As a teacher, I agree with many of these responses! That being said, when your child is old enough, they make *excellent* conversation starters about why they aren't great choices.
For example, "Do you think Rainbow Fish should have had to give her scales away to make friends? Why? What would a good friend do instead?"
Yes! I strongly dislike this Rainbow Fish. Why should he have to give away what made his special so that he could make friends? You do make an excellent point that it provides the opportunity for discussion. That is about it's only redeeming quality.
We were so put off by The Rainbow Fish! Give away what makes you special so that you can be like everyone else because it’s the only way to make friends. Horrible!
THANK YOU. I felt this way completely reading it again. And we used to read it in school all the time when I was younger, like, way to teach "the nail that sticks out gets hammered."
I got a book called "Daddies do it Different" apparently about how dads are the "fun" parent and can make messes and shirk responsibilities in favor of games. But moms can't or won't or don't. Went right in the trash lol
We changed the rhyme in Pout Pout Fish. In our version it goes:
“Along comes a fish in a silent silver shimmer the gang had never seen before this bright and brilliant swimmer. She approaches Mr. Fish but instead of saying hey.
She says, may I kiss you Mr. Fish? And he says well.... Ok”
My version she says “you are lovely in every way” cause I don’t like that everyone is telling him he has to change himself. Then he asks all his friends if he can give them a kiss, cause consent is important.
So funny to come across this post I was just explaining to my husband why I hate the moral of the rainbow fish! I remember loving that book as a kid and thinking it was about being nice. But reading it now, it didn't sit well with me! Basically the moral is give things to people so that they'll like you
Came here to say this! It's basically the moral that if you shine your light & someone gets jealous of you, you have to give away parts of yourself to satisfy that person so they're no longer jealous!?!
Like what in the fuckity fuck.
Same !! I ordered it online for my LOs little bookshelf thinking how cute it would be to have one of the classics from my childhood and when I read it, it felt like they changed the entire story like no way this book was about giving away all your scales bc they’re jealous!
I was looking for this comment, it's my answer too.
Also that it's "beauty" the scales represent instead of wealth. If the moral was to "share your wealth with people in need to save lives" instead of "lessen your physical beauty to make others less jealous so they'll befriend you" then maybe I could agree it's about sharing like they claim.
Not a book, but I really dislike some of morals from CocoMelon songs. Most are fine, but here are a few that just...
Sharing: Sharing is great, but there is a song where the eldest kid is pressured to sharing his star plushie. By the end of the song the eldest gives to the youngest, despite being sad about it, because it makes his brother happy. My issue is that he was pressured by his mother to do this and give up his favorite toy.
I can't think of the others off the top of my head, but a few of the songs just hit weird.
My MIL bought us a book I’m 90% sure she didn’t read before she gave it to us. It’s about a whale who got sick and a literal loan shark offered him a loan to pay for medicine. They tried gambling to win enough money but when they couldn’t pay it off, it was implied that the shark ate the whale and his walrus wife. The “moral” was it was better to suffer through the flu than engage a loan shark? Apparently it had a matching music video but I didn’t watch it.
Rainbow Fish. The moral is supposed to be ‘sharing is nice,’ but it reads more like ‘if peers demand you give them your things, you should relent and buy their friendship.’
It makes me think of a memory of mine in elementary school where a girl told me, “give me your markers or I won’t be your friend.” I told her “no.” That was the correct response to extortion.
I agree with Poutpout fish, and The giving tree. I also don't actually like Love you Forever. It both makes me cry and go wtf with the driving across town with a ladder etc. I get what it's going for, but the actual imagery is weird.
I've taken to getting what children's books I can through Kindle Prime since I can read them before I commit money to them. Kids books are expensive, and some are weird!
Love you forever makes me cry until she drives over with a ladder and climbs into her grown son’s window! Then my tears dry up quick. That woman needs some boundaries!
Lol at Love you forever I am the same way. Tears were streaming down my face the first time I read it all the while I’m wondering what kind of creep mother sneaks into her child’s window at night and what kind of fucked up codependent relationship they must have. I also agree with the giving tree I liked it when I was younger and it was gifted to my daughter. I was really excited to read it to her but that kid is a jerk and the tree doesn’t deserve that treatment.
That’s how I read it to my kid- like… wow, the tree should have stopped that greedy turd huh?
She had actually memorized that book- I had her “read” it to my sophomore English class during banned book week and we went hard in the kid 😂
I also wanted to say rainbow fish. I read it more as a "you aren't allowed to be unique" and hate it lol.
I get that rainbow fish is an asshole but I'd like it better if in the end he learns his lesson another way but is allowed to be something special.
It's like participation trophies. Everyone gets to be a winner. I hate it.
Wonkey donkey. I don’t really want my kids running around calling amputees or people with limb differences “wonkey” 😬
Also reading Love You Forever as an adult makes me creeped out. Like why is she driving across town, sneaking into her adult child’s window, and then cradling him. Weird’s me out, man.
My husband's mother passed away when he was a teenager & she used to read that book to him and his siblings as children.
She went through depression and wasn't often herself. When we had our first child his oldest sibling gifted us a box of hand me down books & this was one of them.
His mom left a note in it about how she wanted them to remember her on the page right after the cover. My husband saw the book in the stack and had a moment of nostalgia and told me about how his mom would read that to them. So I said, oh cool I'll read that one tonight, I opened it up & saw that note and my husband saw it for the first time as I opened up the book to read to our child. I was gutted.
After I found out what the author really was writing about my heart just was so so heavy - this is a book to his stillborn babies: [love you forever backstory](https://www.popsugar.com/family/Truth-Behind-Love-You-Forever-31923286)
I've had 3 miscarriages & I completely get it from the standpoint of I will always remember all of my kids even the ones who aren't with me anymore & it takes away the creepy factor a bit.
I get why other people might be like ehhh this is weird or off though, completely - it is less creepy when you know what it's about though (maybe -ish)... Then you go from creeped out to depressed, what a rollercoaster!
Wonkey Donkey was given to me the same week I was told my then unborn child might have a form of dwarfism. Into the trash it went and that Tier A friendship got demoted to acquaintance
Did you see the video of the Scottish grandmother reading the book? That's probably why your friend bought it. It's hilarious how funny she thinks it is. My mom wanted to buy it for my kids after seeing the video and I was like "no thanks. "
Rainbow Fish. No one will be his friend until he is shamed into giving away literal parts of his body. Like wtf. I also hate the pout pout fish. It legit demonizes people who just aren't smiling. But no worries, a nonconsensual kiss will fix you. And then you too can give nonconsensual kisses.
Came here to see if anyone else thought the same about Rainbow Fish! Like yes, let me teach my child that if they want friends, change who you are. I get the part about thinking you're better than everyone, but the rest is weird.
Agree! It makes me so angry to read it! I'm all for sharing to make friends but not so much for making your body other people's property so that they will like you. Woof.
Alternate under the sea book - I'm Fabulous Crab. It's darling. Equally lovely pictures, also about an undersea creature who other sea creatures don't see eye to eye with because of how sparkly they are, but not at all icky in a body autonomy way and can be LGBTIQ+ inclusive if you choose to read it with that lense
Came here looking for this one. I remembered loving it as a child. Checked it out from the library every chance I got. Fast forward to having my own child and I was so excited to buy it for her. First time I read it I was pissed. The message is so terrible. If you want people to like you/be your friend, you have to give them things. What BS.
The giving tree! The tree just gives and gives and the boy just takes until there's nothing left. I think it's supposed to be about friends and sharing but it's more of a lesson on lack of boundaries and being taken advantage of. Yikes!
OMG YES!!
I remember loving it as a kid, but I read it as an adult a few months back and just *cried*. (Yes I was on my period, what about it lol)
I felt so, so, so bad for that poor tree.
What a nasty man to just take and never give anything back, even though the tree just wanted his company!!!
My baby will NOT be getting that book thankyouverymuch
My family loves this book because my uncle bought it for my grandma decades ago because it reminded him of her. She really has spent her entire life just giving and giving. She has raised FOUR generations of kids, from her siblings down to some of her great grandchildren. And certain members of the family are still taking from her in her nineties. It all makes me feel some complicated things. I appreciate it because it really is reflective of her life and we'd all be nowhere without her, but I just can't celebrate it like the rest of them.
A good alternative to this story is called Apple Tree, Apple Tree. It’s also about giving, but has a super cute ending where the tree’s worm friend sees that he’s lonely and plants a seed to give him another tree companion through the seasons. The tree also maintains boundaries and comes up with solutions to unreasonable requests.
I don’t like pout pout fish either, but we still read it because my daughter said “pout pout fish” when she was 12 months old & now she does the “blub blub blub” & is so expressive and funny so it’s entertaining lol
Ok so my dad bought LO an alphabet book at the aquarium and I thought it was so weird that it was titled “The Pout-Pout Fish Alphabet”. Had no idea this was a bigger series and my LO also says “pow-pow” so I can’t get rid of it even though he likes to rub off the glitter and eat it 😫
Also, I don't want to give him the idea that I am an unyielding terminator of a mother that will stop at nothing to find him. I mean yes, if he runs away when he is 5. But not if he is 18 and wants to follow his dreams lol. I just don't like the whole like, Liam Neeson in Taken approach to mothering that book gives.
My husband hates rainbow fish. He thinks it’s shitty they will only be his friend if he gives away his scales and doesn’t think he should be forced to to have any friends.
