Creepiest Childrens Books Ever

[elgerber]

I know a lot of people love this book, but I find Love You Forever creepy. It starts out innocently enough- a mother's love for her son will never end. Then, it ventures into stalker territory when she crawls into her adult son's window to rock him to sleep.

I always picture the daughter in law walking in on them and thinking, "WTH did I marry????" ...And I thought MY MIL had trouble cutting the apron strings

Yuck, I totally agree! Someone gave this book to my son, I read it once, never again.

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

I totally agree. The book is cute to the point where mom drives over with a ladder strapped to the roof of her car, then it goes into wah-huh????? territory. Mommy needs to learn to let go!

Ok, it's killing me to agree with you, because I read (and sang) this book to both my daughters. But yeah, the ladder and peeking in the window is pretty creepy.

 

[SOnotLayuh]

Rainbow Fish, and the Giving Tree both creep me out.

In Rainbow Fish, there's a beautiful fish who looks different from the others -- so they pester him (bully him?) until he gives away his body parts, and then they agree to be his friend. YUCK!

The Giving Tree is meant to be read as a message about giving too much, but often is read to children as a model of how to be giving -- I want my children to be generous, but not to the point where I end up as a stump for an ungrateful person to sit on.

Some of those books look like they're books written specifically to help children with specific issues. While I think it's sad that children have to deal with issues, I don't think that helping them deal with them by explaining them in an appropriate way is "creepy".

I think the weirdest book I ever owned was one called "Else-Marie and the Seven Little Daddies". It was about a girl who had 7 tiny daddies, who added up in size to one big one. They were all identical. It was a fun story, but the back told all about how this wonderful book would make children aware of all the different kinds of families around them. Ummmm, I live in a very diverse place, I thought my kid knew lots of different types of families, but every family my son knows has either zero, one, or two daddies. I know one kid with 4 moms (both moms remarried) but they are neither identical nor tiny. We read the book many times and loved it, but never thought of it as anything other than a delightfully ridiculous story.

 

[freepixie]

OMG so funny!!! Senor Caca?? LMAO!!!

But aside from that, there are some creepy children's CD's... At my last job (teaching preschoolers) we got a shipment in from the program of all these CD's by Thomas Moore and Ella Jenkins - don't get me wrong, they are both really good artists but some of their songs are, well, different...

Thomas Moore has a song called "Don't feel bad..." and it basically goes...
Don't feel bad if you don't have a father, just think of your mother, mother mother I have a mother
Don't feel bad if you don't have a mother, just think of your sister, sister sister I have a sister
Don't feel bad if you don't have a sister, just think of your brother, brother brother, I have a brother
Don't feel bad if you don't have a brother, just think of you friend, friend friend I have a friend

So anyhow, we always thought that Thomas Moore was killing off your family one member at a time We just didn't play that song...

And Ella Jenkins for her multicultural CD has a song based on Italy called "My papa is a Paparazzi.." and it goes:
My papa is a paprazzi
He takes picture every day
He chases movie stars in their fancy cars
Until they get away
Hey Hey Hey!

Yeah, I didn't feel that was an accurate representation of Italy...

But both artists have some really good songs, these are just the 2 that always stick out in my head and get stuck in my head too, they are just so strange!!

 

[MinnieTink]

Do you know my MIL LOVES that Love You Forever book?!?! Creepy!!!

My DD10 used to love Walter the Farting Dog book where good old Walter saves his masters house from being robbed by sending the thieves running away from his super-potent dog gas. Pretty funny but the pictures are really weird and creepy.

 

[Daisy&Max]

The Easter Bunny is giving DS the Roald Dahl book "Fantastic Mr. Fox" or something like that. I started reading it and was surprised by the violence in it. I didn't have time to go buy him another book so I left it there but if he doesn't want to read it, I won't make him.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

The creepiest books list, and the comments below them, are great...thanks for posting!

I agree about Love You Forever. Talk about helicopter parent!

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Little-Mole-Knew-Business/dp/1856024407
My sister brought this from England for DS. It's about a mole who gets pooped on and tries to figure out who did it. Every animal he accuses proves its innocence by pooping so the mole can see its poop doesn't look like the poop on the mole's head. There is also a "plop up" edition.

Here's one of the reviews on Amazon for the above book (The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew it Was None of His Business)...the one that rated it "1 star":

Am I alone in lamenting the loss of class from children's popular literature? Seriously, the plot of this story is:

1. Someone takes a dump on a mole's head.
2. He searches for the culprit, examining a lot of different animal crap on the way.
3. He finds the culprit and takes a dump on his head in revenge.

I weep for the future.

LOL

 

[smidgy]

what about Cinderella and The Little Mermaid?
really.. the originals:
Cinderella: the 2 stepsisters cut off their toes and heels (respectively) to try to fit into the slipper. in the end, some birds poke their eyes out!

