What popular or classic book/s can you not stand? And which do you adore?

[GoodnightMoogle]

Inspired by another thread

Also inspired by a post I saw in a Memoria Press group I’m in, where a mom was complaining that she couldn’t stand the book version of Mary Poppins and saw nothing good in it!

I’ve been slowly reading through classic children’s lit and commonly recommended children’s books, mainly to prepare myself as a homeschool mom, but also because there are so many I missed out on as a kid. 
 

I was surprised by how much I adored Pinocchio! Honestly, I was blown away, and as a mom of a little boy, even moved to tears at times. It was such a beautiful story of unconditional love, forgiveness, and the redemptive human spirit. 
 

Peter Pan was interesting. I’m just surprised that Ambleside lists it as a read aloud for six year olds. I’m a twenty seven year old and there were a few passages where I had to stop and really wrap my head around them. Good, but definitely more challenging. I found a lot of humor in the fact that Captain Hook’s villainy in part stems from his classical English boy’s education.

As for classic books I can’t stand….well the last Borrowers book really fell flat for me. It was odd, and so incomplete. I loved all of the Chronicles of Narnia books but the last one also had something rushed and off about it. I also remember reading Sarah, Plain and Tall in first or second grade and absolutely hating it. It bored me to tears.  I’ll probably give it one more chance as an adult, though.

Anyway, you all are more read than me at this point, probably, so I’d love to see some opinions here! 

Edited September 2, 2022 by GoodnightMoogle

[Jean in Newcastle]

Some old books were “cleaned up” by Disney for a reason. Mary Poppins was one of them- maybe not the first one but some of the sequels were definitely racist by modern views. I read the first one while I was nannying and found parts of it hilarious from my perspective but of course those parts would go over the head of kids.
 

Bambi is actually an anti hunting tract in the original form. Pinocchio has parts in the original which were quite harsh by modern standards. I could deal with it as an adult but I did the lighter Disneyfied version with my kids. I don’t mind lighter versions which capture the magic of the original story while editing out some of the problematic parts of old literature. 

[shawthorne44]

Mary Poppins wasn't cleaned up just for that.   They couldn't have Julie Andrews portray someone that was a turd, like Mary Poppins really was.  

I did prefer the Disney'fied back story for Hercules.  

 

[HomeAgain]

Mary Poppins was the first book I put down in the middle of reading it to my kid.  We had an original version, and it was so horribly racist in the Bad Tuesday chapter that I literally could not read that to my child, at that age, and have it inform his views. 

Favorites for me:

• The lesser known L.M. Montgomery books.  I'd include the Anne ones, but there seems to be a missing story between the last two or the two just before the last.  There are issues alluded to that fit the pattern of how she talks about previous book parts, but they're just never told.
• A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. This has been reread so many times.
• Winnie The Pooh.  I have the first chapter nearly memorized.  It's full of cuddles and love and just so many good, preschooler memories.

 

Ones I can't stand:

• Anything by the Bronte sisters.  I couldn't ever get into them.
• Moby Dick.  The Victor-Hugo-esque segues are what take this from a fabulous story to a drudgery
• Little Women.  I've always wanted to slap Amy.  I do love Little Men, though
• Elsie Dinsmore.  OMG.  This is a rabbit hole of pro-slavery, pro-child abuse, pro-grooming that continues to slither into conservative Christian education.  Every book in the series is worse, and the characters only have 3 or 4 names total, because every child is named after the original characters.

 

[GoodnightMoogle]

34 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

Mary Poppins was the first book I put down in the middle of reading it to my kid.  We had an original version, and it was so horribly racist in the Bad Tuesday chapter that I literally could not read that to my child, at that age, and have it inform his views. 

Favorites for me:

• The lesser known L.M. Montgomery books.  I'd include the Anne ones, but there seems to be a missing story between the last two or the two just before the last.  There are issues alluded to that fit the pattern of how she talks about previous book parts, but they're just never told.
• A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. This has been reread so many times.
• Winnie The Pooh.  I have the first chapter nearly memorized.  It's full of cuddles and love and just so many good, preschooler memories.