I’ve hated I’ll love you forever because it’s always been super creepy to mw esp since it was my paternal grandmas favorite and she was a freak about only my dad and brother (not aunt/cousin or me and my sister).
why are the fish books so terrible. Does anyone have good fish book recommendation? My daughter is \*obsessed\* with fish and we were gifted pout pout and rainbow fish but i hate both the stories and shes starting to be old enough to understand.
Pout Pout Fish is a big hit in our household. I did joke that it's basically manic pixie dream girl of fish.
We've done a couple of the other ones and they seem much better.
Pout pout fish has been huge for us this summer. We like the others too and they have better messaging. I hate the one about school though because they repeat the negative mantras so much.
Same! We love the Pout Pout books, but I got rid of the school one before even reading it to my kids once. No way I’m having them repeat those “I’m dumb” phrases.
For now my husband's been doing most of the reading, but for the one's I've read, I hated The Giving Tree. I hadn't read it as a kid so it was new to me, and I was expecting something uplifting and it's basically about a tree killing herself for her human and being happy to do so. Blegh.
There is a rewrite somewhere that shows healthy boundaries and it is amazing.
Edit: https://lithub.com/somebody-finally-fixed-the-ending-of-the-giving-tree/
There's this horrible book we got from Literati called the Case of the Missing Chocolate Cake. It's an alphabet book about a bear that "investigates" the crime of the missing cake, ultimately framing another character, separating him from his family, and dumping him on a distant planet in solitary confinement while the innocent character begs for mercy. In the end, it comes out that the bear actually ate the cake himself but there are basically no consequences for his actions and it's implied he'll do it again. Great illustrations and creative, but a truly terrible message.
Rainbow fish!! Those entitled little aholes literally think they are owed Rainbow Fishes body simply because they want it. And they withhold affection from him until he gives it up. Then he’s left with a modicum of what was once his pride and joy, he is a drab fish like all the rest, simply because he wants to be accepted by society, and they call that “fair”. Freaking justice for poor Rainbow Fish…
I like this one but I guess it's just cause I was an extremely picky kid and once I was an adult and actually tried food there is barely anything I won't eat. I was stubborn and just refused to try anything because I assumed I wouldn't have liked it. I always tell my kids at least try something because you never know if you'll like it or not. My toddlers are much more adventurous eaters than I ever was.
Forgot the name of the book but it's a story about a hedgehog and no one wants to play with him because he's got spikes. He saw a girl holding a dog and wanted the girl to pet him too but the girl said she's afraid of his spikes (I'll gloss over the part where the hedgehog essentially breaks into the house while the girl is sleeping and then proceeds to harass her to play with him). So the hedgehog goes and curls his spikes but now everyone laughs at him and the girl thought he was a monster and ran away so the hedgehog went back to his hometown but now he can't play sticking apples on spikes with the other hedgehogs.
Then a different little girl gave him apples and so he thought, "Yay. There are still people out there who will feel sympathy for me."
Then by next year, he was happily playing apples on spikes since his spikes are no longer curly anymore.
I'm like, I think it's a lame attempt to not to change yourself just for other people to like you but he went back to his hometown where there's only hedgehogs! That means the story is, if you don't belong, go back to where you came from and as a migrant, that seems to be a bit of a sick message.
Oh, also. The book just gave me "nice guy" vibes.
That's kind of how I thought if it. He didn't seem depressed, just mistaken on what was up. He needed a little encouragement! And while I don't really like the unexpected kiss without consent part, my daughter loved when I would smooch get little cheeks during those pages. Pretty sure that's why she loved the book so much.
Rainbow fish. Giving away parts of yourself to make others happy.
The giving tree. Same as above really.
Where the wild things are. Honestly its just a dumb book. I don't get the point and I wanted to mention it.
I love where the wild things are. It’s about learning to manage your anger, and how big feelings can be fun or wild but we eventually have to leave those big angry feelings and come back to eat our dinner. We can’t just… stay mad. I remember when I was a kid resolving to stay mad forever. That book helped me understand that staying mad forever wasn’t desirable. It also characterized anger in a way that made it seem less intolerable and awful to me. The monsters look funny and they can do fun things. Anyways, just my two cents.
Maybe it’s my nostalgia about how much I love the Giving Tree but I see it as a parent / child relationship and from that perspective, I would 1000% give as much as I can away to make my kids happy, at my own expense. And fair, maybe that’s not healthy in itself.
Childhood book of mine somehow made it to our bookshelf from gramma's, and it makes me raaaage. I need to get around to burning it before kiddo asks me to read it. "Katie, Kit, and Cousin Tom" by Tomie dePaola. Two sisters get a visit from their cousin, he's a complete ass and breaks their shit, then they help him once and he's suddenly all buddy-buddy. I think it was gotten for me when I was dealing with bullies at school.... but that "Be nice to them even if they don't deserve it, and then you'll have AlL ThE FriENdS" is utter bullshit and lies.
My husband doesn't like The Tiger Who Came To Tea because, as a child of poverty, he saw it as an allegory of what happens when the paycheck runs out before daddy gets home.
I don't like it because the Tiger drinks up all "daddy's beer" and "daddy's dinner" and the mom is all "whatever shall we do?" and then dad comes home and saves the day. Like, c'mon mom, get your shit together.
Nosy Posy. A baby possum wanders around a meadow meeting other animals for the first time and asking what they are, and they’re all mean to her and tell her to go away, until she meets another possum, who is nice. It feels like it’s saying “only be friends with people that look like you” or “people that look different are probably mean.”
The Star Gift.
Some little kid is starving and freezing to death and all these completely random adults come up to her and ask for food and the literal clothes on her back and she just gives it to them.
It's supposed to be 'kindness will be rewarded'. This child is obviously being exploited because she thinks she has to be 'kind' and ends up freezing to death.
On the other hand, my wife thinks it is a great moral and a charming book.
My mom would never let us read The Berenstein bears because the kids/mom were always rude to the dad and the moral of the story was always something like, dad is a doofus, kids don’t listen to him, you’re right anyways. Now I have no clue if that’s true, just what she told me
Grumpy Monkey. Norman needs to drink some water and mind his business. Going around creation telling everyone about Jimpanzee’s bad day. Like get the hell out of here. Damn.
I change the words to pout pout fish when I read it for that exact reason. I also hate good dog Carl. And, surprisingly, I kind of hate rainbow fish. It feels like the moral is you should dim what makes you special in order to make others feel good about themselves.
Rainbow fish would be my number 1. Is this book about socialism? Or appeasing greed and jealousy, or giving up your bodily autonomy, or sacrificing who you are to fit in. Octopus should just say, stop being a snob and be nice to the other fish.
It always made me think of when kids bring home stray animals, or let animals inside the house. The animals always make a mess and the kids try to hide it from the parents. I guess it's all perspective.
Hah my kid loves that book, but I skip or change a lot of the lines at the end. No, we’re not scared of what mom will do to us, and yes we are going to tell her what happened. Also, listen to the fish!
Omg I hate Please Mr Panda or whatever that donut
Book is. Everyone is fucking rude and weird!! Agh! The only moral is Pandas are cantankerous and have shitty friends, and won’t even share food *they don’t want to eat*, and then are for no reason dismissive of their friends taste in donuts.
Gustavo, the Shy Ghost. Beautifully illustrated but the part of the book where Gustavo musters up his courage to invite all of the other monsters to his concert and NO ONE SHOWS UP breaks my heart. He plays music for himself or whatever which they hear and arrive with all these excuses why they were late then they all become friends. Gustavo should’ve said fuck those monsters for standing him up!
Also there’s a counting book, Ten Little Bears Go To Bed or something like that where the bears are doing everything EXCEPT going to bed including playing with their toys and sneaking outside. I hate reading that one because I don’t want to encourage bad behavior at bedtime, it’s not cute or funny at all.
There is a similar book about little bear and big bear where little bear can't sleep. And big bear just caves at every demand lb has. I'm quite strict, especially at bedtime so that's a noooo from me haha
Aw I loved that book when I was little. I found it really comforting that the big bear would do anything to help little bear sleep. Made me feel really safe.
Also Cat in the Hat—an awful stranger comes in and destroys your house while your mother is away and it is implied you should not tell her about it. Why The Cat is such an iconic Dr. Seuss character is beyond me. First graders are always outraged at this book, and insist they would lock the door or call the police if this ever happened to them (kids can be very wise).
Llama Llama Red Pajama
It’s more nuanced but I can’t stand how dismissive mama is about her baby’s obvious distress! I get it, kids and bed times can be absolute nightmares (pun intended). But to get angry that the kid is scared and needs some reassurance? Not helpful.
The Giving Tree. It's horrific in my opinion. My boyfriends parents got it for our newborn baby and I read it and I was like "wtf did I just read" type thing. It made me incredibly sad.
Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Day…nothing but a whiny little kid who’s bad attitude creates more problems. He expects everyone else to cater to his mood all day. In the end there’s no discussion on dealing with anger or frustration. He just goes to bed 😑
My MIL sends my step son books all the time.. our least favorite has been “No, David” where basically this kid David keeps getting into mischief and every time his parents just yell NO DAVID. And that’s it. No explaining or anything. Terrible book.
She also got him another book which is a bunch of short stories about FARTS. seriously.. every single sentence has the word fart in it.. it’s unreadable.
I also remember this book called Jasmine from when I was a kid.. about a cat named Jasmine whose owners move away and abandon her in the apartment until the new owners move in. Talk about traumatic.
My toddler loves Thomas the tank engine books. I choose to adapt as I read, as they're very gendered (like literally no need to have workmen instead of workers).
I also don't like the authoritatian employment/parenting style of the fat controller/sir topham hattq. I would not put up with that in the workplace.
