Children's Books

[dwanollah]

Love You Forever may be the most fucked-up creepy book in the history of Chillun's Lit. It's up there with The Giving Tree and Struwwelpeter!

So. The Little Princess sequel...? Er, there were a few plot holes and a little too much twee-ness here and there, but... man, that may be the best non-original-author sequel to any kids classic I've ever read. There's no way I'm actually putting on my shelf of (*haughty head-toss*) 100-year-old Burnett books that were given to me by one of the top Burnett scholars in the field when she retired and all (*pause for gasps of jellusee*), but I think the author did a respectful job continuing the story. And, with my (*preens*) "ALP as Kunstlerroman" work, I LOVED, fucking LOOOOOVED the last line in the book.

[sumire]

100-year-old Burnett books that were given to me by one of the top Burnett scholars in the field when she retired and all (*pause for gasps of jellusee*)

::gasp of jellusee::

[dwanollah]

Jan 20, 2010 17:41:43 GMT -4 sumire said:

100-year-old Burnett books that were given to me by one of the top Burnett scholars in the field when she retired and all (*pause for gasps of jellusee*)

::gasp of jellusee::

I KNOW!!! Needless, I went back to my dorm and sobbed like a little baby.

[Mugsy]

chonies, I don't know how long Munsch was working on his girl-smuggling-dolls-on-a-plane book, but - even tho' restrictions have been around for awhile, having a carryon bag full of dolls would have been okay until Stupid Underwear Bomber.

I confess I've never read Love You Forever; my kids are well beyond the Robert Munsch stage. I thought it was considered a classic, but now I'll have to check it out for its creepiness.

[dwanollah]

There are two firm camps on LYV (sorta like The Giving Tree): those who see it as a touching and beautiful (if, perhaps extreme) expression of a mother's never-ending love for her child, and those who think OMG WTF THAT'S NOT SWEET OR BEAUTIFUL, THAT'S FUCKING SICK, GAWDDAMMIT!

I still have trouble reconciling that the authors of The Paper Bag Princess and Where the Sidewalk Ends, respectively, could (unironically?) put out Love You Forever and The Giving Tree.

[Mugsy]

Okay, I'll bite. What's so creepy about Love You Forever? Like I said, I've never actually read it, just heard it was a classic. So what's it about?

[Deleted]

The blog/magazine/really interesting site Mental Floss has been doing a series of posts on children's book series lately. There's a list of the series covered, starting with Amelia Bedelia! (click on the tiny "Previous Entries" link at the bottom of the page to see the older posts)

It's a fun way to reminisce about some of the books you may have read as a kid, and learn a few new facts at the same time!

[smitten]

It's been years since anyone posted in here, so in going to risk breaking a rule
for newer opinions.

I bought the Wizard of Oz movie for sk1 (almost 5) for Christmas. I was so concerned about whether or not it would scare him that I honestly didn't think about my 2 year old sk2 at all. I just wouldn't have her watch it. The first time sk1 watched it, I let sk2 watch too.

Ever since then she. Is. Obsessed. She cannot get enough. Neither of them are scared of anything.

So my question is, would she like the book(s)? I've never read them and heard they were quite different than the 39 film. Any Greecie with experience introducing movie, then books?

Sk1 loves having long books read to him and I know sk2 is about a year off from that, And I know my parents avoided the Oz books even though they read to me a ton and I'd seen and loved the movie (or maybe because i had)?

[Gigiree]

That's awesome, smitten! When Lulu was 2, she went through a Wizard of Oz-obsession faze as well. (As a kid, I was always majorly creeped out by the flying monkeys.)

As far as the books, I tried to read them when I was about 10, and it didn't go well. I did not like the writing style, and the first book was vastly different from the film. I believe I made it about fifty pages in before I gave up, so it may be that the series gets better.

[ratscabies]

I have all the L Frank Baum books. My father read them to my sister and I when we were kids, and it is one of my most cherished memories. I held onto the books my whole life, just in case I ever had kids.

When MissP was born, one of the most exciting things was that I would eventually get to read them to her. Perhaps I started early, but when we started when she was 4, she had seen the movie before. The biggest thing she noticed that was different was that the ruby slippers were sliver in the book. Being my kid, she totally understood that Hollywood made them red to show off the glory of the brand new Kodachrome film technology.

She is 8 now, and we just finished "The Patchwork Girl of Oz." She is still interested, though whether it's the stories or the daddy/daughter bonding she enjoys more I don't know.

We have started "Tik Tok of Oz", twice, but she has fallen asleep during the second chapter both times.

There are 14 books by Baum, and numerous ones by others. "Tik Tok" is the 8th in the series. I never had any interest in the other authors, but actually own one written by John Neil, the illustrator of most of Baum's books. My grand parents bought it when my dad was a kid, and I have had it all along, but never read it.

Just last week, MissP stops me between paragraphs to comment, "This writer has a VERY creative imagination!"