 

Ones I can't stand:

• Anything by the Bronte sisters.  I couldn't ever get into them.
• Moby Dick.  The Victor-Hugo-esque segues are what take this from a fabulous story to a drudgery
• Little Women.  I've always wanted to slap Amy.  I do love Little Men, though
• Elsie Dinsmore.  OMG.  This is a rabbit hole of pro-slavery, pro-child abuse, pro-grooming that continues to slither into conservative Christian education.  Every book in the series is worse, and the characters only have 3 or 4 names total, because every child is named after the original characters.

 

I just read the Winnie the Pooh books for the first time and I was so delighted! I’m sad I missed out on them as a child. It’s amazing how clever the writing is; I wonder if there just isn’t a lot written nowadays that’s meant to be read aloud to little children that aren’t picture books.

I just finished reading “Read Aloud Family” and Sara Mackenzie said one of her daughters really loved all of the L.M. Montgomery books. I’m ashamed I was an English major and haven’t read a single one of her books. They are on my long list, for sure. 

It was an old forum post on here that first brought the Elsie Dinsmore books to my attention. They are so awful I thought they were some kind of parody at first. What’s more horrifying is that there are people out there who think they have a good message. 

[GoodnightMoogle]

1 hour ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I don’t mind lighter versions which capture the magic of the original story while editing out some of the problematic parts of old literature. 

This is why I’m trying to zoom through as much kids lit as I can now. I’m nervous I’m gonna end up following and trusting a curriculum booklist  and I’ll be reading something like Dr. Dolittle to my kids and find myself in a bind halfway through. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

36 minutes ago, GoodnightMoogle said:

This is why I’m trying to zoom through as much kids lit as I can now. I’m nervous I’m gonna end up following and trusting a curriculum booklist  and I’ll be reading something like Dr. Dolittle to my kids and find myself in a bind halfway through. 

I have edited on the fly at times. Or I have simply explained to my (usually mid elementary or older) kids why I found certain things to be a problem. It’s led to some deep conversations. What I don’t do is let things slide by not editing or addressing the issues. Many of the older classics though have versions now that deal with problem areas even if it’s just in the movie version of the story. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Here is a NY Times article on Dr Doolittle. It doesn’t shy away from the racism of the original work but it does talk about the newer versions that sought to fix those issues. And it talks about what was good in the books. If I were still homeschooling my now adult kids we would read this article together and would discuss it. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/books/review/doctor-dolittle-hugh-lofting-talking-animals.html

[Rosie_0801]

I used to put on fairy tales as audiobooks then shout at them because princesses who murder peasants are not good, no matter how pretty and blonde they are.

I felt this was an important life lesson for dd.

It is also important to know you can argue with books.

 

My first advice to dd on dating was when she was three, watching Jane Austen. "No Mr Wickhams!" This graduated to "No Mr Compeysons!" when we were watching 'Great Expectations.' Bad characters can be useful.

[Ting Tang]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

Mary Poppins was the first book I put down in the middle of reading it to my kid.  We had an original version, and it was so horribly racist in the Bad Tuesday chapter that I literally could not read that to my child, at that age, and have it inform his views. 

Favorites for me:

• The lesser known L.M. Montgomery books.  I'd include the Anne ones, but there seems to be a missing story between the last two or the two just before the last.  There are issues alluded to that fit the pattern of how she talks about previous book parts, but they're just never told.
• A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. This has been reread so many times.
• Winnie The Pooh.  I have the first chapter nearly memorized.  It's full of cuddles and love and just so many good, preschooler memories.

 

Ones I can't stand:

• Anything by the Bronte sisters.  I couldn't ever get into them.
• Moby Dick.  The Victor-Hugo-esque segues are what take this from a fabulous story to a drudgery
• Little Women.  I've always wanted to slap Amy.  I do love Little Men, though
• Elsie Dinsmore.  OMG.  This is a rabbit hole of pro-slavery, pro-child abuse, pro-grooming that continues to slither into conservative Christian education.  Every book in the series is worse, and the characters only have 3 or 4 names total, because every child is named after the original characters.

