Bedtime For Frances-B. Bush St

Rating:
Summary: Call me a wimp, but this book is creepy fare for kids.
Review: This book would be cute if the daddy badger didn't scare the bejesus out of Frances by threatening to whack her if she doesn't go to sleep. What kind of twisted message is that to send to a kid before bed? Yes, the pictures are sweet, and the concept of the book is charming, but I can only read this book to my daughter if I skip the part about corporal punishment. Somebody ought to welcome Hoban into the 21st century.

Rating:
Summary: Crazy talk
Review: This is a great book, and brilliantly illustrated. The others in the series (like Bread and Jam for Frances) did not use the same artist and have an inferior look. The picture of Frances and her Father brushing their fangs before bed is incredibly cute, and my children think the picture of the father half awake in bed is hilarious. The original black and white illustrations are actually better and more scary-looking. Get an older copy if you can find it.
To the more hysterical people in this forum who think their children are irreparably harmed by the spanking reference: I think what you really don't like is that the father threatens a spanking without being portrayed as some horrible monster. Aren't books supposed to be about learning? Just tell your children that back when this book was written (1960) smacking kids on the butt was a fairly common form of discipline. Tell them that you think this is wrong, although some parents today disagree. If your children are still traumatized, then you better home school them, because they will never make it through a real school.

Rating:
Summary: Give kids some credit!
Review: This is the very best bedtime story ever! Frances uses every delicious, clever ploy that pops into that fuzzy little badger head of hers to try to stay up late with the older folks. Smart and creative kids are always reluctant to go to bed for fear they may miss something and she is no different. (Taking out the spanking scene would be akin to making Oliver Twist a boy scout.) Give kids some credit for recognizing humor when they hear it. If you don't want children who have a well-rounded sense of humor and an appreciation for literature and illustration, don't buy this book. If you do, buy this book and read it aloud everynight, with feeling. It's pure poetry. Then go get the others: Bread and Jam for Frances, etc. Hoban really makes you remember what it was to be a child and he has created one I am glad to know. My kids love this book and so will my grandchildren.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book But Be Careful Who You Buy It For!
Review: This was a favorite book of mine when I was a little girl and I have very fond memories of my parents reading it to me at bedtime. I wanted to buy this book for my niece but I'm a little leary of that because of the reviews about the threat of a spanking the father in the story uses to get Frances to go to bed as for the spanking part in the book either I just don't remember that part at all or maybe my parents skipped that part when they read it to me, and if they did read that part obviously I wasn't traumatised by it and I still have fond memories of the book maybe because I was like Frances a major procrastinater at bedtime who took a long time to finally get to sleep! So though I liked this book I would be careful of who it was bought for, definitely not a book to give to a child who's parents only like politically correct childern's books. Though I still have fond memories of the book I do understand why some feel uncomfortable by the spanking I Know someone who while reading the nursery rhyme The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe to her nephew and having liking it when she was little but she was dismayed by the line she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed but instead of not allowing him to hear the whole nusery rhyme she read it to him but skipped the whipped them all soundly part so the same thing can be done with Bedtime For Frances you can just skip the spanking part.

Rating:
Summary: A classic!
Review: This was my favorite when I was a kid. Now my 2-year-old daughter must hear this book every night before bed!