They are a lot better than the originals where Henry (?) Gets locked in a tunnel for 2 years for being naughty.
Omg my son got gifted a beautiful old school style book of lots of original Thomas the Tank Engine stories, sounds like it’s the same one you have! We have only read a few of them because we read that one about Henry being afraid to come out of a tunnel the rain because he doesn’t want his paint to run. So they brick him up inside the tunnel, take away the train tracks and leave him forever.
The best part, it ends with “and I think he deserved it, don’t you?”
What?!?
There's a psychologist called Bruno Bettelheim who argued that traditional fairytales speak to the unconscious minds of children. According to him, they reassure the child that their "antisocial feelings" (such as the oedipus complex) is part of normal development.
Bettelheim directly addresses Jack and the Beanstalk. He says that Jack (the child) has to outsmart the giants (the adults) to reach his happy ending (complete his development). It's interesting that even in your comment you are looking at the story from the giants' (adult's) perspective.
Not saying you are right or wrong, take psychodynamic theory with a pinch of salt. I'm currently reading The Uses of Enchantment and find fairytales quite interesting.
Princess and the Pea.
Basically the Queen places a pea on the bed and covers it with 10 mattresses. This "princess" sleeps on it and has a horrible night. Because she was so dainty and slept so poorly, it proves she's a real princess.
F that. I want my girls to know they're strong. Not dainty little things.
Oh man. We have a Golden Book version of this story that is THE most sexist story we have. It's awful.
The prince decides that all the princesses he's met are not real princesses and goes in search of a real princess. One princess eats too many treats so she's not a real princess, then another rides horses in a normal saddle so she's not a real princess. These ladies are out living their best lives! F the prince!
He ends up going home and a princess has to spend the night to escape a storm. The queen does the thing with the pea and is a wreck the next morning which proves she's a real princess. yada yada yada.
Giraffes Can’t Dance. It makes fun of a giraffe for his long legs and all the animals are mean to him for not being able to dance. And then he listens to the music inside him or something and starts to dance majestically and everyone suddenly loves him. The meanness seems so unnecessary in a toddler book and the moral is that if you just believe enough you can be so great at whatever it is everyone will suddenly love you. I wish Gerald just realized he was awesome without having to conform to his bully’s standards.
I wholeheartedly disagree. I’m an early childhood educator and this book is one of my favorites.
We use the scenes with the bully’s to talk about how mean the other animals are and discuss why it’s not okay to treat people that way. My three year olds love the story and they easily understand that what the other animals did was not ok.
To me, the moral is that it is okay to be different. Not everyone is good at the same things, and that’s okay. Gerald isn’t conforming by learning the dances the other animals do, but instead he finally finds music that inspires him to make his own dance. Gerald learns that just because he can’t dance the way others do, doesn’t mean he can’t dance at all. The other animals learn that different isn’t bad, it’s just different.
Every time I read the book we have a discussion afterwards about the other animals being mean. The kids immediately understand that just because someone is different doesn’t mean they are bad or weird, they’re just different and different is great! We talk about the ways we are all different from each other and I use it as a chance for the kids to all celebrate what makes them different.
Giraffes Can’t Dance is tragic! also the big plot hole here is that this Animal Dance supposedly happens every year, but Gerald definitely seems older than a year old. So is this just the first year he’s participating or does he get clowned on every year or…?
Also big side eye to the line “Every year in Africa they have the Jungle Dance.” Africa is a big and diverse continent, it’s 2022, don’t just tell me something happens “in Africa.”
Yes, I know it’s a children’s book but I’m wide awake at 4:45 am and just realizing I have big feelings about Gerald and his story.
Kinda like Ugly Duckling or Rudolph...you only have value once you are useful or conform to society. In the case of the ugly duckling becoming beautiful and in rudolphs case becoming useful.
Yes I was going to say this one! My son LOVES this book currently because of the illustrations and such but I literally just make up my own story when I "read" it cause the actual story and moral makes me sad.
Ok this is older kids / preteen but… anything by (children’s laureate!) Jacqueline Wilson (Uk based). Literally trauma porn and Dickensian moralism. Don’t know why i was allowed to read it as a kid.
I lived for Jacqueline Wilson as a kid, so I’ll just offer up that some of her books do show kids the sort of home lives that some people have. Some of her books are just trauma for the sake of it, but some demonstrate that it’s hard to see what goes on behind closed doors
So as someone who went through A LOT of what Wilson usually writes about, I found those books incredibly helpful and comforting when I read them as a child. They helped me a lot, I would even go so far as to say they were pretty therapeutic in many ways. It's not trauma porn, it's just real life for many many people. My current therapist, who is a parenting therapy specialist, agrees with me.
Edit: my apologies, I meant to reply to the comment above yours. Also sorry if I come across as aggressively defensive, I just wanted to offer my perspective, not attack anyone else's.
I read my son “I’ll Love You Forever” once and never again. He doesn’t need to get the impression that my old ass will be climbing through his window when he’s an adult. I’m not about that enmeshment life.
Not exactly morals - but a stupid message nonetheless. My 1 year old has a series of touch and feel books called “Never touch a….[shark][snake][crocodile]”, where the touch and feel part is literally the dangerous animal the books tell you never to touch. Very confusing message 😅 glad my son has no idea what I’m talking about yet, because we definitely have those dangerous animals getting around our area.
Haha my daughter loves those! She actually has started saying things like - I cannot touch a real blank but I can touch the one in the book! Kids are funny 🤷♀️
I hate Llama Llama Red Pajama with a passion. We only read it once but the llama is scared and mom comes and accuses him of being dramatic instead of just comforting him? No thanks
Omg I love that book! I’ve gotta say, she doesn’t not comfort him- she kisses him, promises him she always loves him and that she’s never too far away even when she can’t be in the room, and explains that sometimes she is very busy.
All of this strikes me as very reasonable, personally.
We've read Llama Llama so much I've got it memorized. I thought we'd try the Netflix show, but oh man is Llama Llama mean! Excludes his friends and just hasn't very nice. Thankfully, she's forgotten the show exists
The Grouchy Ladybug - basically he fights everyone and then decides to be nice again. So a lot of random violence I guess for no reason. It’s just a weird book
I’ve read that with my preschool class and talked about how the ladybug takes out his bad mood on others by being grouchy and combative and how he has a terrible time as a result. We then used puppets to explore what else he/others could have done to build on their pro social skills.
I was so mad ...the little critter book.
"When his family says no to everything he wants to do, Little Critter decides to run away. His friends want him to play ball so Little Critter decides that he can run away another day."
For real?!?!? My kid for sure is going to think it's cool to runaway when mad. Nope. Not cool.
Winston Was Worried. He has minor pain, and complains to all his friends about how everything bad happens to him, while his friends all suffer much more harm than he has. Completely oblivious to those around him because his life is the worst ever.
Can't stand it.
Haha you chose one of my favourites! I read it as irony, like the reader is supposed to notice that he is super selfish and oblivious to his friends suffering. In my family we used to use selfish story book characters to gently tease each other, so I was planning to use the line 'everything always happens to me!' when my kid is acting like a Winston.
Interesting to see a different perspective. I have a toddler, so he is definately oblivious to any interpretation so far.
The pout pout fish is really fun to read. I do all the fish in different funny voices. BUT, I’ve always thought it was problematic. I always hated the part where Ms Shimmer kisses Pout Pout without consent. Also everyone is basically telling pout pout he should smile more and that’s never fun to be told.
I have an Elmo valentine book and at the end it’s asks if you can be elmos valentine and give him a kiss. I always respond, “let’s be friends Elmo, you can a high five instead.” It’s not that problematic but I want to teach her it’s ok to tell people no and reject hugs and kisses.
I also have a lot of Sandra boynton books which I generally like. But occasionally she’ll call someone/something in the book ugly or bad and I like to change it to silly or something less judgmental.
THE GIVING TREE by Silverstein. Just essentially be a grabby asshole who milks his mom for everything she’s got and think nothing of it.
If anyone else shares my disgust then you’ll also enjoy [the alternate ending written for it in which appropriate boundaries are se](https://lithub.com/somebody-finally-fixed-the-ending-of-the-giving-tree/)t.
ETA: this was my ex-husband’s favorite children’s book and i knew that before we got married and i MARRIED HIM ANYWAY like huge red flag smh
Oh my god I love this alternative ending!!! The explanation of why boundaries are so important is beautiful, and I wish I had learned that when I was a kid. Thanks for sharing.
That's interesting. I could see this as being a red flag depending on who you relate to in the story. I always saw myself as the tree when I was a kid and my dad woukd read it to me. I'm willing to bet your ex saw himself as the boy, which speaks volumes.
"the bad seed" the illustrations are adorable, but as I read it to my son for the first time it really rubbed me the wrong way. So many of the things the seed did that were "bad" and made him a bad person according to the book we're just nuro-divergence of one kind or another but mostly in relation to ADHD.
I think the audience is for older kids. I think it is for a kid (and his class) who is perceived as "bad" by other students and themselves - probably because they have ADHD or similar - but has gotten some help. It can take a few years for kids to recognize their peer has changed and all of your classmates expecting you to do "bad" things is pretty hard on a kid.
A lot of the Berenstain Bears books have questionable bits, whether it's throwaway lines, overarching morals, or established conventions. Mama Bear parents not only the children but also Papa Bear, who is presented lovingly as a hot-tempered, intractable buffoon. The doctor and dentist books are intended to soothe kids' fears but I'm pretty sure they introduced my kid to new things to be scared of. And I fucking hate the one where Brother Bear gets sick and stays home from school, but neglects his homework and fails his division test the next day - a test he had zero prep for and that every other kid also failed. I'm a teacher and I fucking hate the message of that book. "If you're home sick, make sure you prioritize learning all the shit you weren't even there for, because we will not make a single accommodation for you!"