 

I totally forgot about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn!  Thank you for that reminder. I also loved Winnie the Pooh and plan to read it to my kids before they grow up.  Now, I used to love the Little House books growing up.  My son read Little House in the Big Woods last year, and I plan to read it with my daughter this year all the way through (she read parts).  If we judge it by today's standards, there are definitely racist parts to it.  It really made me wonder about the validity of having good discussions about this vs. should we really even be reading this stuff?  I do not buy Dr. Seuss books because of his racist depictions even outside of children's literature.  

[Jean in Newcastle]

Our literature studies often went along with historical studies. Seeing how authors dealt with issues through the lens of their culture is making history come alive and can even be helpful for looking at where our blindspots can be in our culture and time. 

[Guest]

I couldn't get through Wind in the Willows or Little Women. Wanted to love them, but couldn't even finish them...

[HomeAgain]

26 minutes ago, Ting Tang said:

I totally forgot about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn!  Thank you for that reminder. I also loved Winnie the Pooh and plan to read it to my kids before they grow up.  Now, I used to love the Little House books growing up.  My son read Little House in the Big Woods last year, and I plan to read it with my daughter this year all the way through (she read parts).  If we judge it by today's standards, there are definitely racist parts to it.  It really made me wonder about the validity of having good discussions about this vs. should we really even be reading this stuff?  I do not buy Dr. Seuss books because of his racist depictions even outside of children's literature.  

I didn't mind stopping the Little House In The Big Woods to discuss with ds how the characters saw Native Americans. It is a little different than how a writer portrays other people. A young child can understand how a character can not be completely good or bad. They make mistakes, and they can be wrong. They have a harder time separating out how an author can present material as fact (or fact in their story/world) and have the author be wrong.

There are some books that make it into our history-in-history studies in middle school, where we examine author bias and how it colors their word decisions.  Cheaper By The Dozen fits in well here: read first to appreciate the story of the Gilbreths and their achievements, examined to understand how the limited contact this family had with other cultures colored how they saw people.

 

[daijobu]

Wizard of Oz:  the movie was way better than the book series.  (I only read 1-2 of them before giving up.)  

[Frances]

I can’t stand Winnie the Pooh. My sister loved it and I was over it after the first time it was read aloud to us.

Although I was an avid reader growing up, I somehow missed the Anne of Green Gables books until I was an adult. It’s hard to even know where to start to list all of the classics I love.

[Kassia]

3 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

 

• A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. This has been reread so many times.
•  

 

 

I love this one too and it has great sentimental value to me (it was my beloved aunt's favorite book and I took her copy after she died - the only thing I wanted).  I didn't read it until after she died and wish I had read it while she was still alive so we could talk about it.  I've read Betty Smith's other books too and enjoyed them.  

1 hour ago, WTM said:

I couldn't get through Wind in the Willows or Little Women. Wanted to love them, but couldn't even finish them...

I liked both of them but didn't read Wind in the Willows until fairly recently.

 

[JessinTX]

I have never successfully completed a full Charles Dickens book in it's full length unabridged version. Stories are good. Love many of the stories. The overly verbose, overly flowery writing style just bored me to tears every time. Can't do it. [Ducking now].

[Zoo Keeper]

3 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

I used to put on fairy tales as audiobooks then shout at them because princesses who murder peasants are not good, no matter how pretty and blonde they are.

I felt this was an important life lesson for dd.

It is also important to know you can argue with books.

 

My first advice to dd on dating was when she was three, watching Jane Austen. "No Mr Wickhams!" This graduated to "No Mr Compeysons!" when we were watching 'Great Expectations.' Bad characters can be useful.

Rosie can come to my house and do lit with my kids.  I'll pay the airfare.  😉

[AnneGG]

Children:

I adore the Frog and Toad series. 
The Boxcar Children, The Railway Children, The Trolley Car Family, Mr. Apple’s Family,  Baby Island, and All of a Kind Family.  Mr.Popper’s Penguins, Charlotte’s Web, The chocolate touch, and The Year of Ms. Agnes. The Secret Garden, Heidi,  A little princess. (Some of these are problematic, and I edit or we discuss.) 
 

