The Worst Children's Books Ever

So I have to tell everyone about these children's books that I got from my husband that he read when he was a kid. Maybe I just don't understand the message they are trying to give, but I just don't get it. They are called Sweet Pickles books and here are a few summaries of the stories these books tell.



SOME FRIEND

This is the story about a Walrus that worries about everything. It is the day of the big snow sled race and he can't find his warm hat. He sits and worries about not having the hat and not being able to attend the race. Finally he decided that the best thing to do is to borrow one from his friend Bear. On the way to Bears house he starts to think. What if Bear doesn't have a hat? What if he does have a hat but wants to use it himself. Would his friend Bear not let him use his hat? Now he starts to get angry thinking about Bear using the hat for himself and not lending it to him. As he walks he gets angrier and angrier thinking about Bear not letting him borrow the hat. By the time he gets to Bears door he is so upset that as Bear opens the door he screams "YOU CAN KEEP YOUR ROTTEN HAT" and that is how the story ends.

THE SECRET CLUB

This story begins with Jackal finding a wooden crate that fell out of a truck. When he first sees it he says "All I ever find is junk. Everyone else finds good stuff. It's not fair!". So he kicks the crate and takes another look at it and decides it would make a perfect club house. He decides to start his own secret club and won't let anyone join that he doesn't ask them to. So he goes and finds three of his friends and invites them to his club. They are excited and start spreading the news to other people in town. Soon lots of people show up to be part of his secret club. This makes him angry because he only invited three people. Soon he yells at them to leave and told them it is a members only club and they weren't invited. So the rest of the people decide to start their own club instead. Once they leave Jackal starts telling his three friends the rules. His rules all state basically that he is in charge and they will do everything his way. His few friends decide that they don't like this club anymore and head off to join the others. Jackal got angry again and kicked the clubhouse down. He said "It's not fair. Everyone else finds good stuff and I find junk." And that is how this story ends.

And finally, my personal favorite worst children's book from the Sweet Pickles

SCAREDY BEAR

This is the story of a bear that is really shy. One day he is playing his banjo under a tree and Pig skips by with her piccolo. He is sad because he wants to be her friend and play duets with her but is too shy to talk to her. Elephant then comes by and asks him what is wrong and tells him that he should just ask her if she wants to play a duet with him. He tells Elephant that is too shy to ask her and Elephant tells him that if he never talks to anyone that people are going to think he is stuck up. He didn't want people to think that so he decides to try and give Pig a call to ask her if she'll be his friend. Pig answers and says "hello" but bear was too shy to say anything. She says "hello" again and again and finally hangs up. Bear is sad and sits on the sidewalk. Just then Zebra and a few other people come by and tell him that they like his banjo playing and so does Pig. He was so excited to hear that Pig liked his banjo playing. They ask him to do a show with Pig for the whole town. Bear thinks about it and gets really nervous thinking about playing in front of an audience. He gets up and tells them that he doesn't think he can do a show in front of an audience and walks away. As he's walking away Alligator says to Kangaroo and Zebra "See, I told you! Bear is really stuck up!" And here is where this book ends.

Ok, so is it just me or are these books just short of teaching kids a lesson. Maybe I'm just over analyzing it which I do, but they don't seem to teach a valuable lesson of any kind.