Books You Loved as a Child But Don't Want for Your Kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I wouldn't say I LOVED it, but I truly hate the message in The Giving Tree.

Oh man, I've always thought this was a sweet message about a parent's love for their child. You have this beautiful baby and the next thing you know you're giving up sleep because they need feedings, you give up your free time because you have to care for them, you have to share your home, your food with them. No other person in this world are you going to make these kinds of sacrifices for, yet, as the years go by you love your child more than ever and you gladly give of yourself to them. When they grow up you have the satisfaction of having raised them and provided them roots to continue their own growth. Soon they will become parents to their own children and the cycle will continue.

Well at least that's the message that I get from it. I once picked this book up for a Secret Santa gift exchange at preschool. I hope the child's parent was o.k. with this book, I certainly didn't mean to offend!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The little match girl - I LOVED it. An orphan survives by selling matches on the street corner. On Christmas Eve she’s very cold in a blizzard and sees a family in their home all warm and happy. They welcome her in and she gets to enjoy this beautiful family scene. Except she didn’t really, that was a hallucination from hypothermia and she’s dead found dead on the street corner in the snow on Xmas morning.

OMG I remember this book. My mom brought it home for me to read and I felt so emotionally manipulated by it. Much worse than Bambi's mom dying.

That sounds very similar to a short story I read as an assignment in middle school- To Build A Fire, I think it was a Jack London short story. A man was dying of hypothermia in Yukon Territory, and he had matches to light a fire but his hands were too cold to light the matches, he tried a few different things to warm his hands up including killing his dog and trying to warm his hands in the dog's guts, but nothing worked, and he wasn't ever able to make a fire with his matches, and he died. The story also stuck with me a lot. I'd let my kid read it though- Little Match Girl sounds a little more disturbing though

I loved To Build a Fire and my kids have read it, too. Awesome story.

I read Little Matchbook Girl as a kid and found it to be a moving and memorable story. I don't think my own kids have read but I wouldn't be opposed to them reading it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember Johnny Tremain?

My dad used this book to explain to me why workers comp is necessary.

Haha. I. LOVED Johnny Tremain and read it a million times when I was younger. My 5th grade teacher gave it to me- I grew up with very few books that I owned, so I treasured it. It made me cry though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I wouldn't say I LOVED it, but I truly hate the message in The Giving Tree.

Oh man, I've always thought this was a sweet message about a parent's love for their child. You have this beautiful baby and the next thing you know you're giving up sleep because they need feedings, you give up your free time because you have to care for them, you have to share your home, your food with them. No other person in this world are you going to make these kinds of sacrifices for, yet, as the years go by you love your child more than ever and you gladly give of yourself to them. When they grow up you have the satisfaction of having raised them and provided them roots to continue their own growth. Soon they will become parents to their own children and the cycle will continue.

Well at least that's the message that I get from it. I once picked this book up for a Secret Santa gift exchange at preschool. I hope the child's parent was o.k. with this book, I certainly didn't mean to offend!

It’s apparently very polarizing. There was an entire sub thread of comments about the giving tree that were deleted.

[Anonymous]

No. More. Giving. Tree. Debates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was 10 I started reading my older sister's VC Andrews books- Flowers in the Attic series and the one where the girl is raped so the family messes with her concept of time and awareness. No way I would want those books in my house now.

Yeah, those are not for elementary school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tikki tikki Tembo. Totally racist

Can’t remember this book well. Why is it racist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. More. Giving. Tree. Debates.

Sorry. I wasn't aware of the other posts. Wasn't trying to renew the debate.

[Anonymous]

What about Superfudge by Judy Blume? I won't give it to my daughter bc it has a Santa reveal (she's a rising 3rd grader).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember Johnny Tremain?

One of my favorite books and definitely a good one for learning about The American Revolution.

Johnny Tremain is a classic. I don't see a problem.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t know the match stick girl was a story.

The place I know it from is that Pixar did an animated version. It’s heartbreaking. Heartbreaking!

I think I saw it on one of their ‘Animated Shorts’ collections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about Superfudge by Judy Blume? I won't give it to my daughter bc it has a Santa reveal (she's a rising 3rd grader).

I think a rising 3rd grader is plenty old enough to figure out Santa isn't real... don't most kids figure it out by 6 or so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Superfudge by Judy Blume? I won't give it to my daughter bc it has a Santa reveal (she's a rising 3rd grader).

I think a rising 3rd grader is plenty old enough to figure out Santa isn't real... don't most kids figure it out by 6 or so?

I learned as a third grader about Santa from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Superfudge by Judy Blume? I won't give it to my daughter bc it has a Santa reveal (she's a rising 3rd grader).

I think a rising 3rd grader is plenty old enough to figure out Santa isn't real... don't most kids figure it out by 6 or so?

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Superfudge by Judy Blume? I won't give it to my daughter bc it has a Santa reveal (she's a rising 3rd grader).

I think a rising 3rd grader is plenty old enough to figure out Santa isn't real... don't most kids figure it out by 6 or so?

No.

We gave DS Superfudge after we were 100% sure he didn't believe in Santa. He was 8. He started expressing doubts around age 5 but I could tell he was wrestling with the idea in his head at least until he was 7.