What’s the worst children’s book you have read?

oliveoil

Mon, May 06 2019, 9:28 pm

Roal Dahl is awesome, but when you read them as an adult you realize how dark some of them are. He also has a volume of short stories for adults and those are REALLY dark. I highly recommend them ;-)

Cheshire cat

Mon, May 06 2019, 9:31 pm

Lol. I agree with you oliveoil. I love his anthologies.

(He was actually a very outspoken anti Semite)

Amelia Bedelia

Mon, May 06 2019, 9:34 pm

oliveoil wrote:

Roal Dahl is awesome, but when you read them as an adult you realize how dark some of them are. He also has a volume of short stories for adults and those are REALLY dark. I highly recommend them ;-)

My college professor gave us Lamb to the Slaughter (Roald Dahl) to read . Horrific! But I loved it.

Cheshire cat

Mon, May 06 2019, 9:36 pm

Lamb to the slaughter...is it about a woman who kills her husband with a hunk of meat?
That was thrilling/ appalling!

Amelia Bedelia

Mon, May 06 2019, 9:40 pm

Cheshire cat wrote:

Lamb to the slaughter...is it about a woman who kills her husband with a hunk of meat?
That was thrilling/ appalling!

Yes

amother

Lawngreen

Mon, May 06 2019, 9:41 pm

Most of the yossi and laibel books.
Teaches zero problem solving skills, and drags out this kid being a sour-puss until like the last 2 pages.

trixx

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:02 pm

oliveoil wrote:

Roal Dahl is awesome, but when you read them as an adult you realize how dark some of them are. He also has a volume of short stories for adults and those are REALLY dark. I highly recommend them ;-)

Haha I was going to say this! Love Roald Dahl. His child AND adult works. (anti semite aside)

trixx

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:11 pm

Amelia Bedelia wrote:

My college professor gave us Lamb to the Slaughter (Roald Dahl) to read . Horrific! But I loved it.

Hi there Amelia Bedelia, any comment as to the critique of your character?

aricelli

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:20 pm

Anyone mention Mrs Piggle Wiggle? As A child I loved it so I bought it for my dd. Then one day when I asked her to do something she said- I’ll do it because I want to and not because you asked me too! I hid that book real fast!

aricelli

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:22 pm

oliveoil wrote:

Roal Dahl is awesome, but when you read them as an adult you realize how dark some of them are. He also has a volume of short stories for adults and those are REALLY dark. I highly recommend them ;-)

You like dark?! You must like Edgar Allen Poe. Remember reading The Telltale Heart in school? Shivers...

amother

Jade

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:27 pm

Um...nothing could be more bizarre than his short story about women paying for a collector to collect sperm from geniuses around the world so they could impregnate themselves with genius children Surprised

The details as to how the collection was done were a bit much. Maybe in this day and age not shocking, but for the times it would probably be considered (soft) p*rn.

Instead of Dahl's stories, I'll take Shirley Jackson. She wrote some similar ones to Lamb to the Slaughter. And her writing is far superior. ETA, she is the author of The Lottery.

Cheshire cat

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:29 pm

stillnewlywed wrote:

Did Roald Dahl write “The Lottery” as well?

No, Shirley Jackson wrote it.
One of my all-time favorites

aricelli

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:31 pm

The creepiest I ever read was Flowers in the attic anthology. Not a kids book but I read it as a kid...

amother

Jade

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:34 pm

Read up on the author's life, and you will find her books even creepier.

amother

Orchid

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:34 pm

aricelli wrote:

The creepiest I ever read was Flowers in the attic anthology. Not a kids book but I read it as a kid...

Yes, VC Andrews books are weird. I read those books as a kid and I have no idea why I liked them at the time. They are disturbed! A movie of Flowers in the Attic came out and I remeber dragging my Aunt to see it with me. She must have thought I was a total sicko, lol!

Were those books not targeted for (older) kids?

Cheshire cat

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:35 pm

My DD was inconsolable about pippi longstocking, living alone in ville vilkullah, her mom dead, her dad washed away to the sea...
I was taken aback by her response to the book, since reading it as a child had been such a light-hearted and joyful experience

aricelli

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:36 pm

Pictures of captain hooks hand also was fascinatingly horrifying to me

aricelli

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:38 pm

amother [ Orchid ] wrote:

Totally. I read the series and the further in I got the more convoluted it got and the weirder I felt. I kept on going though!

aricelli

Mon, May 06 2019, 10:38 pm

amother [ Jade ] wrote:

Read up on the author's life, and you will find her books even creepier.

They said the book was loosely based on true facts