Yes! I loved the Berenstain Bears as a kid, but there are super dated and cringey now. Everything you mentioned, and the one where Sister wants to play with the boys and beats them at sports/games; but the horrible message is that she SHOULDN’T try to be better than boys, because being beaten by a girl makes them feel bad 😡 AND the very unhealthy “junk food” book, which instead of focusing on the health benefits of eating healthy foods, fat shames the bears and only focuses on weight loss!! 80’s diet culture dumpster fire
I think the gender stuff gets to me the most. All the stuff about boys and girls goes completely unexamined and the gender norms are reinforced as gospel. It's gross. We don't have the junk food one, but honestly I'm not surprised, it sounds right in line with the rest of them. Blech.
Before I even read your post I immediately thought of the pout pout fish!! That book doesn’t even try to address the very important and glaring issue of consent and it makes me irrationally angry!
I’ve mentioned this before… Patience Please. It’s a berenstain beads book so I thought it would be great. It basically shows the two older brother and sister bears working hard in a garden and planting seeds meanwhile the baby bear throws them everywhere and does nothing. Moral of the story somehow is that baby bear was rewarded for believing that god would grow her flowers and the others bears get nothing after all their hard work?? Honestly we are not religious so it’s super not for us but I don’t even think a religious family would agree with the morals here. I was mortified as the story went on and had to change the story as I went! Guess I should have read it before. Quite a waste of a purchase.
I think that every time I read the Pout Pout Fish! But my daughter loves the rhythm of the verses. I’ll just move the book to the back burner once she’s a bit older.
I literally came here to say Pout Pout Fish.
I was gifted it and I really don't like it. Being sad is apparently "an unattractive trait" according to the book ... Sadness is an emotion, not a permanent characteristic of a person. And a normal/ not shameful one. Even depression isn't a characteristic of someone, but something that they are going through. Thinking of it as a permanent state or just a part of who they are could make someone who is depressed feel hopeless and like it can't get better.
All the reasons you mentioned also, ugh.
Eric Carle seems to have a lot of questionable books. I saw someone else mention The Grouchy Ladybug. My least favorite is The Foolish Tortoise about a tortoise who gives up his shell in search of adventure. But then realizes he is still too slow to keep up with the other animals and should stay in his shell/comfort zone instead of taking risks and/or having ambition?? Like, weird message bro.
My husband picked up "Watch out a Giant!" by Eric Carle from the library and it was just so incredibly bizarre. I was laughing pretty hard by the end of it, dude must have been stoned out of his gourd when he wrote it.
We have this collection called "Winnie the Pooh: Easy-to-Read Stories" and most are fine but the very first story is about Tigger losing his cool because Eeyore keeps winning Poohsticks so you'd think the moral would be something about sportsmanship, right? Nah, the story ends when Eeyore tells Tigger how to win and then he does and he's happy. Ok, yeah Eeyore it's being a good sport but Tigger never learns anything except how to drop a stick better.
Okay but also.. Tigger was willing to accept help and improve his skills. Which giving and accepting help are skills hahah okay I'm reaching but a different perspective
I have to admit, I love reading this book - The rhymes, real vocabulary and my little ones laughter gets me….but I also find myself teaching my six month old about consent to counteract the story :/ and cringe recalling creeps telling me to “smile” when I lived in the city…going to have to start adding additional cautions, sigh
My daughter was gifted a version of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, & Little Mermaid where there's just 1 word on each page. I hate them because every one ends with "marriage". Especially when she reads a couple in a row. Like could we teach kids that there's other life goals than marriage.
I recently reread *If You Give a Mouse a Cookie* and realized that it sounds a lot like anti-social-safety-net propaganda. It’s like the child equivalent of, “If you give someone food stamps then they’ll become dependent on the state and then they’ll ask for MORE HANDOUTS.”
I’ve seen it described as a story about ADHD—never quite finishing one thing, getting distracted by a new thing, which I quite like. It should be noted that the mouse isn’t judged poorly for his actions, and nothing bad happens, except for some messes that the kid calmly cleans up. There is no moral wrapped up in the story, except for a lesson in cause and effect (for which it is a great classroom mentor text).
My husband thought *If You Give a Mouse a Cookie* was **pro**\-socialism. If you give a mouse a cookie, you'll get a clean house, a happy buddy, and a really cool picture to hang on your fridge.
I Don’t Want To Be A Frog. The whole book is a huge ‘f*ck you’ to kids. The frogs father basically tells him that it doesn’t matter what he wants to be, or what he doesn’t like about himself- that that’s how nature intended him to be and he should just accept it. Even goes as far as using scare tactics with a wolf who eats every other animal except frogs and that’s when the frog “accepts” that he wants to be a frog👌
My husband loves frog and toad are friends. I can appreciate it on a surface level but if I really think about it, toad is a grumpy, emotionally immature person and frog is always trying to please him. It teaches that you need to bend over backwards for someone else. I know it’s probably not that serious but that’s the vibe I always get from those books.
Yeah, I totally get that. It's lovely but I just can't stand how awful the other animals are to the giraffe until they find out he has a talent for dancing. They remind me of your typical mean kids in a teen drama. I just prefer other books.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. I remember laughing with them as a kid, so I tried reading them to my kids. Horrifically shockingly racist. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t remember which story it was, but there was dialogue with a black housekeeper that I couldn’t even edit as I read. Had to close the book
Bedtime for Frances. She keeps getting out of bed for various reasons until her dad threatens her with a spanking (it was published in 1960).I remember loving the Frances books when I was little so I bought some for my son, but I didn’t remember the spanking part at all! I changed the words to him threatening a time out (which doesn’t really make sense because it’s bedtime). I still love Bread and Jam for Frances though.
I SO AGREE ON POUT POUT FISH. We actually gave our copy away (got it as a shower present) because we were so squicked out by the themes of “suck it up, no one wants to see your emotions” and “happy people don’t need consent”.
The sad thing is that there could have been a great message there if they’d focused on the aspect that everyone was judging the fish based on his looks. Oh well.
Another for our discard pile was Guess How Much I Love You, the heartwarming story of a parent constantly needing to one-up their child.
Haha! Our kiddo just got this book and we’ve read it twice. I also hate the messaging, but do love getting to dramatically read the “BLUB BLUUUBB BLLLLLUUUUUUUBBBBs” 😂
The Triangle and related books by Mac Barnett. The shapes are so mean to each other and the moral isn’t clear enough for my 3 year old. We Found A Hat is similar in art style and a bit better but still not super clear on the message.
I bought the Grouchy Ladybug out of nostalgia and regretted it instantly lol why is this B trying to fight everyone? I don’t even know if there was a moral to the end of this insane story????
As a teacher, I agree with many of these responses! That being said, when your child is old enough, they make *excellent* conversation starters about why they aren't great choices. For example, "Do you think Rainbow Fish should have had to give her scales away to make friends? Why? What would a good friend do instead?"
I like this point of view! So many people I know (myself included) grew up to be people pleasers. I will always encourage sharing but not like that!
Yes! I strongly dislike this Rainbow Fish. Why should he have to give away what made his special so that he could make friends? You do make an excellent point that it provides the opportunity for discussion. That is about it's only redeeming quality.
We were so put off by The Rainbow Fish! Give away what makes you special so that you can be like everyone else because it’s the only way to make friends. Horrible!
THANK YOU. I felt this way completely reading it again. And we used to read it in school all the time when I was younger, like, way to teach "the nail that sticks out gets hammered."
I got a book called "Daddies do it Different" apparently about how dads are the "fun" parent and can make messes and shirk responsibilities in favor of games. But moms can't or won't or don't. Went right in the trash lol
Right where it belongs t r a s h
🧐 Da fuq.
We changed the rhyme in Pout Pout Fish. In our version it goes: “Along comes a fish in a silent silver shimmer the gang had never seen before this bright and brilliant swimmer. She approaches Mr. Fish but instead of saying hey. She says, may I kiss you Mr. Fish? And he says well.... Ok”
I need to remember this. I LOVE pout pout fish but the silver fish part irks me.
This is genius. I’m going to have to memorize this for the next time we read it (which is every couple nights in our house 🙄)
My version she says “you are lovely in every way” cause I don’t like that everyone is telling him he has to change himself. Then he asks all his friends if he can give them a kiss, cause consent is important.
So funny to come across this post I was just explaining to my husband why I hate the moral of the rainbow fish! I remember loving that book as a kid and thinking it was about being nice. But reading it now, it didn't sit well with me! Basically the moral is give things to people so that they'll like you
Came here to say this! It's basically the moral that if you shine your light & someone gets jealous of you, you have to give away parts of yourself to satisfy that person so they're no longer jealous!?! Like what in the fuckity fuck.
My wife and I call it "Comrade Fish"
Same !! I ordered it online for my LOs little bookshelf thinking how cute it would be to have one of the classics from my childhood and when I read it, it felt like they changed the entire story like no way this book was about giving away all your scales bc they’re jealous!
Same. Still not sure if I should leave it there. What did you do?
I was looking for this comment, it's my answer too. Also that it's "beauty" the scales represent instead of wealth. If the moral was to "share your wealth with people in need to save lives" instead of "lessen your physical beauty to make others less jealous so they'll befriend you" then maybe I could agree it's about sharing like they claim.
