Before I share my selections of super creepy kids books with you all, I have to tell you about this blog I found. It’s called Cake Wrecks and it is so funny that if you don’t laugh at it, then there is something plumb wrong with you. Seriously. Here’s the URL: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com. (You will notice that I still have not figured out how to do a link within a post. I have found the link button, but I can’t figure it out.) I’ve also added it over there on the right with all the other cool blogs I like. The first time I came across Cake Wrecks I was laughing so hard that I literally had tears streaming down my face!
Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Creepy kids books! I know that I will probably lose my Jingo Mom card for not liking this book, but I have to say it. Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown unsettles me.
It’s the story of a little bunny who is saying good night to all the stuff in his room. That is normal enough. Except that he calls his mother “the old lady whispering ‘hush'” as if she were a total stranger. As if that weren’t bad enough, you are reading along and all of a sudden you come upon this page:
It’s a blank page that says, “Goodnight nobody”. How depressing is that?! And I won’t even get into the fact that good night is two words, not one.
I just don’t understand why this book has won critical acclaim. Unless it’s one of those deals like War and Peace or anything by Toni Morrison that people buy to adorn their bookshelves and profess to love just so they will look smart/hip/multi-cultural even though they have never actually opened the book. Or maybe it’s one of those super-artistic things that I just don’t get.
The other book that totally creeps me out is Today I Am An Apache by Patricia Geis. Although, even I have to admit that the pictures are pretty cool and the pop-up surprise totally lived up to my expectations.
This is a story about Sophie and what I assume hope is her stuffed pink elephant toy. I’m not sure what possessed me to buy this book except that it only cost a quarter (don’t you just love garage sales?). Anyway, Sophie goes to bed and dreams that Indians are attacking the Apache Village that is near her home. I never figured out if Sophie was an Apache or if she could just see the Apache Village from her home. She and her pink elephant apparently fight off the Apaches and save the village. It’s totally un-PC. And this is coming from me, the most un-PC person I know!
In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that, as a small child, I had a teddy bear that I named Goodnight. Mostly because I thought it was hilarious to make my dad say, “Good night, Goodnight,” every night. That’s correct. Even as a young girl, I was a nerd. In hindsight, I’m a little surprised that Goodnight didn’t have a little cape and a pocket protector.
You don’t know how relieved I am to see that I’m not the only one who finds Goodnight Moon unnerving. I’ve been a closet Goodnight Moon disliker for sometime now.
I love Cake Wrecks 🙂 We check it out at work all the time. It’s totally funny.
And I agree… some kids books are creepy.
First, buttons and now Goodnight, Moon. I need to re-think our friendship. I have to check out that blog. By the way, my co-workers and I thought the Carl books were a stretch. You know the ones where the Rottweiler is pretty much the kids’s babysitter? So realistic.
Did you see how you can share the Cake Wrecks posts on Facebook??
Maybe as Shelby gets older, you will apprecaite Goodnight Moon. Just recently, Jace has been VERY into that book. I have him search for the elephant and the giraffe and the tiny mouse hidden on each page. It has become a hide and seek of sorts. Its really a cute book, both boys love it. I dont think the bunny calls his mother an old lady, she appears to be more of his grandmother, but I would say its safe to assume the writer called her that… not the little bunny. 🙂
Patty! I told you about the buttons in confidence! (I’ve never heard of Carl the babysitting rottweiler. I like Hank the Cowdog though.)
I’m glad I have SOME company in the sisterhood-of-creeped-out-by-Goodnight-Moon. I guess Dorrie doesn’t want to join our club.
It took some searching, but I found the perfect combination between children’s books and cakewrecks. Here it is: http://failblog.org/2009/05/11/my-first-fail/
Enjoy!
Okay, I’ve come to my own conclusion about this book and finally decided to google it and see if anyone else shared my perception. I agree that it is very creepy but for an entirely different reason. Check out the picture directly below “Goodnight Room” on page nine. Take a good look at it and then add the creepy quiet old lady whispering hush and then tell me what the arrangement is…
Renard.