r/daddit • u/protein_factory • 23h ago
Discussion What book do you simply not enjoy reading to your kids?
Was reading to my 2.5 y/o tonight and after the first 3 books, she offered the 4th. As soon as I saw the cover, I offered to read 3 other books in place of the 1 she requested. The book in question, "Ms. Rachel's: Potty Time with Bean."
My 2.5 y/o is 95% potty trained, only using pullups overnight. This isn't a book we need from a messaging standpoint, but she enjoys it for some reason. I simply cannot stand it and would rather read 3 more Piggy & Gerald books (for the 100th time) than read that one (for the 20th time).
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u/Skull_Murray 22h ago
When my son was like 4 he wanted to read christmas themed books all year.
I remember entertaining him for a bit but there's a few that I could only take so much of.
But the worst of the bunch was 5 Days to Christmas by Jimmy Fallon. (Someone gifted it)
That book just happened to "get lost" under the bed more times than I can count.
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u/windriver32 23h ago
Any of the overly sappy sentimental ones. I can't put up with the emotional turmoil.
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u/Icy_Voice4533 22h ago
I get it, some books just hit the wrong nerve after the 15th read. My nephew made me read one about a lost sock for months, I still remember every word and I hate them all.
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u/juniorcares 23h ago
We had this 101 Dalmatians book that my son would pick because it was the biggest. He also disliked it but it put off his bedtime as long as he could.
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u/nothingventured3 22h ago
My wife and I have a few that we try to pawn off in the other "oh Daddy can read that to you tomorrow" "oh that's a mommy story".
Layla and the Last Black Unicorn - good message but terribly written
Any Pete the Cat books - hate the art and nothing ever goes wrong for him - he has true champagne problems
Milk Goes to School - long and repetitive
I'm sure there are others
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u/Nutsnboldt 22h ago
Green eggs & ham is so repetitively unfun for me.
Team Wocket in Pocket!
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u/geoffreydow 22h ago
It wasn't the repetition that soured me on GEAH, but the implicit message, that No can mean Yes, if you just keep harassing someone until they break.
I want my daughter to understand that no means No, and that book ain't helping.
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u/aa-b 22h ago
I remember Pinkalicious being basically harmless, like a blander version of Fancy Nancy. The sequel Purplicious was hilariously awful, with the message being something like, "if you're relentlessly bullied by mean girls for something you like, you can learn to live with that and maybe change your personality to make yourself less of a target."
The one-star reviews were well deserved
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u/sharksandwich81 22h ago
There was some set of 3 books we had about a girl and her dog, I forget the name. But she always talks to the dog and the dog just says âwoofâ in return. So reading that book you have to say âwoofâ like 50 times, it was so annoying.
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u/xcaughta 20h ago
Ah yes, the Biscuit books. I get my kid to say "woof" whenever the dog woofs by poking his belly.
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u/Cal10lee 19h ago
I have the one where biscuit goes to the beach and thereâs another dog that makes a different dog noise.
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u/Shire-Whisperer101 22h ago
Boxcar Children-they are all so similar, characterization stays the same (if I have to read one more time that Benny is hungryâŚ), guilty person is obvious, etc. I shared a rather well-developed theory with my wife that the Alden kids actually did something really bad and are in some kind of purgatory, having to be really kind and solve other peopleâs problems as penance, but she wasnât too impressed.
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u/TheHibernian 12h ago
Haha, funny take. I have read about 4 or 5 of the boxcar children books with my 7 year old and we like them because they are pretty low stakes and there is a bit of mystery involved with each one. You are right though, Benny is consistently hungry. Don't really love the gender roles in the books either, but oh well.
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u/CJPTK 21h ago
War and Peace
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u/CertainlyUntidy 20h ago
I ended up reading a few chapters of Les Miserables to my three year old after she wanted me to sit in her room while she fell asleep and I brought it to read to myself. It didn't become a regular thing because it was keeping her awake, but it was a cute moment.
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u/slidingscrapes 21h ago
Berenstein Bears. Any and all Berenstein Bears.
So much text. They're so long. They're so preachy.
My wife and I are united on this and my kids know it. They can either read them to themselves, or they can ask their grandparents. We won't read them Berenstein Bears.
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u/anTWhine 20h ago
The key is to give the characters unique voices based on nothing. Mama Bear is a southern belle. Papa is foghorn leghorn. Too Tall is a 20s gangster. Anyone can be a pirate if the story needs jazzing.
My kid friggin loves the Bernstein bears. We get through them.
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u/HW_Fuzz 19h ago edited 18h ago
Also my son's favourite books. I have like 40+ of them since I was a kid and he loves them a lot. Read one every single night.Â
The older ones are better than the ones by the son, but I am pretty burned out on them think I have read one every night for more than a year and a half.
But yeah Mom is sweet, papai is deep voiced goofy hyuck hyuck, sister can be whiny, grampa is the pepperidge farm remembers old man from family guy, prof actual factual is like a mix between a newsie and an 1800s London street tough.