I don’t care for the Magic Treehouse series. I did not like Adventures with Waffles, and I know I’m in the minority on that one!  The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane was definitely not to my taste. I’m not a big Little House fan as an adult, maybe I burnt out on it as a kid. I have a love/hate relationship with The Bernstein Bears. Some of them are great, and some…. Eeek. 

Edited September 3, 2022 by AnneGG

[Rosie_0801]

1 hour ago, JessinTX said:

I have never successfully completed a full Charles Dickens book in it's full length unabridged version. Stories are good. Love many of the stories. The overly verbose, overly flowery writing style just bored me to tears every time. Can't do it. [Ducking now].

I put them on when I'm trying to sleep.
Currently my Dickens count is beating dd's, and she actually likes him. 😄

[goldenecho]

ADORE...
Treasures of the Snow (Patricia St. John)
A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
Little House on the Prarie
Lord of the Rings
Bambi's Children (Bambi was not bad...but Bambi's Children I loved)
The Ordinary Princess
Huck Finn
Fahrenheit 451
To Kill a Mockingbird
Shakespeare (everything I've read)




NOT A FAN OF
Tom Sawyer (it's ok, but I didn't love it)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (so much vocabulary, and the story is too slow building)
The Yearling (meh...and one more book where the main character had to kill a pet)


HATED
Great Expectations
Johnny Tremain (did not enjoy it at all in middle school...so dull)
The Pearl by Steinbeck

Edited September 4, 2022 by goldenecho

[goldenecho]

5 hours ago, Rosie_0801 said:

I used to put on fairy tales as audiobooks then shout at them because princesses who murder peasants are not good, no matter how pretty and blonde they are.

I felt this was an important life lesson for dd.

It is also important to know you can argue with books.

 

My first advice to dd on dating was when she was three, watching Jane Austen. "No Mr Wickhams!" This graduated to "No Mr Compeysons!" when we were watching 'Great Expectations.' Bad characters can be useful.

I think you would love "The Ordinary Princess."  

She has 7 beautiful blond very typical princess sisters.  A grumpy but kind fairy gives her the gift of being ordinary.  

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by goldenecho

[Lillyfee]

I habe "The Ordinary Princess" at home. That will be the next book I am going to read to my younger girls now .

I did not have much English based literature but I really enjoyed Lassie (is that a classic?) and Black Beauty but I am also such an animal lover.

[Ellie]

12 minutes ago, Lillyfee said:

I did not have much English based literature but I really enjoyed Lassie (is that a classic?) and Black Beauty but I am also such an animal lover.

Yes, "Lassie Come-Home" is a classic. So is "Black Beauty." Well, *I* think they are classics, anyway. 🙂

[Ellie]

15 hours ago, WTM said:

I couldn't get through Wind in the Willows or Little Women. Wanted to love them, but couldn't even finish them...

I enjoy Little Women (the sequels not so much), but I couldn't get through Wind in the Willows, not even for the sake of Disney's "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride."

[EKS]

18 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I don’t mind lighter versions which capture the magic of the original story while editing out some of the problematic parts of old literature. 

I used the problematic parts as a springboard for conversation.  I also read all of the words in their entirety, if you know what I mean.  I think it's important for kids to see how people's attitudes and behaviors have changed.  When you see how things have changed on this front, it helps you understand that further change is indeed necessary and possible.

[Jean in Newcastle]

56 minutes ago, EKS said:

I used the problematic parts as a springboard for conversation.  I also read all of the words in their entirety, if you know what I mean.  I think it's important for kids to see how people's attitudes and behaviors have changed.  When you see how things have changed on this front, it helps you understand that further change is indeed necessary and possible.

If you keep reading in the thread you will see that I did that as well. But it was age dependent. A lot of the lighter versions are meant for young children. 

