magic pony/dog/kitty books or the rainbow fairies but I think they did help with fluency. They were very predictable and cheesy but the characters were friendly at least. Magic Tree House books can serve a purpose of getting kids a started on a chapter book or when they gain some skill a book they can tear through really fast. I do not read aloud from those books to my kids but they are ok for them to read. Edited January 31, 2016 by MistyMountain 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Junie B. Jones YELLS A LOT in really RANDOM capital letters. I REALLY, REALLY am driven nuts by that. Just sayin. I'm sure Junie has helped a lot of kids learn to read, even if she's a little annoying. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 (edited) I just reread it with my kids. It was just as good for me. Okay, maybe not just as good, but I definitely wouldn't call it poor writing. But this is where we start getting absurdly subjective. That book won the highest award in children's literature. I found the characters either too shallow or caricature-ish or just plain annoying. And the whole love conquering all thing was soooo cheesy to me. To me, the sentence structure may have been great, but the characters were unbelievable and the message was corny and predictable. I know it won awards. And as a child I gobbled it up. As an adult, I was rolling my eyes so much at it that I was afraid they'd pop out of my head. But we just had a thread here a few days ago where a boardie haaaaated The Great Brain books, and I loooove them. Loved them as a kid, still love them. So, everyone has an opinion about books and they're all different. :). You are so right that it's all subjective. Edited February 1, 2016 by Garga 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2Peanuts Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 This thread is making me chuckle because I asked the very same thing of our children's librarians last year. They told me my request was the hardest request they'd ever had. It spawned many discussions among them about what makes bad writing. The reason I had asked for book suggestions is because most of the homeschooling blogs & boards I follow recommend mostly well-written books. I wanted my daughter to read some badly written books so we could discuss what made something good vs. bad and also to practice some editing. What could she do to rewrite a sentence & make it less stilted or more interesting? Sadly, I never actually got around to doing the lesson with her. (We got sidetracked.) But I was really surprised at how hard it was for our librarians (who I think very highly of) to come up with a universal definition of what made something bad. The books they found, by the way, included Twilight (which gave me a hearty laugh as I had read the whole series...like binge-read the whole series), some book called "Millions of Snow" which had lots of weird grammar --- seemed like it was written by someone for whom English was a second language. Another book about some kind of fairy, but it wasn't the Rainbow Fairy series. Sorry, I should have written down the titles. The only books I can add to the list here are books that are "adaptations" of TV shows/movies. Ever read a Phineas & Ferb book? Awful! So clunky when the show is so fast-paced & witty. They seem to be geared for the mid-to-upper elementary crowd, too, as they have "chapters." Good luck with your search! I'm enjoying seeing what folks are recommending here. Carol 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Eragon (and, sadly, Twilight) are, to me, good examples of books that I get why kids like them. In the case of Eragon, I think its ideal audience is kids who don't know from epic fantasy yet. Reading it if you've ever read any decent fantasy literature is like a slow slog through cliches. Reading it if you haven't or have read very little (and if you're 10 and are just a voracious reader) is a totally different experience. This is why I said if you're planning this list, Gil, to "prove" something about bad books to your kids, I think it could be a major misfire. Inevitably your kids will read one of the books on there, love it, and think all your opinions about "good" writing are a load of malarkey. Yes, this is something I've noticed as well. Some things, as a child, seem quite original and interesting - it is only later when you have more experience that you realize that it is derivitive and bottom-drawer. That's the point, I think, of making an effort to make sure your kids have plenty of opportunity to see good lit. The bad stuff eventually reveals itself. I think it's much later, probably in high school though maybe a little earlier, that taking it apart to see the mechanics is worthwhile. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 This one might prove what others are saying. I loved, loved, loved that book as a child. Just adored it. I was sooooo excited to read it to my kids. And when I read it aloud to them as an adult, I hated, hated, hated that book! But my kids loved it! Hmm, I still really like it. I'm not sure I can buy L'Engle as a bad writer. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Eric Carle. Great illustrator. Lousy writer. 10 Little Rubber Ducks. Ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Oh, man, noooo, Whales on Stilts is awesome. Though it does have an admittedly quirky writing style. (And the audiobook? You miss out on all the great illustrations!) Maybe the illustrations distracted you from the weird writing. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Oh, no, I just don't mind the weird writing. I think it works great in this particular series. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 I love weird books. Everyone go read a Moomins book, right now! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 I felt this way about InkSpot, or InkBlot, or whatever the heck it was. I kept reading it, hoping it would get better, but it didnt. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternallytired Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Why has no one mentioned all the picture books based on TV characters? Someone gave us a Thomas the Train book once and I thought it would be a sweet story, but instead it was crazy and disjointed--and my husband pointed out it was because they were trying to summarize a TV episode in book form (and were probably running low on novel episode ideas, too, at the time). Since then we've had several other run-ins with books that either started out as a TV episode or were based on popular TV characters. It's like they figured, "Eh, the kids'll beg their parents for this book because of the character, so the actual story doesn't matter. Let's find a D-list writer or use the script from Ed's 7-year-old so that we can have the highest possible revenues." 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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