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

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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

All the above books are usurped by the Moomin stories.

And to answer the question up-thread, the Pippi Longstocking books were popular over here too. We're suckers for Scandinavian kid-lit.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:39 (twenty years ago) link

I've never read a moomin book, sorry.

― Vicky (Vicky), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:45 (twenty years ago) link

neither have I.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:46 (twenty years ago) link

I never read Moomims, or Babaar, or Pippi Longstocking. My Scandinavian books began and ended with Mrs Pepperpot.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:47 (twenty years ago) link

Cos reading children's books as an adult is fucked up.

?????????????????

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 17:12 (twenty years ago) link

The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind
and another
his mother called him “WILD THING!” and max said “I’LL EAT YOU UP”
so he was sent to bed without eating anything.
That very night in Max’s room a forest grew... and grew...
and grew until the ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around
and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max
and he sailed off through night and day, in and out of weeks and almost over a year
to where the wild things are.
And when he came to the place where the wild things are,
they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth,
rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws
till Max said “BE STILL” and tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow
eyes without blinking once
and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all
and made him king of all the wild things...
“And now,” cried Max, “let the wild rumpus start!”
“Now stop!” said Max and sent the wild things off to bed without their supper
and Max, the king of all the wild things was lonely
and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.
Then all around from far away across the world he smelled good things to eat,
so gave up being king of where the wild things are
But the wild things cried “Oh please don’t go, we’ll eat you up, we love you so”
and Max said “NO.”
The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth, rolled their terrible
eyes and showed their terrible claws, but Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye
and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day
and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him...

and it was still hot.

Now you've read Where the Wild Things Are, you nutballs.

― luna (luna.c), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 17:16 (twenty years ago) link

Everybody Poops.

― ModJ (ModJ), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 17:17 (twenty years ago) link

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

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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