[GoodnightMoogle]

4 hours ago, Ellie said:

Yes, "Lassie Come-Home" is a classic. So is "Black Beauty." Well, *I* think they are classics, anyway. 🙂

This might scare some literature purists, but the abridged, Costco version of Black Beauty is the first book I ever read as a child that made me cry 😂

[Ting Tang]

21 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

I didn't mind stopping the Little House In The Big Woods to discuss with ds how the characters saw Native Americans. It is a little different than how a writer portrays other people. A young child can understand how a character can not be completely good or bad. They make mistakes, and they can be wrong. They have a harder time separating out how an author can present material as fact (or fact in their story/world) and have the author be wrong.

There are some books that make it into our history-in-history studies in middle school, where we examine author bias and how it colors their word decisions.  Cheaper By The Dozen fits in well here: read first to appreciate the story of the Gilbreths and their achievements, examined to understand how the limited contact this family had with other cultures colored how they saw people.

 

That is a good point.  Pa also sang a song, and it took me a moment to figure out he was referring to a Black person.  I am surprised I didn't remember reading that as a child!  I do wonder if these books get read aloud in regular classrooms anymore?  But back then, the perspective was really different.  

 

[HomeAgain]

3 minutes ago, Ting Tang said:

That is a good point.  Pa also sang a song, and it took me a moment to figure out he was referring to a Black person.  I am surprised I didn't remember reading that as a child!  I do wonder if these books get read aloud in regular classrooms anymore?  But back then, the perspective was really different.  

 

Oh, you're right!  I remember the minstrel song from Little Town on the Prairie or The Long Winter, and it put me a bit off, too.

I think one good thing is that we have a much wider variety of books to encompass the same time period now.  When Laura wrote, the options for historical novels for children were more limited.  Now we have a wide variety.   I'd rather read Skitterbrain to my kids, which doesn't deal with racism at all but does deal with the hardships of living on the prairie, or something like The Great Brain, which is set slightly later but also acknowledges the forms of racism and makes the characters (and audience) come to term with their own inaction.

I would imagine Little House is still read in some schools, but I don't see a lot of teachers reading novels to their kids.  My own school never read that particular book to us, nor was it in our readers.  We were told stories of fantasy and lighthearted historical, before reading our own books by 4th or 5th grade.  I'm not sure if that was because they knew the children all came from unstable backgrounds or if it was simply personal choice for the teachers: whatever they could finish a chapter of in 10 minutes or less.

[Eilonwy]

I have also taken the opportunity to read some classics I hadn’t read when I was a kid, as well as ones I loved.  I really enjoyed the Narnia books, and Wind in the Wilows (but not too young, the vocabulary & sentence structure are not simple), and my kids found Pinocchio really memorable (I found it odd, not what I expected).  Fog Magic and Black Beauty were favourites. 
I skipped Mary Poppins and Dr. Doolittle due to reports of racism.
I love the Little House books, but I either edit or discuss (started out mostly editing and now I mostly discuss), and I read the Birchbark House books along with them for an Indigenous point of view of the same region and time period. 
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is not half as good as Anne of Green Gables in my opinion and I didn’t enjoy R of SF much, but we did have lots of discussions comparing the two books and characters. 
My other classic that really didn’t work was Oliver Twist- not a book for children or tweens.  I take Ambleside recommendations with at least a grain of salt.  

Edited September 3, 2022 by Eilonwy

[Lillyfee]

Little House in the Prairie loves every homeschool mom I know. The booklist of my curriculum recommended it. We also live in Kansas right now and I was so excited to get this beautiful hardcover book with some illustrations.  It looked beautifully.

Then we started reading and we just could not get into it. For us were the chapters that explained exactly how the house or the hearth was made boring.

I did not like how they talked about the Indians especially the mom and the neighbor (even though I understand it was not racism at that time and that's just how it was) and then always "Pa took his gun" and the thought of feeling safe because a gun is in the house just felt weird to me coming from Europe . I told my husband more than once "This is a book you should read to the kids because you are from Texas."  Also that the kids were almost annoyingly well behaved did not impress my kids too much 

I understand that it has valuhato many people and that it shows the life in this time period and I can see why people like it but it's not our thing unfortunately. I really believe this is just an American classic though.  I never heard from it back home and most classics you mention we have too.