Little Mermaid: she fail to get the Prince to fall inlove with her, and truns into foam on the ocean.

also 2 others;

The Little Match Girl: she is poor, sell matches, ends up freezing to death.

The Steadfast TinSoldier: he is thrown into the fire and melts.

I could go on and on. the child's game, Ring around the Rosie? was about the plague. the rash was the "rosy" and " they all fall down!" was because they died!

no wonder our grandparents seemed a mite "grim" (pun intended!)

 

[SiAmCrAzY]

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Little-Mole-Knew-Business/dp/1856024407
My sister brought this from England for DS. It's about a mole who gets pooped on and tries to figure out who did it. Every animal he accuses proves its innocence by pooping so the mole can see its poop doesn't look like the poop on the mole's head. There is also a "plop up" edition.

If it wasn't for the link, I really wouldn't have believed this was an actuall book. I to am not sure wether to laugh or cry. I can't help but picture my little nieces running in circles giggleing and saying "i'm gonna poop on your head". I better put this one on the "revenge" list for Christmas.

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

The Easter Bunny is giving DS the Roald Dahl book "Fantastic Mr. Fox" or something like that. I started reading it and was surprised by the violence in it. I didn't have time to go buy him another book so I left it there but if he doesn't want to read it, I won't make him.

They actually made a movie based on this book. I really would like to see it. George Clooney and I think Meryl Streep lend their voices to this movie. Never was quite sure if it was a kids movie or not.

 

[BCDisneyFanatic]

I'm going to play devil's advocate on Love You Forever...I don't really think of it as creepy at all.

It's written for small children, and what 5-year-old doesn't want to believe that their mom will always love and protect them, even when they're all grown up?! I don't think any child would actually believe that their mother would climb up and break into their house when they're adults...but the idea behind it - that the mom's love would never change, even as the child grew- would be reassuring.

My kids always laughed at the picture of the tiny mom rocking the fully-grown son as he sleeps. Now, if a mother were to ACTUALLY consider doing this, that WOULD be creepy!

 

[*BTMRR*]

Love You Forever is the only kid's book that has made me both cry and cringe.

I got three or four copies of this book as gifts when I had my first child...I read one of them, and then threw them all away! And I'm a huge lover of kids' literature. Something about it was just weird.

 

[AmandaSparks730]

When I was summer-volunteering in the children's section of the library, I was asked to shelve books for a day. All was fine til I stumbled across a book called "It's Perfectly Normal".

It's a book to teach children the changes in their bodies, and where babies come from.

The creepiest parts were when they actually defined "orgasm" and explained that "it feels really good".

 

[Bluestars]

So many of these books are creepy. I wonder how stories like this even get published. They are funny, but not books I would consider for my kids.

 

[DVCJones]

Walter The Farting Dog

Really, I didn't make it up.

 

[hedgehog2owl]

Love You Forever always shows up on these lists lol.

It's a metaphor about death. says Robert Munch himself:

As Munsch relates on his website, in his inimitable style for young readers, the book was an accident.

"Love You Forever started as a song. I made that up after my wife and I had two babies born dead. The song was my song to my dead babies. For a long time I had it in my head and I couldn't even sing it because every time I tried to sing it I cried. It was very strange having a song in my head that I couldn't sing.

"One day, while telling stories at a big theatre at the University of Guelph, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a story around the song. Out popped Love You Forever, pretty much the way it is in the book."

That being said, I still refuse to read it to my child.

But I can certainly transfer the metaphor of a mother taking a ladder to the heart-wrenching pain felt for a dead child.

 

[bballmom56]

I'm going to play devil's advocate on Love You Forever...I don't really think of it as creepy at all.

It's written for small children, and what 5-year-old doesn't want to believe that their mom will always love and protect them, even when they're all grown up?! I don't think any child would actually believe that their mother would climb up and break into their house when they're adults...but the idea behind it - that the mom's love would never change, even as the child grew- would be reassuring.

I agree. I love the book. I take it as very symbolic - when the child is small, the mother is supporting and holding up the child. When the mother is old, it is the child supporting and holding up the mother. And after the picture of him rocking his mother, he goes home and cradles his child continuing the circle of life.

 

[robinb]

But I can certainly transfer the metaphor of a mother taking a ladder to the heart-wrenching pain felt for a dead child.

Sorry ... that story makes it even creepier.

 

[LuvLDM]

Walter The Farting Dog

Really, I didn't make it up.

I love the Walter books!!!!! We even have the stuffed animal Walter, it farts

 

[IDoDis]

I love the Walter books!!!!! We even have the stuffed animal Walter, it farts

I love Walter, too! He's da' bomb -- literally!