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

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The question doesn't specify that you read it as a child.

I've never hear heard of The Shrinking of Treehorn.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:48 (twenty years ago) link

What about the fables of the brothers Grimm?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:49 (twenty years ago) link

This thread doesn't mention WHEN you read them, though...

The BFG?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:50 (twenty years ago) link

Grimm fairy tales - yes
Dr Seuss - yes
BFG - no

What about Peter Pan?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:51 (twenty years ago) link

Mr men books, I read nowadays to the kids...

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:51 (twenty years ago) link

Moderator, can we specify that it has to have been read as a child? Cos reading children's books as an adult is fucked up.

Thomas the tank engine. by w h auden or somesuch.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:51 (twenty years ago) link

Someone Photoshop Tuomas the Tank Engine, please!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:52 (twenty years ago) link

What's BFG? I haven't read the original Peter Pan, only the Disney version.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:52 (twenty years ago) link

Thomas the Tank Engine yes. All 26 books by Rev W Awdry, none by his son Christopher.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:53 (twenty years ago) link

Someone Photoshop Tuomas the Tank Engine, please!

I do hope the result doesn't look like this...

http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/aqkorhon/hermanni3.jpg

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:54 (twenty years ago) link

By the way, is Thomas the Tank Engine really a tank engine? Sounds like a militarist children's book...

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:55 (twenty years ago) link

It's a fantasy world of talking trains (and trams, and like a helicopter in the revisionist tv version) on this little island governed by the orwellian 'Fat Controller'.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:57 (twenty years ago) link

Why is he a Tank Engine then?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:58 (twenty years ago) link

tank engine - one where the water for the boiler is stored in tanks alongside it unlike a tender engine where it's in a separate truck behind the engine.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:58 (twenty years ago) link

a tank engine

http://www.lbscr.demon.co.uk/photos/Remembrance-333.jpg

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 14:58 (twenty years ago) link

Oh. Wouldn't it be great to have a book about an actual Talking Tank, who'd go to war in distant countries and learn valuable lessons about The Axis of Evil?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:01 (twenty years ago) link

Can people stop nominating Roald Dahl books. I HAVEN'T READ ANY OF THEM!

Swallows & Amazons?

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:08 (twenty years ago) link

Nope.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:09 (twenty years ago) link

The Tripods?
Neverending Story?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:10 (twenty years ago) link

tank engine - one where the water for the boiler is stored in tanks alongside it unlike a tender engine where it's in a separate truck behind the engine.

fuckin hell! thank you MarkH! That one's been bothering me for far too long.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:10 (twenty years ago) link

The Tripods: yes
Swallows & Amazons: yes

sarcasm doesn't become you, dog latin.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:11 (twenty years ago) link

The Grimm fairy tales seem a good cross-cultural candidate.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:12 (twenty years ago) link

I would imagine that everyone will have read/been read grimm fairy tales in one form/language or another.

Haven't read the tripods or swallows and amazons (probably the boy/girl divide again)

― Vicky (Vicky), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:13 (twenty years ago) link

haven't read any of the above in vicky's post.

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:27 (twenty years ago) link

Was there a final candidate, he said skimmingly?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:34 (twenty years ago) link

So far, Mr Men book(s).

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:42 (twenty years ago) link

I've not heard of them so start over!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:43 (twenty years ago) link

If grimms fairy tales are a non-runner too I think we should admit defeat, or at least break it down into countries.

― Vicky (Vicky), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:44 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe not Grimm's fairy tales but what about your standard fairy tales - Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, that sort of thing? Aren't these things just reworkings of myths, so therefore should be fairly cross-cultural?

― Alfie (Alfie), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:52 (twenty years ago) link

I would totally think the Phantom Tollbooth.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:53 (twenty years ago) link

I've not heard of them so start over!

Really? Dude! They were great: each of them focused on a particular character (my fave was Mr. Messy) and how they interacted with the other Men over the entire story. (There were Misses, too). [They sort of look like the annoying Teletubbies without the antennas]

If grimms fairy tales are a non-runner too I think we should admit defeat, or at least break it down into countries.

