Among works with long standing and wide acclaim, the Babar series. Somehow I think the idea of Babar bringing the benefits of French civilization to his backward African cousins turned me off, long before I’d heard the word “colonialism.”
Among newer stuff that’s sold heaps, I find the art of Graeme Base to have a kind of shallow technicality that is not appealing at all.
Maybe I misunderstood, but I took DrF’s tone to mean that, like WhyNot, he was really bothered by The Giving Tree–not left cold. Lemur’s point is thus a good one: a lot of people who are bothered by that book think that their discomfort wasn’t the author’s intent. But it was.
By contrast, the message of something like The Rainbow Fish is meant to be exactly what you think it is, and is partly carried by a gimmick print job rather than the actual story, and is thus pretty uninspiring.
Heh–it’s definitely in the category of books I like a lot more as an adult than I did as a kid. Hopefully, by helping kids see some of the cool patterns in it (and comparing it to other books like Skippyjon Jones), I help make it more interesting for my students than it was for me as a kid.
I was going to add to this comment on Rainbow Fish, which has the broken Aesop of “never be different than your friends even if it means literally tearing yourself to pieces”, but then I realized that Rainbow Fish isn’t a highly praised children’s book.
True. But it’s had enough sales and press to have received direct-to-video and TV-series adaptations, and toy merchandising, and to have been displayed under a “Children’s Classics” sign at Barnes & Noble.
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.
Approaching the Narnia series as an adult, I couldn’t shake the comparisons I was constantly making to Tolkien’s works, and I always found myself wishing to just re-read The Lord of the Rings instead. Probably because C.S. Lewis was a contemporary of Tolkien, and used some of the same symbology in his works, but Lewis’ metaphors were a little too blunt for me (especially WRT the “Aslan = Jesus” angle).
When I was a kid, Maurice Sendak illustrations scared the shit out of me. They were just so weird and creepy.
For me, pretty much any animal-based stories left me completely cold. Black Beauty: Meh. Old Yeller: Meh. The only animal story I can think of that I actually enjoyed was Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which only barely qualifies, because in it the rats are basically people.
I want to try reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe again as an adult, because I just couldn’t get into it as a kid. I had to read it for Grade 4 and never felt like continuing the series. I think it was just too early for me, I didn’t hit my fantasy stride until Grade 8 and Lord of the Rings.
My teacher read us a book like Watership Down but it was badgers. Totally hated it, but I always hated the ‘let’s use animals to get children to feel empathy’ thing. Don’t read me a story about farmers committing badger genocide, if I’m old enough for that, I’m old enough for a story with human genocide.
I think Goodnight Moon has enduring appeal because it allows very small children to use their nascent ability to identify the inventory of enumerated objects in the illustrations and anticipate the next in the series, and this is fun for both children and parents. (When my two-year-old actually “clicked” on “Goodnight, Nobody” this was a real joy and something I’ll never forget.)
I get what you mean about it being very vaguely creepy, though. Part of it is the 1940s graphic style, and part of it is the uncanny valley anthropomorphism. Pretty sure David Lynch gets it too. (He may as well have titled it The Other Great Green Room.)
I tried reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in fifth grade. The whole Christian allegory idea was totally lost on me; as a result, I was so disturbed by the killing of Aslan that I stopped reading the book.
The Wind in the Willows didn’t click with me either, but that may be due to the fact that I was reading it as part of an “accelerated reader” program – after reading a book, you took a multiple choice test on the computer. The test for this particular book was 20 questions long instead of the usual 10.
Another vote for The Giving Tree. It was depressing, and I realize that was the idea, but I don’t LIKE being depressed. Didn’t like it as a kid, still don’t like it now.
Which isn’t to say I didn’t like stories with any kind of negativity, ever. I loved horror, even as a kid, and there were a few tear-jerkers I liked (like Where the Red Fern Grows), but there’s a difference between stories that are tear-jerking and stories that just leave you feeling hopeless and empty. The Giving Tree is among the latter, and it sucks.
And I love, love, love Watership Down. I reread it every year.
I have a newborn that I hope will one day become a voracious reader. To get her started on the right foot I went to Barnes & Noble a few months ago to start her collection.
What the hell is the appeal of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and their ilk?
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.
The Dark is Rising series. I didn’t care how she made it happen, but I wanted something, anything, to crush and destroy Will. I despised that character.
Hmm. That really isn’t coldness, is it? Bah.
Okay, Alice in Wonderland, Artemis Fowl, The Secret Seven, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and The Magician’s Nephew.
Ooh, Artemis Fowl. I really wanted to like it, but it was mediocre.
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 ).
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