Children's Books

[pepper67]

And Svengali, I can't read The Velveteen Rabbit without bawling my stupid head off. I *still* hate that kid for letting them take his stuffed bunny away so easily! I don't care if you're sick and dying, FIGHT FOR THE BUNNY! FIGHT FOR THE BUNNY!

I hate the Velveteen Rabbit for that reason. I know he's okay in the end but it's rather heartbreaking before then. I don't own the book but I did stitch a cross stitch showing the Velveteen Rabbit coming to life. I'd sooner think about that part than the rest.

[prickle]

I talked about this story a bit on FT, but thought I'd bring it up again because it haunts me. There was a book that my 2nd grade teacher read to me called Tailypo. It's about a guy who lives off in the woods. There's this creature (which you never really see) that gets in through a gap in the logs on the guy's cabin. He tries to catch the thing, but just ends up cutting off the creature's tail, which he then eats for dinner. (I know -- WTF?). But then the stupid creature basically haunts him. Scratching around the cabin, moaning, "Tailypo, tailypo! Give me back my tailypo!" I only heard it that one time, when I was 7 years old, and it scared the living crap out of me. So, now I'm 30 and we were talking about scary books one day. I mentioned Tailypo, and a friend of mine ended up buying the book for me as a birthday present. I can barely bring myself to read it. Still scares the crap out of me. And I'm a grown up! What kid is reading this book?!

[jennipoo]

Tailypo sounds like some kind of f'd-up Edgar Allen Poe children's book. If he's written children's books, of course.

[Deleted]

One of my cousins just had a new baby and I trotted out to get my traditional gift; some books for the little tyke to enjoy. I found this awesome set of all of those Peter Rabbit books from when I was little, like The Adventures of Jemima Puddle Duck, and the one about the frog Jeremy Fisher, and ... of course, the Peter Rabbit. And there is no way I'm giving them to her - Beatrix Potter rocks the children's books!

[messageunit]

I got The Runaway Bunny as a gift. I read it to my son the other night, and halfway through, I said to him "I think Mama Bunny has issues" and closed the book. Funny, the next day I read a Washington Post article about "Moms who do too much" and the writer claims modern moms are divided into two camps: those who love Runaway Bunny and those creeped out by it.

My favorite all-time book when I was a wee little Unit was Jellybeans for Breakfast by Miriam Young. We never bought it, just checked it out from the library every damn week until we moved away. I pined after it for years. Once the Internet was invented, I would periodically look for it, but never found it for sale. Apparently it went out of print in the 70's and is really rare and collectible. My parents bought it for me from a rare book seller when I told them I was pregnant. Best present I ever got, bar none.

[Deleted]

MessageUnit, what is The Runaway Bunny about? I'm curious now.

[messageunit]

BagofBones, here's a sample from The Runaway Bunny.

The little bunny says "I will become a little sailboat, and I will sail away from you."

"'If you become a sailboat and sail away from me,' said his mother, 'I will become the wind and blow you where I want you to go.'"

It keeps going on like that. Eventually the poor little bunny gives up out of sheer exhaustion. Mama tucks him into bed and gives him a carrot. Thus equating food with love, and setting up a whole 'nother set of issues.

[Deleted]

Basically, "I will haunt you forever; you will never be free of me, even after you choke on this carrot I'm giving you in bed to eat while lying down; I will follow you into the next life and keep you chained to me for eternity?"

Yeah, that's creepy. Thanks, MessageUnit.

ETA: I have three little girls, aged 6, 4 and 2, and I still find this creepy.

[dwanollah]

The little bunny says "I will become a little sailboat, and I will sail away from you."

"'If you become a sailboat and sail away from me,' said his mother, 'I will become the wind and blow you where I want you to go.'"

Uh.

*scratching Love You Forever off my number-one spot of Creepiest Kids' Book*

[lurker]

Has anyone ever read or heard of a series of books called the Orpheleine books? I used to get these from the library(until it flooded) all the time and cannot remember who wrote them. The main orphan was called Brigitte and the youngest was called Josette and eventually they moved to a castle with a bunch of boy orphans who hated them and plagued them.

I loved the Shoes books by Noel Streatfield, and I think they are reissuing them. I saw Ballet Shoes, Theatre Shoes, and Dancing Shoes with new covers in the store recently.