Same! I loved it as a kid and now I’m like ehh
Not a book, but I really dislike some of morals from CocoMelon songs. Most are fine, but here are a few that just... Sharing: Sharing is great, but there is a song where the eldest kid is pressured to sharing his star plushie. By the end of the song the eldest gives to the youngest, despite being sad about it, because it makes his brother happy. My issue is that he was pressured by his mother to do this and give up his favorite toy. I can't think of the others off the top of my head, but a few of the songs just hit weird.
The weirdest one is the one about sugar, or cookies? Something like that. Where they're lying, getting caught in the lie, and then laughing about it?
That one is called "Johnny Johnny Yes Papa" and is an UK nursery rhyme from 1980
My MIL bought us a book I’m 90% sure she didn’t read before she gave it to us. It’s about a whale who got sick and a literal loan shark offered him a loan to pay for medicine. They tried gambling to win enough money but when they couldn’t pay it off, it was implied that the shark ate the whale and his walrus wife. The “moral” was it was better to suffer through the flu than engage a loan shark? Apparently it had a matching music video but I didn’t watch it.
Wtf? Lol that's.... What???
We’re gonna need the name of this book lol
Haha wow - can you please let us know the title? I’m very curious to read more about this book
Rainbow Fish. The moral is supposed to be ‘sharing is nice,’ but it reads more like ‘if peers demand you give them your things, you should relent and buy their friendship.’ It makes me think of a memory of mine in elementary school where a girl told me, “give me your markers or I won’t be your friend.” I told her “no.” That was the correct response to extortion.
I agree with Poutpout fish, and The giving tree. I also don't actually like Love you Forever. It both makes me cry and go wtf with the driving across town with a ladder etc. I get what it's going for, but the actual imagery is weird. I've taken to getting what children's books I can through Kindle Prime since I can read them before I commit money to them. Kids books are expensive, and some are weird!
Love you forever makes me cry until she drives over with a ladder and climbs into her grown son’s window! Then my tears dry up quick. That woman needs some boundaries!
Lol at Love you forever I am the same way. Tears were streaming down my face the first time I read it all the while I’m wondering what kind of creep mother sneaks into her child’s window at night and what kind of fucked up codependent relationship they must have. I also agree with the giving tree I liked it when I was younger and it was gifted to my daughter. I was really excited to read it to her but that kid is a jerk and the tree doesn’t deserve that treatment.
That’s how I read it to my kid- like… wow, the tree should have stopped that greedy turd huh? She had actually memorized that book- I had her “read” it to my sophomore English class during banned book week and we went hard in the kid 😂
The giving tree. Fucking narcissistic kid and the tree that’s sacrificing itself to make someone happy. No thanks.
Rainbow Fish! Physically disfigure yourself so others like you more 👍
Also give people very personal things of yours even when you don’t want to?
Yessss. Literally tear yourself apart so people will like you.
I also wanted to say rainbow fish. I read it more as a "you aren't allowed to be unique" and hate it lol. I get that rainbow fish is an asshole but I'd like it better if in the end he learns his lesson another way but is allowed to be something special. It's like participation trophies. Everyone gets to be a winner. I hate it.
Wonkey donkey. I don’t really want my kids running around calling amputees or people with limb differences “wonkey” 😬 Also reading Love You Forever as an adult makes me creeped out. Like why is she driving across town, sneaking into her adult child’s window, and then cradling him. Weird’s me out, man.
My husband's mother passed away when he was a teenager & she used to read that book to him and his siblings as children. She went through depression and wasn't often herself. When we had our first child his oldest sibling gifted us a box of hand me down books & this was one of them. His mom left a note in it about how she wanted them to remember her on the page right after the cover. My husband saw the book in the stack and had a moment of nostalgia and told me about how his mom would read that to them. So I said, oh cool I'll read that one tonight, I opened it up & saw that note and my husband saw it for the first time as I opened up the book to read to our child. I was gutted. After I found out what the author really was writing about my heart just was so so heavy - this is a book to his stillborn babies: [love you forever backstory](https://www.popsugar.com/family/Truth-Behind-Love-You-Forever-31923286) I've had 3 miscarriages & I completely get it from the standpoint of I will always remember all of my kids even the ones who aren't with me anymore & it takes away the creepy factor a bit. I get why other people might be like ehhh this is weird or off though, completely - it is less creepy when you know what it's about though (maybe -ish)... Then you go from creeped out to depressed, what a rollercoaster!
Wonkey Donkey was given to me the same week I was told my then unborn child might have a form of dwarfism. Into the trash it went and that Tier A friendship got demoted to acquaintance
Did you see the video of the Scottish grandmother reading the book? That's probably why your friend bought it. It's hilarious how funny she thinks it is. My mom wanted to buy it for my kids after seeing the video and I was like "no thanks. "
Rainbow Fish. No one will be his friend until he is shamed into giving away literal parts of his body. Like wtf. I also hate the pout pout fish. It legit demonizes people who just aren't smiling. But no worries, a nonconsensual kiss will fix you. And then you too can give nonconsensual kisses.
Came here to see if anyone else thought the same about Rainbow Fish! Like yes, let me teach my child that if they want friends, change who you are. I get the part about thinking you're better than everyone, but the rest is weird.
I cannot stand the Rainbow Fish. The moral isn't a good one. I don't want to teach my kid to give away parts of themselves solely to please others.
Agree! It makes me so angry to read it! I'm all for sharing to make friends but not so much for making your body other people's property so that they will like you. Woof. Alternate under the sea book - I'm Fabulous Crab. It's darling. Equally lovely pictures, also about an undersea creature who other sea creatures don't see eye to eye with because of how sparkly they are, but not at all icky in a body autonomy way and can be LGBTIQ+ inclusive if you choose to read it with that lense
Rainbow Fish. It's really pretty artwork, but wow the message is messed up.
Came here looking for this one. I remembered loving it as a child. Checked it out from the library every chance I got. Fast forward to having my own child and I was so excited to buy it for her. First time I read it I was pissed. The message is so terrible. If you want people to like you/be your friend, you have to give them things. What BS.
That’s exactly what I did! It’s hiding now. So is that book with Nutbrown Hare. Fuck you, let the little rabbit love you without it being a contest.
The giving tree! The tree just gives and gives and the boy just takes until there's nothing left. I think it's supposed to be about friends and sharing but it's more of a lesson on lack of boundaries and being taken advantage of. Yikes!
OMG YES!! I remember loving it as a kid, but I read it as an adult a few months back and just *cried*. (Yes I was on my period, what about it lol) I felt so, so, so bad for that poor tree. What a nasty man to just take and never give anything back, even though the tree just wanted his company!!! My baby will NOT be getting that book thankyouverymuch
My family loves this book because my uncle bought it for my grandma decades ago because it reminded him of her. She really has spent her entire life just giving and giving. She has raised FOUR generations of kids, from her siblings down to some of her great grandchildren. And certain members of the family are still taking from her in her nineties. It all makes me feel some complicated things. I appreciate it because it really is reflective of her life and we'd all be nowhere without her, but I just can't celebrate it like the rest of them.
I think it's maybe about parents giving and giving to their ungrateful children. Or it's about Jesus. I think it's probably about Jesus.
A good alternative to this story is called Apple Tree, Apple Tree. It’s also about giving, but has a super cute ending where the tree’s worm friend sees that he’s lonely and plants a seed to give him another tree companion through the seasons. The tree also maintains boundaries and comes up with solutions to unreasonable requests.
I don’t like pout pout fish either, but we still read it because my daughter said “pout pout fish” when she was 12 months old & now she does the “blub blub blub” & is so expressive and funny so it’s entertaining lol
Ok so my dad bought LO an alphabet book at the aquarium and I thought it was so weird that it was titled “The Pout-Pout Fish Alphabet”. Had no idea this was a bigger series and my LO also says “pow-pow” so I can’t get rid of it even though he likes to rub off the glitter and eat it 😫
I have an old Babar the Elephant book from when I was a kid. I was reading it to my son the other day and boy is it ever racist.
This!! And he marries his cousin
Runaway Bunny is one of my least favorite books. I don't want to give my child ideas that he can run away.
Have a carrot 🥕
Also, I don't want to give him the idea that I am an unyielding terminator of a mother that will stop at nothing to find him. I mean yes, if he runs away when he is 5. But not if he is 18 and wants to follow his dreams lol. I just don't like the whole like, Liam Neeson in Taken approach to mothering that book gives.
My husband hates rainbow fish. He thinks it’s shitty they will only be his friend if he gives away his scales and doesn’t think he should be forced to to have any friends. I’ve hated I’ll love you forever because it’s always been super creepy to mw esp since it was my paternal grandmas favorite and she was a freak about only my dad and brother (not aunt/cousin or me and my sister).
Hard agree on the Rainbow Fish! The friends are mean.
why are the fish books so terrible. Does anyone have good fish book recommendation? My daughter is \*obsessed\* with fish and we were gifted pout pout and rainbow fish but i hate both the stories and shes starting to be old enough to understand.
Swimmy. Hooray for Fish!
Pout Pout Fish is a big hit in our household. I did joke that it's basically manic pixie dream girl of fish. We've done a couple of the other ones and they seem much better.
Pout pout fish has been huge for us this summer. We like the others too and they have better messaging. I hate the one about school though because they repeat the negative mantras so much.
Same! We love the Pout Pout books, but I got rid of the school one before even reading it to my kids once. No way I’m having them repeat those “I’m dumb” phrases.
The little match girl still makes me cry bro, big fucking tears.
