Struwwelpeter. We had an English copy handed down by my grandfather. It’s insane.
Example: “Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug (“The Very Sad Tale with the Matches”): A girl plays with matches, accidentally ignites herself and burns to death. Only her cats mourn her.”
(“The Story of the Wild Huntsman”) is the only story not primarily focused on children. In it, a hare steals a hunter’s musket and eyeglasses and begins to hunt the hunter. In the ensuing chaos, the hare’s child is burned by hot coffee and the hunter jumps into a well.
lol wut?
Holy shit
Sounds like a German kiss story to me hah.
Aww cute bunnies!
Watership down.
I just got the graphic novel for my ten year old niece. She likes the bunnies. I am a great uncle.
Yeah, definitely not kid friendly. I’d much rather give them a light-hearted story about puppies, like The Plague Dogs.
Not Old Yeller, or Where The Red Fern Grows?
No, those work too. I couldn’t possibly exclude examples of such lovely books for children.
The Yearling
The children’s bible. /s
Watership Down.
:(
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. That author’s imagination was daaaaark.
A lot of the original versions of the brothers Grimm stories. For example Cinderella, one of the sisters chops off bits of her feet so that she can try and get into the shoe Cinderella dropped. I think the Prince only figured it out because she’s dripping in blood.
A lot of those were meant to keep children in line. Also to teach girls that the only way they’ll be able to get ahead in life is to marry into money.
But it doesn’t pay off for the stepsister at all. She’s just bleeding, the story is about the triumph of The Grind- Cinderella stuck to virtue, hard work, etc.
Well the lessons there were a) don’t be a conniving bitch, and b) don’t be a stepmom or stepsister.
the Brothers Grimm versions were not the original versions of any of those fairytales! they were edgy remakes! idk why or how that thinking became so common or why I care so much!
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Coraline. The book is significantly creepier than the movie and manages to perfectly strike the uncanny valley
Is coralline supposed to be “kid friendly”? It’s one of the few books I wasn’t comfortable reading in alone in the dark, no way I let a kid read that
Yup, story goes that the publisher thought it was too scary for children, so Neil Gaiman, the author, told the publisher to read it to her daughter. The daughter said it wasn’t scary, and so it was published as a children’s book. Years later, the daughter said that she was actually scared but lied about it because she wanted to know the ending
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Actually just the art alone does the traumatizing really.
Have you seen those bullshit rerelease editions? SAD!
I think The Velveteen Rabbit is pretty fucked.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if they didn’t burn everything at the end. I mean, I get that sanitation in that situation was pretty darn important, but it was the author’s choice to choose something that required that outcome. That ending made me sad for a long time. Definitely didn’t know how to handle it. Not sure I can even now.
The Giving Tree
You need this: https://www.topherpayne.com/giving-tree
Amazing!! Thanks for sharing!
He fixed some other fairly-problematic titles, too. Check them out on that same site :)
Wow, does that site design suck.
How hard is it to deliver ten JPGs?
I would say almost all of them. At least the classics
No wonder we’re all empaths. And we used video games to escape our feelings.
= ADHD
Virtually anything with a Newberry Medal is highly likely to have a traumatizing beloved character death somewhere in it. Maniac Magee and Bridge to Terabithia were good examples from my childhood.
The book in the “Little House on the Prairie” series- (the one where Laura gets married and has a baby) and their childless neighbors ask to buy their baby. Is that enough trauma by itself? No. Not quite. It’s the lack of empathy from Laura or her husband, they treat them so badly, like they’re dangerous.
Honorable mention to all Newbery Medal winners, AKA the Dead Dog Award.
Bridge To Terabithia goes a step further.
I don’t remember it very well, but I know I cried for like 2 hours when I finished “A Dog Called Kitty.”