I read a short version of Black Beauty to my kids and they loved that book. 

I love all your suggestions by the way. I am already making a list right with books I need.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I think that it’s a rare person who reads every single “classic “ out there. For one thing, what makes something a classic is somewhat subjective. But also when it comes to school, we had to selectively choose because there is only so much time in the school day and especially once you get to the upper grades, you do more than just read a book through. At least we did.  My kids didn’t even read all the same books because they had different interests and personalities and abilities. 

[GoodnightMoogle]

I’m trying to pinpoint those almost universally beloved classic children’s books. The ones that stand no matter the time period. The one that different types of mothers and children can sit down and read together and really enjoy. That’s going to be different for different families, but I do believe there are some books out there that really are just that good for almost everyone.

Based on this thread at least, clearly The Wind in the Willows is not one of those books! But Narnia seems to be decently beloved, and we are three for three on Black Beauty so far. I’ll have to add “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” to my list. 
 

Oh, and I guess my unpopular personal opinion is that I love the Lord of the Rings movies but found the books a slog. I enjoyed The Hobbit but could leave the rest of the series. Had to force myself to read it. Yet that series is obviously on many lists.

I also remember not caring for Little House on the Prairie as a kid. The scene that stuck with me was the creepy way the dad was digging into a watermelon almost angrily while the kids and mom all watched in fear that they were gonna get some kind of disease (malaria? Maybe?) I always found the dad kind of scary. 

Edited September 4, 2022 by GoodnightMoogle

[Jean in Newcastle]

I wonder what makes some people love some books and hate others?  I love (or at least like) Dickens but many on this thread don’t. I love Moby Dick (but have no problem skipping over the long drawn out descriptions of how to tie rope etc). I love the Little House books. I didn’t like Wind in The Willows but my son howled with laughter when I read it aloud to him.  
 

I relate to different things in different books. I related to the self sufficiency of the Ingalls family and their close family ties. (Though I did wonder how Ma put up with Pa’s wanderlust.). I related to the obsession of Captain Ahab. (Maybe not so much personally but I could certainly see how it drove his quest to get the great white whale.). I relate to the desire that Dickens had to give people empathy for the poor and downtrodden.   I don’t really relate to the madcap abandon with which Mr Toad lives his life but obviously my 8 year old son found it relatable. And I chose to read it aloud because so many people do relate to it in some way.
 

  To me, a classic is more than a nice book. It speaks to the human condition in some way. Sometimes it can speak to it in an uncomfortable way. This is why I consider To Kill a Mockingbird a classic despite it’s uncomfortable subjects of rape and racial discrimination and false accusations.  Obviously we didn’t tackle most of the more uncomfortable classics until high school. 

[bookbard]

I don't really get the deep love of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", maybe it's an American thing? It was kind of interesting but nothing super special. Definitely not a book for kids, with the sexual assault etc.

I am definitely a fan of Wind in the Willow, but it is sexist I agree. My boy loves Mr Toad though. 

Loved Sarah Plain and Tall, but it's not really a kids book in some ways. I read most of that author's work as an adult and loved it but the kids weren't fans.

I think Charlotte's Web is a book of great literary merit - re-reading it as an adult is an incredible experience. The kids liked that one too (movies were awful though).

I like the Hobbit, but Lord of the Rings is a hard one. Love the films, though!

 

 

[HomeAgain]

4 hours ago, bookbard said:

I don't really get the deep love of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", maybe it's an American thing? It was kind of interesting but nothing super special. Definitely not a book for kids, with the sexual assault etc.

 

 

 

It's not a book for children.  Maybe 7th and up, imo, around the same time kids are tackling other hard issues in books AND they can relate to the age of the characters in the book.

I feel like Betty Smith was kind of like Dickens.  She took you into the world of the tenements and immigrant families, didn't sugar coat it, and wove in this story of a family that did the best they could with what they had.  They struggled, they failed, they had success, but there wasn't a real happy ending.  And, many of us who grew up without a lot of family income could relate to the feeling of 'excess' in small joys, like the weekly trip to the penny shop or having a cup of coffee and condensed milk that was yours, no matter what you chose to do with it.  In my family, they were paralleled by trips to cash in soda cans and hitting up the liquor store after for the penny candies and abundance in our grown garden or mulberry trees. 