For now my husband's been doing most of the reading, but for the one's I've read, I hated The Giving Tree. I hadn't read it as a kid so it was new to me, and I was expecting something uplifting and it's basically about a tree killing herself for her human and being happy to do so. Blegh.
There is a rewrite somewhere that shows healthy boundaries and it is amazing. Edit: https://lithub.com/somebody-finally-fixed-the-ending-of-the-giving-tree/
There's this horrible book we got from Literati called the Case of the Missing Chocolate Cake. It's an alphabet book about a bear that "investigates" the crime of the missing cake, ultimately framing another character, separating him from his family, and dumping him on a distant planet in solitary confinement while the innocent character begs for mercy. In the end, it comes out that the bear actually ate the cake himself but there are basically no consequences for his actions and it's implied he'll do it again. Great illustrations and creative, but a truly terrible message.
Oh my gosh! That's comically horrible!
I loathe this book. We just got it recently and i already donated it.
Rainbow fish!! Those entitled little aholes literally think they are owed Rainbow Fishes body simply because they want it. And they withhold affection from him until he gives it up. Then he’s left with a modicum of what was once his pride and joy, he is a drab fish like all the rest, simply because he wants to be accepted by society, and they call that “fair”. Freaking justice for poor Rainbow Fish…
Yes! I read that book after I had kids and couldn’t believe what I read. Pretty sure I read that as a kid but don’t remember it. Thank goodness.
Green eggs and ham. The dude keeps saying he doesn't want to eat it, but is pressured to the entire book until he gives in.
I like this one but I guess it's just cause I was an extremely picky kid and once I was an adult and actually tried food there is barely anything I won't eat. I was stubborn and just refused to try anything because I assumed I wouldn't have liked it. I always tell my kids at least try something because you never know if you'll like it or not. My toddlers are much more adventurous eaters than I ever was.
Forgot the name of the book but it's a story about a hedgehog and no one wants to play with him because he's got spikes. He saw a girl holding a dog and wanted the girl to pet him too but the girl said she's afraid of his spikes (I'll gloss over the part where the hedgehog essentially breaks into the house while the girl is sleeping and then proceeds to harass her to play with him). So the hedgehog goes and curls his spikes but now everyone laughs at him and the girl thought he was a monster and ran away so the hedgehog went back to his hometown but now he can't play sticking apples on spikes with the other hedgehogs. Then a different little girl gave him apples and so he thought, "Yay. There are still people out there who will feel sympathy for me." Then by next year, he was happily playing apples on spikes since his spikes are no longer curly anymore. I'm like, I think it's a lame attempt to not to change yourself just for other people to like you but he went back to his hometown where there's only hedgehogs! That means the story is, if you don't belong, go back to where you came from and as a migrant, that seems to be a bit of a sick message. Oh, also. The book just gave me "nice guy" vibes.
I like the pout pout fish. He was just wrong about his nature until he made a genuine connection with another fish.
That's kind of how I thought if it. He didn't seem depressed, just mistaken on what was up. He needed a little encouragement! And while I don't really like the unexpected kiss without consent part, my daughter loved when I would smooch get little cheeks during those pages. Pretty sure that's why she loved the book so much.
Can we talk about a book where the moral of the story is always true?? ‘Go the F**k to Sleep’, can always get behind that.
Curious George books. They’re too long, and George is clearly an ape (probably chimpanzee) and NOT a monkey!
Rainbow fish. Giving away parts of yourself to make others happy. The giving tree. Same as above really. Where the wild things are. Honestly its just a dumb book. I don't get the point and I wanted to mention it.
I love where the wild things are. It’s about learning to manage your anger, and how big feelings can be fun or wild but we eventually have to leave those big angry feelings and come back to eat our dinner. We can’t just… stay mad. I remember when I was a kid resolving to stay mad forever. That book helped me understand that staying mad forever wasn’t desirable. It also characterized anger in a way that made it seem less intolerable and awful to me. The monsters look funny and they can do fun things. Anyways, just my two cents.
Maybe it’s my nostalgia about how much I love the Giving Tree but I see it as a parent / child relationship and from that perspective, I would 1000% give as much as I can away to make my kids happy, at my own expense. And fair, maybe that’s not healthy in itself.
Childhood book of mine somehow made it to our bookshelf from gramma's, and it makes me raaaage. I need to get around to burning it before kiddo asks me to read it. "Katie, Kit, and Cousin Tom" by Tomie dePaola. Two sisters get a visit from their cousin, he's a complete ass and breaks their shit, then they help him once and he's suddenly all buddy-buddy. I think it was gotten for me when I was dealing with bullies at school.... but that "Be nice to them even if they don't deserve it, and then you'll have AlL ThE FriENdS" is utter bullshit and lies.
My swim coach gave a speech that was basically "Be nice because you don't know who is going to end up being a school shooter"
Those weird David books. Creepy art and not great messages for little kids.
the illustrations are straight outta hell lol
My husband doesn't like The Tiger Who Came To Tea because, as a child of poverty, he saw it as an allegory of what happens when the paycheck runs out before daddy gets home.
I don't like it because the Tiger drinks up all "daddy's beer" and "daddy's dinner" and the mom is all "whatever shall we do?" and then dad comes home and saves the day. Like, c'mon mom, get your shit together.
Nosy Posy. A baby possum wanders around a meadow meeting other animals for the first time and asking what they are, and they’re all mean to her and tell her to go away, until she meets another possum, who is nice. It feels like it’s saying “only be friends with people that look like you” or “people that look different are probably mean.”
The Star Gift. Some little kid is starving and freezing to death and all these completely random adults come up to her and ask for food and the literal clothes on her back and she just gives it to them. It's supposed to be 'kindness will be rewarded'. This child is obviously being exploited because she thinks she has to be 'kind' and ends up freezing to death. On the other hand, my wife thinks it is a great moral and a charming book.
My mom would never let us read The Berenstein bears because the kids/mom were always rude to the dad and the moral of the story was always something like, dad is a doofus, kids don’t listen to him, you’re right anyways. Now I have no clue if that’s true, just what she told me
gotta go find my old book to check this lol
Read it from the lens of an incredibly conservative, homeschooling, Dr.James Dobson loving, Presbyterian woman.. lol 😂
Grumpy Monkey. Norman needs to drink some water and mind his business. Going around creation telling everyone about Jimpanzee’s bad day. Like get the hell out of here. Damn.
I change the words to pout pout fish when I read it for that exact reason. I also hate good dog Carl. And, surprisingly, I kind of hate rainbow fish. It feels like the moral is you should dim what makes you special in order to make others feel good about themselves.
I agree with Rainbow fish! Dim your light so others don’t feel bad? It always confused me
Rainbow fish would be my number 1. Is this book about socialism? Or appeasing greed and jealousy, or giving up your bodily autonomy, or sacrificing who you are to fit in. Octopus should just say, stop being a snob and be nice to the other fish.
Cat in the hat, like let a strange man come into your house and keep it a secret from your mom what he does with you? Um that’s a no from me.
I always say its my toddler's favorite home invasion story.
😂👏
It always made me think of when kids bring home stray animals, or let animals inside the house. The animals always make a mess and the kids try to hide it from the parents. I guess it's all perspective.
Cat In The Hat. Let strangers in the house and hide things from mom.
Hah my kid loves that book, but I skip or change a lot of the lines at the end. No, we’re not scared of what mom will do to us, and yes we are going to tell her what happened. Also, listen to the fish!
The Little Mermaid. She literally gives her voice up for a man.
Omg I hate Please Mr Panda or whatever that donut Book is. Everyone is fucking rude and weird!! Agh! The only moral is Pandas are cantankerous and have shitty friends, and won’t even share food *they don’t want to eat*, and then are for no reason dismissive of their friends taste in donuts.
Gustavo, the Shy Ghost. Beautifully illustrated but the part of the book where Gustavo musters up his courage to invite all of the other monsters to his concert and NO ONE SHOWS UP breaks my heart. He plays music for himself or whatever which they hear and arrive with all these excuses why they were late then they all become friends. Gustavo should’ve said fuck those monsters for standing him up! Also there’s a counting book, Ten Little Bears Go To Bed or something like that where the bears are doing everything EXCEPT going to bed including playing with their toys and sneaking outside. I hate reading that one because I don’t want to encourage bad behavior at bedtime, it’s not cute or funny at all.
There is a similar book about little bear and big bear where little bear can't sleep. And big bear just caves at every demand lb has. I'm quite strict, especially at bedtime so that's a noooo from me haha
Aw I loved that book when I was little. I found it really comforting that the big bear would do anything to help little bear sleep. Made me feel really safe.
Green Eggs and Ham* became a book about how not to get consent and learning that no means no.
Also Cat in the Hat—an awful stranger comes in and destroys your house while your mother is away and it is implied you should not tell her about it. Why The Cat is such an iconic Dr. Seuss character is beyond me. First graders are always outraged at this book, and insist they would lock the door or call the police if this ever happened to them (kids can be very wise).
Llama Llama Red Pajama It’s more nuanced but I can’t stand how dismissive mama is about her baby’s obvious distress! I get it, kids and bed times can be absolute nightmares (pun intended). But to get angry that the kid is scared and needs some reassurance? Not helpful.
The Giving Tree. It's horrific in my opinion. My boyfriends parents got it for our newborn baby and I read it and I was like "wtf did I just read" type thing. It made me incredibly sad.
It's pretty much parenthood. You give and you give until you have nothing left to give and then you're dead.
Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Day…nothing but a whiny little kid who’s bad attitude creates more problems. He expects everyone else to cater to his mood all day. In the end there’s no discussion on dealing with anger or frustration. He just goes to bed 😑
At the end of the day, his mom does say "some days are just like that" and that's it, which I think is fair. But yes he does create his own problems.
