# Which highly praised children’s books leave you cold? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396 "2011-03-29T17:08:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/41 "2011-03-30T01:51:04Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I think **Where The Wild Things Are** is one of those books that adults love and think is a great children’s book but in reality children don’t really care for. I wonder if that’s because parents can see it as “other” while children see it as, well, the way things are. Sort of a “can’t see the forest for the trees” thing. Sendak does a fairly good job of capturing that sort of imagination run wild and free thing (although I always thought the illustrations were too dark and washed out - literally, not figuratively - to match my imagination), but you don’t really appreciate that sort of liminal space until you’ve crossed into adulthood. Only with the hindsight of adulthood and responsibility do you truly understand and appreciate - and yearn for - the wild freedom of childhood terror. Or something. Maybe I’m overthinking it. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/42 "2011-03-30T02:15:59Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I think **Where The Wild Things Are** is one of those books that adults love and think is a great children’s book but in reality children don’t really care for. > (Sometimes I wonder if Pixar and Disney are the same way. Parents love it way more than the kids but the kids end up liking it because the parents shove it down their throats. But that’s another thread.) > I remember as a kid checking it out of the library dozens of times because the illustrations were so neat but the story never lived up to them. No real adventure to be found where I (as a kid) really wished there was one. Another vote for _Where the Wild Things Are_, and agree that it may be more enjoyed by parents than kids. The book just did not interest me when I was young. I hope that if/when I have kids I remember that. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/43 "2011-03-30T02:17:32Z")
> [@SkeptiJess](#): > > Alice in Wonderland. I finished it; and even went back and reread it once or twice trying to like it as much as I thought I should… > > But, meh. I liked the poetry (especially The Walrus & The Carpenter, which I loved so much I knew it by heart), but the story just left me cold and bored. I’m not surprised this one got mentioned. It’s a wonderful, wonderful book, but it’s not for everyone. But, if you say the story left you cold and bored, I suspect you may be missing the point—it’s not _about_ the story. The point of the book isn’t the story it tells; it’s the jokes and the puns and the parody and the twisted logic and the cartoon violence and the warped perspective on polite adult society and, yes, the poetry. The _story_ is no more the reason people like _Alice_ than it is the reason fans like _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ or _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Ooh, **Artemis Fowl**. I really wanted to like it, but it was mediocre. Agreed. Though I might have been too old when I read it. > [@](#): > > Which reminds me–I don’t think **Harry Potter** has been mentioned yet. I’ve read the whole series, so it’s not that I despise them; they’re reasonably diverting. But I really don’t get the love for them. I’ve read so much children’s fantasy that I think is shit-tons better (including, incidentally, The Dark is Rising 🙂 ). And you, also, may be missing the point, in comparing it to other fantasy. Much of the reason for Harry Potter’s success is all the stuff Rowling threw in to appeal to people who _don’t like_ fantasy. Judge it not as a fantasy, but as the multigenre (mystery, school story, etc.) mishmash that it is. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/44 "2011-03-30T02:53:28Z")
**The Velveteen Rabbit**. Could anything be sappier? Oh yeah. Elsie Dinsmore could, but she had to try really really hard. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/45 "2011-03-30T03:00:41Z")
I think some elements of “Where the Wild Things Are” don’t really resonate with children the same way. For instance, the part where Max’s bedroom transforms into a forest. It’s easy to see as an adult the workings of Max’s imagination. But kids don’t see it that way. It’s just his bedroom transforming into a forest. ---
**Author:** ![Elret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Elret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elret)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/46 "2011-03-30T03:15:12Z")
As a kid and an adult, I have always loved Goodnight Moon (I remember when I was really little being mesmerized by how the room got almost imperceptably gradually dimmer just like my bedroom did when I laid awake waiting to sleep, and how it had the same effect of making me feel calm and sleepy) I`ve also always loved Where the Wild Things Are and the art of Eric Carle. But I realize this isn`t about what I like, so here`s what I think is crap! Love You Forever. I find it creepy, manipulative, unhealthy, and trite. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/47 "2011-03-30T04:50:47Z")
I recall starting Sheila Burnford’s _The Incredible Journey_ about forty-seven times, and never getting past the first few pages. All the other kids liked it–either that, or they were all kissing up to the teacher who was recommending it to us. I recall it being something of a sore point, and a catalyst for disparagement of the (many, many) books I _was_ reading. I tried reading it again in my 40s, and could finally articulate why I disliked it: she has no facility for drawing the reader into the story. I just looked it over again to double-check the spelling of the author’s name, and this time, I couldn’t even get through the first paragraph. The very first sentence starts “This journey took place in…” That’s no way to make the reader feel included in the narrative–it immediately gives away that it _is_ a narrative, and that pulls you out right away. Then she goes on with a geography lesson. To hell with that, get me interested in the animals depicted in that inviting illustration to the left! ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/48 "2011-03-30T12:47:50Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Don’t get me started on “The Giving Tree.” Just don’t. Yeah, that’s a big one with me. What was the trilogy by Philup Pullman? _His Dark Materials?_ I didn’t mind the message, but it was so heavy-handed and _dull_. It seemed to me he was so busy grinding his axe he forgot to find an interesting story to tell. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/49 "2011-03-30T13:02:59Z")
oh my gosh, don’t get me started on that Phillip Pullman Golden Compass trilogy crap. I’ve rarely hated a book so much. hate, hate, hate. and if this makes me an unschooled Philistine, so be it. The Harry Potter books I found incredibly dull after the first one, but I was reading them as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/50 "2011-03-30T13:15:38Z")