The book just felt real.  It got rave reviews from those who grew up in similar conditions when it came out and it and continues to be a snapshot of American history. 

[Lillyfee]

Oh, I forgot that I read The Chronicles of Narnia with my son and he enjoyed it.

Also all my kids like Harry Potter but some homeschoolers told me that they don't like these books because of Harry's behavior and the dark magic. I don't have any problem with that though.

I have a beautiful edition of The Hobbit and started reading it but then we left for Europe for the summer and it's was too big and heavy to take. I need to pick that one up again.

[Eilonwy]

For books for younger kids (I forget, @GoodnightMoogle, whether you have very small kids or no kids at the moment), Beatrix Potter stories, Winnie the Pooh are wonderful, and a bit older, Pippi Longstocking and The Moomins are also favourites here.  Pippi needs some editing/discussion too, but really fun. 

[Terabith]

On 9/2/2022 at 6:49 PM, Jean in Newcastle said:

Here is a NY Times article on Dr Doolittle. It doesn’t shy away from the racism of the original work but it does talk about the newer versions that sought to fix those issues. And it talks about what was good in the books. If I were still homeschooling my now adult kids we would read this article together and would discuss it. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/books/review/doctor-dolittle-hugh-lofting-talking-animals.html

My kids absolutely LOVED the Dr. Doolittle books, but I read them to them before they were old enough to read them themselves, and I did a LOT of editing on the fly.  I cannot imagine handing them to a child to read on their own.  But the stories were charming enough that it seemed worthwhile to do so.  

[knitgrl]

I did not like Pippi Longstocking. She came off to me as manipulative. 

[knitgrl]

16 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I wonder what makes some people love some books and hate others?  I love (or at least like) Dickens but many on this thread don’t. I love Moby Dick (but have no problem skipping over the long drawn out descriptions of how to tie rope etc). I love the Little House books. I didn’t like Wind in The Willows but my son howled with laughter when I read it aloud to him. 

I adored Wind in the Willows. It is hilarious when the undercover policemen are chasing Toad. But alas, none of my kids can stand it.

[bookbard]

12 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

The book just felt real.  It got rave reviews from those who grew up in similar conditions when it came out and it and continues to be a snapshot of American history. 

 

Yes, I wondered if it was one of those books people related to in that way, recognising both places and situations. I think an Australian equivalent might be The Harp in the South   by Ruth Park (set in the 30s) which is again not a kids book, I read it as an older teen, but is set firmly in Sydney and is just a brilliant depiction of poverty and family (and also sexual assault, if I remember rightly). Some people feel like that about Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, which is set in Perth (opposite side to the country to Sydney). I personally felt like Cloudstreet was a poor rip-off of The Harp in the South, but then I'm not from Perth!

[HomeAgain]

4 minutes ago, bookbard said:

 

Yes, I wondered if it was one of those books people related to in that way, recognising both places and situations. I think an Australian equivalent might be The Harp in the South   by Ruth Park (set in the 30s) which is again not a kids book, I read it as an older teen, but is set firmly in Sydney and is just a brilliant depiction of poverty and family (and also sexual assault, if I remember rightly). Some people feel like that about Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, which is set in Perth (opposite side to the country to Sydney). I personally felt like Cloudstreet was a poor rip-off of The Harp in the South, but then I'm not from Perth!

Thank you for the recommendation! I don't know of many books set in Australia, so I'll have to see if I can get my hands on The Harp In The South. 

---------------------

 

I was just reminded of a classic children's book I abhore: Roller Skates.  Also set in NY, it moseys along with a girl in the care of her parent's friends.  She meets an exotic woman who is a victim of abuse and then is murdered (or kills herself, I forget which), and then the story goes right back to plodding along.  It's so strange and unsettling.

