Comments on: Bootsie Barker

By: Dave F

Dave F — Tue, 13 Apr 2004 12:20:06 +0000

Since this thread abounds with bedtime-reading critics, a valuable breed, has there been a sequel to The Gruffalo (my grandson’s all-time favourite, and one I enjoyed reading to him … again and again and again)? If so, is it worth bothering with?

By: hew diolch

hew diolch — Tue, 13 Apr 2004 09:33:17 +0000

Good: Angela’s Ashes Bad: That piece of shite sequel, whatever the fuck it was called.

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 13 Apr 2004 00:25:06 +0000

I’m not sure about the sequence, but I thought Louis Sachar’s Holes was superb and anything else from him was dreary. Holes won the Newberry prize in 1999, but coincidentally most of the other winners have been dreary too.

By: Ted

Ted — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 21:27:27 +0000

As long as we’re on children’s books—Good to excellent: all of Robert Munsch’s output, except Vile and intolerable: “Love You Forever.” (Who ghost-wrote that?)

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 15:49:34 +0000

I disagree with both Anita and Laura; I thought Amber Spyglass was horrible. It blighted the first two books for me. If we want to talk about slow irrevocable spirals out of control, there's the Berkeley Breathed oeuvre, starting high and then just getting worse and worse (with a possible uptick around the time of Billy and the Boingers Bootleg).

By: mjc

mjc — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 11:44:04 +0000

BTW, there are no sequels to Rendezvous with Rama, and Gentry Lee is the product of a deranged imagination.

By: mjc

mjc — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 11:35:55 +0000

In answer to the question “Who ghost-wrote Dune?”, I would nominate John W Campbell, the notoriously controlling editor of Astounding, wherein the initial version of Dune was published as a serial.

By: liz

liz — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 06:52:51 +0000

Hmmmmnn. I am far from the illustrated books days, although everything Jan Brett produced had redeming social value. (the intro to her site doesn’t do her justice) http://www.janbrett.com/ I am particularly fond of Fritz & The Beautiful Horses http://www.janbrett.com/fritz.htm which is a real true story, as opposed to the loathsome set of stories about a fish with a beautiful scale, which makes other fish envious, therefore he has to share….help me out here, toddler parents…

By: Laura, 11d

Laura, 11d — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 03:19:31 +0000

Agree that pig/pancake is not quite as good as mouse /cookie. Another one hit wonder of children’s books. A fine second book is Click, Clack, Moo, which was a follow up to Giggle, Giggle, Quack.

By: lms

lms — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 01:40:12 +0000

Rather than a sharp distinction between 1st good, rest bad, I opt for Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series slowly, irrevocably spiralling out of control, both the author’s and the editor’s.

By: Matt McIrvin

Matt McIrvin — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 01:07:01 +0000

When I was little, I actually preferred The Cat in the Hat Comes Back: there were so many conceptually odd things in it, particularly the recursive stack of Little Cats inside of the Cat’s hat, with its (incomplete) implication of infinite regress and the mysterious VOOM hidden in the realm of the microscopic. And I remember wondering whether “Dad’s $10 shoes” were really all that valuable.

By: Nabakov

Nabakov — Sun, 11 Apr 2004 19:11:57 +0000

I have only one word in response to this thread. And that word is: The “Uncle” Books by JP Martin; Tintin and Capt Haddock; Sqn Ldr James Bigglesworth; Richard Scary’s Great Big Busy Books; and John Blackburn mows John Wyndham’s hay.

By: Ralph Luker

Ralph Luker — Sun, 11 Apr 2004 16:54:20 +0000

Anarch: The short answer to your question is “NO!”

By: John Isbell

John Isbell — Sun, 11 Apr 2004 16:31:32 +0000

This thread would be a long one for movies, though the Godfather II and Legally Blonde II, for instance, were both comparable to the original. My sister tells me Scooby Doo II contains a funny line.

By: Anarch

Anarch — Sun, 11 Apr 2004 14:07:37 +0000

Am I allowed to nominate the Old Testament?