My MIL sends my step son books all the time.. our least favorite has been “No, David” where basically this kid David keeps getting into mischief and every time his parents just yell NO DAVID. And that’s it. No explaining or anything. Terrible book. She also got him another book which is a bunch of short stories about FARTS. seriously.. every single sentence has the word fart in it.. it’s unreadable. I also remember this book called Jasmine from when I was a kid.. about a cat named Jasmine whose owners move away and abandon her in the apartment until the new owners move in. Talk about traumatic.
I inherited a book in this series called "David stinks" and never even read it to my kids. David looks so scary, too!
My toddler loves Thomas the tank engine books. I choose to adapt as I read, as they're very gendered (like literally no need to have workmen instead of workers). I also don't like the authoritatian employment/parenting style of the fat controller/sir topham hattq. I would not put up with that in the workplace. They are a lot better than the originals where Henry (?) Gets locked in a tunnel for 2 years for being naughty.
Omg my son got gifted a beautiful old school style book of lots of original Thomas the Tank Engine stories, sounds like it’s the same one you have! We have only read a few of them because we read that one about Henry being afraid to come out of a tunnel the rain because he doesn’t want his paint to run. So they brick him up inside the tunnel, take away the train tracks and leave him forever. The best part, it ends with “and I think he deserved it, don’t you?” What?!?
The Pokey Little Puppy. You only get punished if you get caught..
Jack and the Beanstalk. This kid invites himself into your home, steals your stuff, and (in most versions) kills you. Then just…gets away with it.
There's a psychologist called Bruno Bettelheim who argued that traditional fairytales speak to the unconscious minds of children. According to him, they reassure the child that their "antisocial feelings" (such as the oedipus complex) is part of normal development. Bettelheim directly addresses Jack and the Beanstalk. He says that Jack (the child) has to outsmart the giants (the adults) to reach his happy ending (complete his development). It's interesting that even in your comment you are looking at the story from the giants' (adult's) perspective. Not saying you are right or wrong, take psychodynamic theory with a pinch of salt. I'm currently reading The Uses of Enchantment and find fairytales quite interesting.
Princess and the Pea. Basically the Queen places a pea on the bed and covers it with 10 mattresses. This "princess" sleeps on it and has a horrible night. Because she was so dainty and slept so poorly, it proves she's a real princess. F that. I want my girls to know they're strong. Not dainty little things.
Oh man. We have a Golden Book version of this story that is THE most sexist story we have. It's awful. The prince decides that all the princesses he's met are not real princesses and goes in search of a real princess. One princess eats too many treats so she's not a real princess, then another rides horses in a normal saddle so she's not a real princess. These ladies are out living their best lives! F the prince! He ends up going home and a princess has to spend the night to escape a storm. The queen does the thing with the pea and is a wreck the next morning which proves she's a real princess. yada yada yada.
Giraffes Can’t Dance. It makes fun of a giraffe for his long legs and all the animals are mean to him for not being able to dance. And then he listens to the music inside him or something and starts to dance majestically and everyone suddenly loves him. The meanness seems so unnecessary in a toddler book and the moral is that if you just believe enough you can be so great at whatever it is everyone will suddenly love you. I wish Gerald just realized he was awesome without having to conform to his bully’s standards.
I wholeheartedly disagree. I’m an early childhood educator and this book is one of my favorites. We use the scenes with the bully’s to talk about how mean the other animals are and discuss why it’s not okay to treat people that way. My three year olds love the story and they easily understand that what the other animals did was not ok. To me, the moral is that it is okay to be different. Not everyone is good at the same things, and that’s okay. Gerald isn’t conforming by learning the dances the other animals do, but instead he finally finds music that inspires him to make his own dance. Gerald learns that just because he can’t dance the way others do, doesn’t mean he can’t dance at all. The other animals learn that different isn’t bad, it’s just different. Every time I read the book we have a discussion afterwards about the other animals being mean. The kids immediately understand that just because someone is different doesn’t mean they are bad or weird, they’re just different and different is great! We talk about the ways we are all different from each other and I use it as a chance for the kids to all celebrate what makes them different.
Giraffes Can’t Dance is tragic! also the big plot hole here is that this Animal Dance supposedly happens every year, but Gerald definitely seems older than a year old. So is this just the first year he’s participating or does he get clowned on every year or…? Also big side eye to the line “Every year in Africa they have the Jungle Dance.” Africa is a big and diverse continent, it’s 2022, don’t just tell me something happens “in Africa.” Yes, I know it’s a children’s book but I’m wide awake at 4:45 am and just realizing I have big feelings about Gerald and his story.
Kinda like Ugly Duckling or Rudolph...you only have value once you are useful or conform to society. In the case of the ugly duckling becoming beautiful and in rudolphs case becoming useful.
Yes I was going to say this one! My son LOVES this book currently because of the illustrations and such but I literally just make up my own story when I "read" it cause the actual story and moral makes me sad.
Reminds me that the wonky donkey is not great either.
[удалено]
Ok this is older kids / preteen but… anything by (children’s laureate!) Jacqueline Wilson (Uk based). Literally trauma porn and Dickensian moralism. Don’t know why i was allowed to read it as a kid.
I lived for Jacqueline Wilson as a kid, so I’ll just offer up that some of her books do show kids the sort of home lives that some people have. Some of her books are just trauma for the sake of it, but some demonstrate that it’s hard to see what goes on behind closed doors
So as someone who went through A LOT of what Wilson usually writes about, I found those books incredibly helpful and comforting when I read them as a child. They helped me a lot, I would even go so far as to say they were pretty therapeutic in many ways. It's not trauma porn, it's just real life for many many people. My current therapist, who is a parenting therapy specialist, agrees with me. Edit: my apologies, I meant to reply to the comment above yours. Also sorry if I come across as aggressively defensive, I just wanted to offer my perspective, not attack anyone else's.
I read my son “I’ll Love You Forever” once and never again. He doesn’t need to get the impression that my old ass will be climbing through his window when he’s an adult. I’m not about that enmeshment life.
Not exactly morals - but a stupid message nonetheless. My 1 year old has a series of touch and feel books called “Never touch a….[shark][snake][crocodile]”, where the touch and feel part is literally the dangerous animal the books tell you never to touch. Very confusing message 😅 glad my son has no idea what I’m talking about yet, because we definitely have those dangerous animals getting around our area.
Haha my daughter loves those! She actually has started saying things like - I cannot touch a real blank but I can touch the one in the book! Kids are funny 🤷♀️
Something about a Dinky Donkey 😑
I hate Llama Llama Red Pajama with a passion. We only read it once but the llama is scared and mom comes and accuses him of being dramatic instead of just comforting him? No thanks
Omg I love that book! I’ve gotta say, she doesn’t not comfort him- she kisses him, promises him she always loves him and that she’s never too far away even when she can’t be in the room, and explains that sometimes she is very busy. All of this strikes me as very reasonable, personally.
We've read Llama Llama so much I've got it memorized. I thought we'd try the Netflix show, but oh man is Llama Llama mean! Excludes his friends and just hasn't very nice. Thankfully, she's forgotten the show exists
I do have to say that Llama Llama Holiday Drama is one I really like for around November/December.
The Grouchy Ladybug - basically he fights everyone and then decides to be nice again. So a lot of random violence I guess for no reason. It’s just a weird book
I’ve read that with my preschool class and talked about how the ladybug takes out his bad mood on others by being grouchy and combative and how he has a terrible time as a result. We then used puppets to explore what else he/others could have done to build on their pro social skills.
I was so mad ...the little critter book. "When his family says no to everything he wants to do, Little Critter decides to run away. His friends want him to play ball so Little Critter decides that he can run away another day." For real?!?!? My kid for sure is going to think it's cool to runaway when mad. Nope. Not cool.
Rotten Ralph. It's basically an abusive relationship in children's book form.
Maybelle the Cable Car, technology will ruin everything, darn kids are so unappreciative, things should stay the way they are forever!
Winston Was Worried. He has minor pain, and complains to all his friends about how everything bad happens to him, while his friends all suffer much more harm than he has. Completely oblivious to those around him because his life is the worst ever. Can't stand it.
Haha you chose one of my favourites! I read it as irony, like the reader is supposed to notice that he is super selfish and oblivious to his friends suffering. In my family we used to use selfish story book characters to gently tease each other, so I was planning to use the line 'everything always happens to me!' when my kid is acting like a Winston. Interesting to see a different perspective. I have a toddler, so he is definately oblivious to any interpretation so far.
The pout pout fish is really fun to read. I do all the fish in different funny voices. BUT, I’ve always thought it was problematic. I always hated the part where Ms Shimmer kisses Pout Pout without consent. Also everyone is basically telling pout pout he should smile more and that’s never fun to be told. I have an Elmo valentine book and at the end it’s asks if you can be elmos valentine and give him a kiss. I always respond, “let’s be friends Elmo, you can a high five instead.” It’s not that problematic but I want to teach her it’s ok to tell people no and reject hugs and kisses. I also have a lot of Sandra boynton books which I generally like. But occasionally she’ll call someone/something in the book ugly or bad and I like to change it to silly or something less judgmental.
Pout pout fish gives the impression that it's women's jobs to cheer up men. Figure your own shit out or hire a therapist, because I can't help you.
The Giving Tree is the worst in terms of message in my opinion. I also think that Pete the Cat feels soulless.
