Unfortunate Children’s Books

From BoingBoing comes word of one man’s goal to assemble a collection of Unfortunate Children’s Books, based on books he comes across in the public school library where he works. I think by ‘unfortunate’ he means hilarious. There are some real gems here!

August 5, 2005 by Uncategorized 5

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5 Responses

  1. Anonymous Patron says:
    August 5, 2005 at 10:59 pm

    I’m too dumb to understand this one
    Somebody needs to explain what’s so “unfortunate” or “hilarious” about these books, besides being out of date. At least one was a Reading Rainbow Book.

    Awaiting enlightenment.

    Reply
  2. Samantha says:
    August 6, 2005 at 1:18 am

    you’re not dumb, maybe I’m just unclear
    Okay, I’ll admit that some of them are confusing, like the popcorn book. But others have titles that were probably totally inocuous at the time but are now innuendo-laden (Italian Peepshow, Tops and Bottoms, Curse of the Happy-Go-Gay) or are just wacky (What’s Inside of Animals, I am a JEW, The First Book of Salt). It made me chuckle, it was library-related (the fellow collecting the books works at a school library and that’s where the books are coming from), ergo posting.

    Reply
  3. Keybase says:
    August 6, 2005 at 7:49 am

    Re:you’re not dumb, maybe I’m just unclear
    The First Book of Salt was one of a whole series of “The First Book of ….” books for beginning readers. Makes sense to me.

    Reply
  4. Porch Geese says:
    August 8, 2005 at 9:04 am

    Re:you’re not dumb, maybe I’m just unclear
    Hey! I have “I am a Roman Catholic”, which is in the same series as “I am a Jew”. I’ll be giving it to a friend whom I sponsored when she became Catholic. She was baptised this year at Easter. I got her some Dorothy Day. Her 2-year-old son will be baptised next year, and dated though the book is, I think it’ll be a well received gift.

    And I used to have “Sixty At A Blow” when I was a kid. I had collected almost a dozen different versions of that story from different Eurasian cultures. I think sixty was the largest the boast got. Most were right around a dozen.

    Synopses: A tradesman in a “soft” trade (tailor, tanner, bean-counter) swats a bunch of flies with a tool of his trade (sash, belt, ruler) and manages to kill a surprisingly large number (7, 12, 60). He half-jokingly makes said tool into a trophy by marking it with a boast about his prowess: “Killed seven with one blow!”. King or perhaps wicked Giant calls him on it, forcing him to complete several arduous tasks. Through cleverness bordering on cheating, or perhaps magical intervention, the tradesman is successful and becomes a rich man. Depending on the version, sometimes the truth comes out anyways.

    The moral of the story is either: “Believe in yourself”, or “You can equivocate or perhaps even downright BS your way to wild success!”

    Reply
  5. Anonymous Patron says:
    August 8, 2005 at 9:17 am

    Re:you’re not dumb, maybe I’m just unclear
    Hmm…. And I always thought his favorite book was “My Pet Goat”…

    Reply

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