[shawthorne44]

On 9/2/2022 at 4:20 PM, HomeAgain said:

Moby Dick.  The Victor-Hugo-esque segues are what take this from a fabulous story to a drudgery

 

It is a fabulous story if you buy into my theory based on zero facts.   
A whaling manual and Moby Dick were being published at the same time.   They were both called "The Whale."  The publisher accidentally spliced the books together and he was a friend so nothing was said.    

Because of this theory you can happily skip the Whaling Manual which is conveniently located in its own chapters.   The book then becomes an exciting page-turner.  
 

[LMD]

On 9/3/2022 at 2:09 PM, goldenecho said:

ADORE...
Treasures of the Snow (Patricia St. John)
A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
Little House on the Prarie
Lord of the Rings
Bambi's Children (Bambi was not bad...but Bambi's Children I loved)
The Ordinary Princess
Huck Finn
Fahrenheit 451
To Kill a Mockingbird
Shakespeare (everything I've read)




NOT A FAN OF
Tom Sawyer (it's ok, but I didn't love it)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (so much vocabulary, and the story is too slow building)
The Yearling (meh...and one more book where the main character had to kill a pet)


HATED
Great Expectations
Johnny Tremain (did not enjoy it at all in middle school...so dull)
The Pearl by Steinbeck

Oh man, we LOVED johnny tremain. Rab! *sobs*

[LMD]

Some of our favourite kids classics:

Swallows and Amazons

What Katy Did

The Saturdays

Narnia (of course!)

Rascal

21 Balloons 

Princess and the Goblin

My side of the mountain 

 

[Momto6inIN]

We laugh and laugh reading Just So Stories, it's one of our favorites! Charlotte's Web and The Trumpet of the Swan, The Hobbit, Harry Potter (not a classic but ...), and Narnia are all ones we've read aloud over and over and all loved. My girls love love love the Little House books, but I think they're boring. Where the Red Fern Grows is a classic that I read aloud - while blubbering like an idiot of course 😉 

I love the *idea* of Swiss Family Robinson, but Father is way too preachy for me so we never finished that one.

For middle school all my kids, boys and girls alike, have liked Across Five Aprils, The Yearling, The Outsiders, and The Giver. Mixed reviews for Johnny Tremain and The Call of the Wild - some of them like them and others don't.

I don't read it aloud because it's too hard for me to pronounce all the names and places and such, but we all have also loved The Lord of the Rings once they can read it themselves.

Other big hits for high school that all of my kids have enjoyed: The Odyssey, My Antonia, Til We Have Faces, To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Jane Austen is beloved by one of my daughters, but I can't stand her. She's so annoying 😜

[Elizabeth86]

On 9/8/2022 at 2:01 PM, Momto6inIN said:

We laugh and laugh reading Just So Stories, it's one of our favorites! Charlotte's Web and The Trumpet of the Swan, The Hobbit, Harry Potter (not a classic but ...), and Narnia are all ones we've read aloud over and over and all loved. My girls love love love the Little House books, but I think they're boring. Where the Red Fern Grows is a classic that I read aloud - while blubbering like an idiot of course 😉 

I love the *idea* of Swiss Family Robinson, but Father is way too preachy for me so we never finished that one.

For middle school all my kids, boys and girls alike, have liked Across Five Aprils, The Yearling, The Outsiders, and The Giver. Mixed reviews for Johnny Tremain and The Call of the Wild - some of them like them and others don't.

I don't read it aloud because it's too hard for me to pronounce all the names and places and such, but we all have also loved The Lord of the Rings once they can read it themselves.

Other big hits for high school that all of my kids have enjoyed: The Odyssey, My Antonia, Til We Have Faces, To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Jane Austen is beloved by one of my daughters, but I can't stand her. She's so annoying 😜

I wanted to love Swiss Family Robinson too, but checked out  when he was drowning puppies. I just couldn’t read that too my kids. Ugh.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Elizabeth86

[Elizabeth86]

On 9/6/2022 at 6:30 PM, LMD said:

Oh man, we LOVED johnny tremain. Rab! *sobs*

We did too. I feel so disappointed my school and parents never encouraged such good books. History might have been tolerable.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Elizabeth86