MovieChat Forums > Woman in Gold (2015) Discussion > The most HORRIBLE book in children histo...

The most HORRIBLE book in children history: Struwwelpeter

posted 9 years ago by thecure-1
8 replies | jump to latest

My parents were German/Polish Jews ... Holocaust survivors ... and as a kid they used to read me this book ...
I HATED this book so much I would hide it away... it was horrible...
As soon as the image came on on the screen I had a visceral reaction to it and my wife had to ask me what is wrong...
I remember the boy was unkept and had long nails and long hair and also sucked his thumb ... and at one point they CUT HIS THUMB OFF !!!
It was a horrible children book ... goes against anything they teach today ... I cannot imagine anyone looking back to that book and thinking any kind thought ...
Google it ... I am too afraid to!

[–] cyberjack101 9 years ago

The two main characters in the film mention how horrible the book is. You must have missed that part while reminiscing.

[–] thecure-1 9 years ago

Perhaps... I hated it soooooo much that maybe they did not stress enough how this book may have affected their childhoods like it did mine :-) !!!

[–] TopFlight 9 years ago

Sounds like Hans Christian Anderson's stories, like "The Red Shoes." That is horrific. The original Grimm's Fairy Tales are pretty awful, too. When you read those you can see that Disney had to change and sanitize them a lot to make 20th century children's movies.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] habul 8 years ago

Yep, this book scared me a little - my mother told me I'd end up like fidgety Phil if I got restless during meals. AND, we also had Cautionary Tales for Children, by Hilaire Belloc - equally chilling.

Earth. Welcome.

[–] gtbarker 8 years ago

I loved it when I was a kid (it was in the my infant school book box believe it or not) because it was so different and scary, and the macabre thumb sucking story was the best of all.

'Well I've got two words for you - STFU'

[–] cookiela2001 8 years ago

In my edition of Cinderella, the stepmother is put in red hot iron shoes at the wedding and made to dance until she's dead (!)

Lovely.

[–] nikkiten1979 8 years ago

😁 I should find it and read it to my daughter as a punishment whenever she's having one of those "I don't wanna listen to anyone around me" - she's only 4 and half so hopefully she won't be TOO scarred 😪

can't outrun your own shadow