Vicky, you give up that easy? I know EXACTLY what the Grimms Tales are. (Just found my old copy in my garage, the other day: blue vinyl cover.) My fave story from that was "Snow White and Rose Red".

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:55 (twenty years ago) link

What the hell is the Phantom Tolbooth? (or in the context of the thread, no, not that one then)

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 15:56 (twenty years ago) link

Ailsa is otm, i have never heard of that!
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ljw/mrmen.gif

― (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:00 (twenty years ago) link

Anybody else read Watership Down a ridiculous amount of times in their late single-digits?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:02 (twenty years ago) link

How about The Westing Game? I have no clue what Watership Down is.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:03 (twenty years ago) link

How about The Faraway Tree? I have no clue what The Westing Game is.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:04 (twenty years ago) link

No clue about The Faraway Tree. How about Where the Sidewalk Ends or THe Giving Tree.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:05 (twenty years ago) link

How about Janet and John? I have no clue what the Where the sidewalk ends is.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:06 (twenty years ago) link

I have no clue what Watership Down is.

Isn't that the story with Badger and Mole, if I remember right?

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:06 (twenty years ago) link

None of the above!

Nichole it's about the ickle wabbits that all die. *sniff*

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:07 (twenty years ago) link

No, that's the Wind in the Willows. Watership Down = dead rabbits and lots of tears from seven year old me (watching film, couldn't bring myself to read the book)

x-post

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:08 (twenty years ago) link

Where the Sidewalk Ends was written by that guy who died two year ago, yes? So I've at least heard of that.

I'm thinking by country might be a good idea, because it's occuring to me that I may have never read a childrens book set in the US.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:09 (twenty years ago) link

HOw about Curious George or Babaar. I have no clue about Janet or John.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:09 (twenty years ago) link

i saw it in the cinema when i was younger & still can't watch it to this day. Oh & the theme tune. *cries*
x-x-post

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:09 (twenty years ago) link

Charlotte's Web, Madeline or the Secret Garden.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:10 (twenty years ago) link

Oh god, how I love Watership Down! I may have to go start a thread on it over at ILB.

What happened to Winnie the Pooh? I thought it was doing O.K. but I must have missed something!?

― quincie, Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:11 (twenty years ago) link

I have never read Winnie the Pooh. My parents were barbarians.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:11 (twenty years ago) link

HOw about Curious George or Babaar.

NOW you're talkin, Carey! Loved both of them, though (stuffed) Babar was easier to cuddle up to at night.

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:11 (twenty years ago) link

OK, How about the Daktari annual from 1967?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:12 (twenty years ago) link

Janet and John was a reader in uk schools.

I only had curious george on tape, but I think I read a friend's copy of barbar.

― Vicky (Vicky), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:13 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 41 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Sadly...

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 8 January 2004 01:26 (twenty years ago) link

Is Misty of Chincoteague known outside the U.S.?

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

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 8 January 2004 01:54 (twenty years ago) link

i had a record with Tikki Tikki Tembo ... he's the chinese kid who became retarded after he fell into a well, right?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 8 January 2004 01:56 (twenty years ago) link

has anyone else read "noisy nora"? it was my favorite book when i was three. the illustrations were great, i think that they were mice. or maybe rabbits. anyone?

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Thursday, 8 January 2004 01:58 (twenty years ago) link

I was given Noisy Nora and remember being insulted - I thought my parents were drawing a parallel. Now I love it, especially the line

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

― isadora (isadora), Thursday, 8 January 2004 02:33 (twenty years ago) link

Nancy Drew mysteries were great. I also loved Little Women.

― Gale, Thursday, 8 January 2004 02:44 (twenty years ago) link

t\'\'t - are there any equivalen finnish folk tales tho, that read similar to the grimm-style ones?

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.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 8 January 2004 02:46 (twenty years ago) link

Erk for Finnish read Estonian, sorry hehe.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 8 January 2004 02:47 (twenty years ago) link

fifteen years pass...

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

― mookieproof, Thursday, 13 June 2019 16:43 (four years ago) link

i love The Westing Game.

― tokyo rosemary, Thursday, 13 June 2019 17:26 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

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

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 9 June 2021 12:15 (two years ago) link

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