This is the thread where we find a children's book that everyone has read.

One day Chang falls in the well, and his brother has to run all the way up the hill and say "Honorable Mother, Chang has fallen in the well". And the mother calls a bunch of people and they pull Chang out. But then T.t.t.n.s.c.b.u.p.p.p falls in the well and Chang has to run all the way up the hill and say "Honorable Mother, T.t.t.n.s..." but he gets out of breath and all muddled up and it takes a long time and they don't get the older brother out in time.

I think it is about why favouritism is a bad idea.

It was the 5 Chinese brothers. But I dont remember that one as well. One wanted to get married, I think.

I think one Chinese Brother got arrested for stealing (or summat) and the townspeople planned to excute him:

1) They tried to drown him (or the one they THOUGHT was him, but the fifth Chinese Brother could hold his breath underwater for eons);

2) They tried to behead him (but the fourth Chinese bro had a steel ring round his neck);

3) They tried to burn him, but the third Chinese bro couldn't be burned;

4) They tried to hang him, but they couldn't handle that, either.

...so they didn't catch on and he was let go. Lesson for today? If you're going to become a criminal, have superpowers.

(a book i took to heart during my days in the overcrouded public school system because it was about alphabet letters being all smooshed together or something}

I hated the book about Ping the duck that had to get onto a boat otherwise his ass would get paddled and turn RED RED RED
it was very melancholy...

I had all the lion, the witch and the wardrobe books. Are those the narnia ones or do I just have a horrible memory?

What was The Westing Game about? I remember having read it, but can't remember anything about it really.

I liked Tikki Tikki Tembo too!

(From "The Elephant's Child":)
"'Rash and inexperienced traveller, we must now devote ourselves to a little high tension, because if we do not, it is my impression that yonder self-propelling man-of-war with the armor-plated upper deck' (And by this, O Best Beloved, he meant the Crocodile) 'will permanently vitiate your future career'.

This is the way all Bi-Colored-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk."

was there a scary dramatised bbc version of it btw? or did i have a vivid imagination for cheap sets?

Has The Little Engine that Could been mentioned yet?
Ramona Quimby books?

Bagthorpe Saga, anyone? Three Investigators/Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew/Bobbsey Twins/Trixie Belden? The Witch Mountain books? _Make Way For Ducklings_? _Blueberries For Sal_?

Blueberries for Sal - I read that one just the other day.

Having read this whole thread I still refuse to believe a classic folk tale can have gone unread by all. Eg: sleeping beauty, Cinderella, Rapunzel, etc.

Surely?

I liked Stormy more, I admit. Danger and doom!

"we've lost her", moaned her Mother as they sorted through the trash/ "BUT I'm back again!" said Norah with a monumental crash

I have a great book by Italo Calvino where he collected all these Italian oral folk tales passed down the ages around fires and what have you. Some really funny, witty little proverbs. Fabulous book, full of spells and death and travels and marriages and theft... and farting.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-westing-game-a-tribute-to-labor-that-became-a-dark-comedy-of-american-capitalism

i love The Westing Game.

I never read those Wimpy Kid books (too old) and my kids didn't read them, either. I honestly probably resented the idea of books designed for kids that don't like the read; I volunteered for years in the elementary school library, and I noticed that the kids that read those books *only* read those books. But my nephew wrote a fan letter to Jeff Kinney *four years ago,* and he actually, finally just now wrote him back! It's a long letter, too!

Four years ago my son, aged 7, wrote a letter to his favourite author, Jeff Kinney @wimpykid . We mailed it off and he checked the mailbox every day, hoping for a reply.
He's must get a lot of fan mail, I said.
Eventually my son stopped checking.
Yesterday, look what arrived?😲 pic.twitter.com/rwuWRAOCaU

— Dr Eleanor Limprecht (@TheNeedtoRead) June 7, 2021