I read the first two Phillip Pullmans. That was because I’d found them on the clearance rack at Half Price Books, and I bought them both at once. Dull, dull, dull. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/51 "2011-03-30T13:27:04Z")
I found **Where the Wild Things Are** boring as a child and boring as an adult. I still have a copy for my daughter but I’ll leave it to her mother to read it to her. **The Velveteen Rabbit** didn’t leave me cold; it left me upset. Which may explain why I felt ooky when one of my co-workers came down with scarlet fever recently. Who knew people still got that? ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/52 "2011-03-30T15:06:18Z")
Hmmm. I think _Goodnight Moon_ is incredibly calming and comforting. I’m not seeing the creepy at all. My kids, my son in particular, love _Where the Wild Things Are_. I believe I will take credit for being an awesome narrator. The wild rumpus was absolutely fascinating to him - we also spent forever on that page. I second the mention of Richard Scarry books from early on in the thread. I don’t remember having much of an opinion on them as a kid, but I hate them as an adult. They are not fun to read aloud at all. “Banana car. Pickle car. Race car.” Snore. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/53 "2011-03-30T15:36:06Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > And for older kids: > Gulliver’s Travels > The Swiss Family Robinson > 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea > Treasure Island > Kidnapped > The Jungle Book For Gulliver’s Travels if you read a bowdlerised child’s version it’s small wonder you didn’t like it. It was, of course, never intended as a book for children. It’s very much an adult book, one of the greatest and most scabrous satires in the English language ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/54 "2011-03-30T16:50:39Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Another vote for _Where the Wild Things Are_, and agree that it may be more enjoyed by parents than kids. The book just did not interest me when I was young. I hope that if/when I have kids I remember that. Oh, I dunno, my three-year-old has asked for **Where the Wild Things Are** every night at bedtime for two weeks now. Then again, she also asks for “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight” for her bedtime song, so maybe I just have an odd one. **Goodnight Moon** wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the cheat. “Goodnight comb, and goodnight brush / Goodnight nobody, goodnight mush.” “Goodnight nobody”? Really? You need to stretch the line out to make the rhyme, so you just throw in a “goodnight nobody” for no good reason? That’s a cheat. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/55 "2011-03-30T16:55:17Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > \ > I was never interested in the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House” books when I was a kid. It was pleasant enough to have the teacher read them to the class, but when I tried to read one or more of them on my own, they were boring. But as an adult, I find them fascinating. I guess that as a child, I just didn’t appreciate the way that they depicted an older lifestyle, and the way that the people made do with so little at the time. I know I wasn’t able to appreciate things like putting in a whole season’s planting for a family, and then having to pack up and move (because Pa Ingalls had settled illegally). Me, too! When I was the “target” age for these books, I didn’t have the focus to read ANY book with real chapters and few pictures. I guess that’s why I always bought the joke books during the Scholastic Book Drives. :rolleyes: Anyway, recently a used book store had a going-out-of-business sale & I bought the whole series. I’m working my way through, and they’re fascinating! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/56 "2011-03-30T21:40:25Z")
> [@BetsQ](#): > > Hmmm. I think _Goodnight Moon_ is incredibly calming and comforting. I’m not seeing the creepy at all. [It depends on who’s reading it.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob37KzlUEPA) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/57 "2011-03-30T22:14:14Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > [It depends on who’s reading it.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob37KzlUEPA) Funny. I don’t remember seeing that clip before, but I knew exactly who was going to be reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/58 "2011-03-31T01:27:49Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > And you, also, may be missing the point, in comparing it to other fantasy. Much of the reason for Harry Potter’s success is all the stuff Rowling threw in to appeal to people who _don’t like_ fantasy. Judge it not as a fantasy, but as the multigenre (mystery, school story, etc.) mishmash that it is. Meh–even if I stipulate that you’re right (something I’m not at all sure about), I’ll just expand my criticism by saying I’ve read a lot of other children’s lit that I think is better. I found her prose to be pedestrian, her characters to be fairly flat, and nothing in the series especially moving. She wasn’t bad, as evidenced by my finishing the series, but I don’t think she deserves the accolades she often gets as a writer. Phillip Pullman, on the other hand, is a fucking genius, and I put **His Dark Materials** among the top ten fantasies I’ve ever read. I know a lot of folks disagree with me, but that’s because they’re all philistines :). ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/59 "2011-03-31T01:38:24Z")
Does Rowling get accolades for her actual writing? I think she mostly gets accolades for concept, and of course press for her popularity. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396/60 "2011-03-31T02:13:50Z")
I can understand why Rowling’s as popular as she is. If you deliberately set out to create a series of books as popular and widely read as possible, by throwing in all the ingredients that make people want to read fiction, and by giving the readers mysteries and questions that they want answers to badly enough that they’ll keep turning pages (and keep obsessing about it in between publication of volumes), you couldn’t do much better than Harry Potter. Pullman is a better writer of prose than Rowling, and a fantasist of more depth and originality. But he’s certainly not as good at bringing his series to a satisfying conclusion. So much of _His Dark Materials_ is so good that I hate him all the more for letting his heavy-handed axe-grinding go overboard and making a mess of the ending. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-highly-praised-children-s-books-leave-you-cold/576396.md?page=4)