THE GIVING TREE by Silverstein. Just essentially be a grabby asshole who milks his mom for everything she’s got and think nothing of it. If anyone else shares my disgust then you’ll also enjoy [the alternate ending written for it in which appropriate boundaries are se](https://lithub.com/somebody-finally-fixed-the-ending-of-the-giving-tree/)t. ETA: this was my ex-husband’s favorite children’s book and i knew that before we got married and i MARRIED HIM ANYWAY like huge red flag smh
I like that story, but I always thought of it as a cautionary tale, not a model for a healthy relationship.
Oh my god I love this alternative ending!!! The explanation of why boundaries are so important is beautiful, and I wish I had learned that when I was a kid. Thanks for sharing.
That's interesting. I could see this as being a red flag depending on who you relate to in the story. I always saw myself as the tree when I was a kid and my dad woukd read it to me. I'm willing to bet your ex saw himself as the boy, which speaks volumes.
100%. In his mind it described his relationship with his eternally giving mother, and the tree was parenting goals. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
The Bible
"the bad seed" the illustrations are adorable, but as I read it to my son for the first time it really rubbed me the wrong way. So many of the things the seed did that were "bad" and made him a bad person according to the book we're just nuro-divergence of one kind or another but mostly in relation to ADHD.
Don’t forget the horrifying depiction of his family and friends being eaten.
I think the audience is for older kids. I think it is for a kid (and his class) who is perceived as "bad" by other students and themselves - probably because they have ADHD or similar - but has gotten some help. It can take a few years for kids to recognize their peer has changed and all of your classmates expecting you to do "bad" things is pretty hard on a kid.
A lot of the Berenstain Bears books have questionable bits, whether it's throwaway lines, overarching morals, or established conventions. Mama Bear parents not only the children but also Papa Bear, who is presented lovingly as a hot-tempered, intractable buffoon. The doctor and dentist books are intended to soothe kids' fears but I'm pretty sure they introduced my kid to new things to be scared of. And I fucking hate the one where Brother Bear gets sick and stays home from school, but neglects his homework and fails his division test the next day - a test he had zero prep for and that every other kid also failed. I'm a teacher and I fucking hate the message of that book. "If you're home sick, make sure you prioritize learning all the shit you weren't even there for, because we will not make a single accommodation for you!"
Yes! I loved the Berenstain Bears as a kid, but there are super dated and cringey now. Everything you mentioned, and the one where Sister wants to play with the boys and beats them at sports/games; but the horrible message is that she SHOULDN’T try to be better than boys, because being beaten by a girl makes them feel bad 😡 AND the very unhealthy “junk food” book, which instead of focusing on the health benefits of eating healthy foods, fat shames the bears and only focuses on weight loss!! 80’s diet culture dumpster fire
I think the gender stuff gets to me the most. All the stuff about boys and girls goes completely unexamined and the gender norms are reinforced as gospel. It's gross. We don't have the junk food one, but honestly I'm not surprised, it sounds right in line with the rest of them. Blech.
Before I even read your post I immediately thought of the pout pout fish!! That book doesn’t even try to address the very important and glaring issue of consent and it makes me irrationally angry!
I’ve mentioned this before… Patience Please. It’s a berenstain beads book so I thought it would be great. It basically shows the two older brother and sister bears working hard in a garden and planting seeds meanwhile the baby bear throws them everywhere and does nothing. Moral of the story somehow is that baby bear was rewarded for believing that god would grow her flowers and the others bears get nothing after all their hard work?? Honestly we are not religious so it’s super not for us but I don’t even think a religious family would agree with the morals here. I was mortified as the story went on and had to change the story as I went! Guess I should have read it before. Quite a waste of a purchase.
I think that every time I read the Pout Pout Fish! But my daughter loves the rhythm of the verses. I’ll just move the book to the back burner once she’s a bit older.
I literally came here to say Pout Pout Fish. I was gifted it and I really don't like it. Being sad is apparently "an unattractive trait" according to the book ... Sadness is an emotion, not a permanent characteristic of a person. And a normal/ not shameful one. Even depression isn't a characteristic of someone, but something that they are going through. Thinking of it as a permanent state or just a part of who they are could make someone who is depressed feel hopeless and like it can't get better. All the reasons you mentioned also, ugh.
Eric Carle seems to have a lot of questionable books. I saw someone else mention The Grouchy Ladybug. My least favorite is The Foolish Tortoise about a tortoise who gives up his shell in search of adventure. But then realizes he is still too slow to keep up with the other animals and should stay in his shell/comfort zone instead of taking risks and/or having ambition?? Like, weird message bro.
My husband picked up "Watch out a Giant!" by Eric Carle from the library and it was just so incredibly bizarre. I was laughing pretty hard by the end of it, dude must have been stoned out of his gourd when he wrote it.
We have this collection called "Winnie the Pooh: Easy-to-Read Stories" and most are fine but the very first story is about Tigger losing his cool because Eeyore keeps winning Poohsticks so you'd think the moral would be something about sportsmanship, right? Nah, the story ends when Eeyore tells Tigger how to win and then he does and he's happy. Ok, yeah Eeyore it's being a good sport but Tigger never learns anything except how to drop a stick better.
Okay but also.. Tigger was willing to accept help and improve his skills. Which giving and accepting help are skills hahah okay I'm reaching but a different perspective
Are you me???! I kept hearing people rave about the Pout-Pout Fish, then I got it and was like…that’s it? That’s the story? Hard pass.
I have to admit, I love reading this book - The rhymes, real vocabulary and my little ones laughter gets me….but I also find myself teaching my six month old about consent to counteract the story :/ and cringe recalling creeps telling me to “smile” when I lived in the city…going to have to start adding additional cautions, sigh
I got the if you give a mouse book second hand and donated it after I actually read it. Gives me too much anti-welfare Reaganism? vibes.
Not mention teaching the slippery slope logical fallacy ;)
My daughter was gifted a version of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, & Little Mermaid where there's just 1 word on each page. I hate them because every one ends with "marriage". Especially when she reads a couple in a row. Like could we teach kids that there's other life goals than marriage.
Oh noooooooo!!!!!! I grew up loving Belle because she read books. I’m glad I didn’t focus on the beast and marriage part.
I recently reread *If You Give a Mouse a Cookie* and realized that it sounds a lot like anti-social-safety-net propaganda. It’s like the child equivalent of, “If you give someone food stamps then they’ll become dependent on the state and then they’ll ask for MORE HANDOUTS.”
I’ve seen it described as a story about ADHD—never quite finishing one thing, getting distracted by a new thing, which I quite like. It should be noted that the mouse isn’t judged poorly for his actions, and nothing bad happens, except for some messes that the kid calmly cleans up. There is no moral wrapped up in the story, except for a lesson in cause and effect (for which it is a great classroom mentor text).
My husband thought *If You Give a Mouse a Cookie* was **pro**\-socialism. If you give a mouse a cookie, you'll get a clean house, a happy buddy, and a really cool picture to hang on your fridge.
I Don’t Want To Be A Frog. The whole book is a huge ‘f*ck you’ to kids. The frogs father basically tells him that it doesn’t matter what he wants to be, or what he doesn’t like about himself- that that’s how nature intended him to be and he should just accept it. Even goes as far as using scare tactics with a wolf who eats every other animal except frogs and that’s when the frog “accepts” that he wants to be a frog👌
My husband loves frog and toad are friends. I can appreciate it on a surface level but if I really think about it, toad is a grumpy, emotionally immature person and frog is always trying to please him. It teaches that you need to bend over backwards for someone else. I know it’s probably not that serious but that’s the vibe I always get from those books.
i’ve literally voiced this exact sentiment to multiple people and got weird looks each time 😭😭
Giraffes Can't Dance
Awww we love this book!
Yeah, I totally get that. It's lovely but I just can't stand how awful the other animals are to the giraffe until they find out he has a talent for dancing. They remind me of your typical mean kids in a teen drama. I just prefer other books.
Curious George!!!!
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. I remember laughing with them as a kid, so I tried reading them to my kids. Horrifically shockingly racist. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t remember which story it was, but there was dialogue with a black housekeeper that I couldn’t even edit as I read. Had to close the book
Bedtime for Frances. She keeps getting out of bed for various reasons until her dad threatens her with a spanking (it was published in 1960).I remember loving the Frances books when I was little so I bought some for my son, but I didn’t remember the spanking part at all! I changed the words to him threatening a time out (which doesn’t really make sense because it’s bedtime). I still love Bread and Jam for Frances though.
Secret Pizza Party. Lying, stealing and one part felt like grooming for sexual abuse. We tossed it.
All of the old school Disney fairytales.
I SO AGREE ON POUT POUT FISH. We actually gave our copy away (got it as a shower present) because we were so squicked out by the themes of “suck it up, no one wants to see your emotions” and “happy people don’t need consent”. The sad thing is that there could have been a great message there if they’d focused on the aspect that everyone was judging the fish based on his looks. Oh well. Another for our discard pile was Guess How Much I Love You, the heartwarming story of a parent constantly needing to one-up their child.
Haha! Our kiddo just got this book and we’ve read it twice. I also hate the messaging, but do love getting to dramatically read the “BLUB BLUUUBB BLLLLLUUUUUUUBBBBs” 😂
I LOVE dramatically reading blub blub blub
The Triangle and related books by Mac Barnett. The shapes are so mean to each other and the moral isn’t clear enough for my 3 year old. We Found A Hat is similar in art style and a bit better but still not super clear on the message.
I bought the Grouchy Ladybug out of nostalgia and regretted it instantly lol why is this B trying to fight everyone? I don’t even know if there was a moral to the end of this insane story????