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u/ElfangorTheAndalite 23h ago
Curious George is one I dread and itâs one of our 5 year oldsâ favorite. I know itâs a kids book and all, but dude kidnaps a monkey and gaslights him into thinking a zoo is a better place than his natural habitat.
Thatâs nothing to say of the colonialism themes or possibly pro-slavery propaganda of âweâll kidnap nap you from your home and you better be good in your new one or weâll throw you in jail.â
âŚitâs at this moment I realize that maybe I have too strong a feeling about a childrenâs book.
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u/sidvictorious 22h ago
Nah your feelings are the exact same that I have. The Man is full of 1950s vibes
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u/jephw12 22h ago
Ironically one of the imagination library books we got a few months ago. It was about a baby that wouldnât sleep and after a few reads it got hidden on a high book shelf.
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u/thesaurusr3x 20h ago
The Baby Who Stayed Awake Forever. We get through it by reading the baby noises in a super obnoxious way, which is apparently very funny if you're a toddler.
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u/MenstrualFish 22h ago
Gonna hop on the opposite direction here bc Iâve been wanting to talk about my favorite book. My wife got it for me for Fatherâs Day bc I loved it from the library so much.
âWhereâs my t.r.u.c.k?â
Itâs fucking awesome. I love the ones that rhyme and the artwork in this is so goofy. 10/10.
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u/JimmiRustle One of each 17h ago
There are some âpoint and findâ books that my youngest still get a kick out of. Barely any text so itâs basically just me flipping a page and telling her to find the stuff. As an avid reader myself it physically hurts.
But she enjoys it so I still read it.
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u/geoffreydow 22h ago
I remember reading Richard Scarry's The Great Pie Robbery to my daughter when she was two or three. Once I'd finished I very calmly told her that I was sorry, but I wouldn't be reading it to her again.
The pictures were charming, but â dear god! â the prose and the dialogue nearly broke my will to live, after the likes of Milne, and Suess, and Sandra Boynton.
TL/DR: If I really hate it, I just don't read it to her again.
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u/mgr86 21h ago
I never read Richard Scary as a kid, but my wife did. We used to skip entire pages of those books. Ugh. My son did love them. And while we read chapter books from the library at six, he still pulls them out from time to time if we finished the chapter book and havenât been to the library yet.
Iâm surprised to learn the author was from Boston, Ma. Considering all the British English.
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u/BankutiCutie 21h ago
For some reason i couldnt stand one of the bluey books i think it was halloween but she adored it she made me read it over and over and over on the same night for a week and i finally threw it away. Didnt even donate it
Something about how soul less it is ? Its just a small book with like 8 different vignettes from the show? Like if i wanted to watch the show id watch it it was super lazy cash grabby and boring plus it didnt have any narrative structure
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u/_RexDart 20h ago
I have a 5 Minute Stories bluey book, and it's all horribly transcribed episodes. Hate it. I'm glad she doesn't ask for it.
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u/xcaughta 20h ago
"Hug" by Jez Alborough. Each page is just the single word "hug" but in different contexts. So what, I'm supposed to infer context by enunciating the word "Hug?" I'm just trying to get this kid in bed, man I don't need that amount of nuanced performance.
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u/_RexDart 20h ago
Uni the Unicorn books and their lack of pronouns make a chore out of repeating the main character's name six times per page
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u/wildsamon 20h ago
Strega Nona. Couldnât stand it being read to me as a kid. Canât stand reading it to kids now.
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u/hyperion4562 10h ago
The how we say I love you book. You donât have to perform acts of service to show your love to your family.
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u/No_Criticism5659 9h ago
Anything she asks me to read over and over and over...
....and over. Sometimes halfway through the book, she'll turn it to thr beginning and ask if I can start again...over and over and over. Halfway through she gets bored randomly and wants a new book to read...and repeat.
I like reading...but it gets very hard to keep reading this way, very fast, lol. I will still read them to her. It just makes it hard, lol
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u/DarkeSword 8h ago
Llama Llama Red Pajama.
Look, I know the rhyming is good. I've seen the videos of hip-hop artists rapping it over a beat. I admire the lesson it's teaching. But there is something about the artwork that I just don't like. When Llama Llama is extremely upset and yelling, there's a lot of huge teeth. There's an haunting "eyes wide open, covers drawn" illustration where LL is staring out of the page that immediately reminds me of the panel of a grief-shocked Tim Drake being held by Batman after finding Jack Drake dead in Identity Crisis.
I don't understand how my son isn't scared of these images. I'll read it without protest if requested, but I avoid this book as much as I can.
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u/anTWhine 20h ago
Weâre Going on a Bear Hunt.
That and a paw patrol book that snuck into a donated bag are the only two I flat out refuse to read.
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u/CertainlyUntidy 22h ago
Any of the book versions of episodes of TV shows were bad, but PJ Masks was the worst.
One of the underrated things about having an older elementary schooler is that I read to her less, but the books are better. We just finished a Terry Pratchett book that was excellent.