What beloved children’s books should not be adapted to the screen?

The film adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” opened this weekend. What beloved children’s books should not be adapted to the screen?

Comments texted to MPR:

“A Wrinkle in Time”. -Melissa, Duluth, MN

“Goodnight Moon” should not be adapted to big screen. -Lisa, St. Paul, MN

No Dr. Suess should be filmed. Did you see “Cat in the Hat”? -Donna Grandin, ND

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”. -Charlie, Minneapolis, MN

“The Giving Tree” by Sendak. -Sue S., White Bear Township, MN

There is no limit to what can be adapted to the screen. To suggest that we should limit it is to stifle creativity. -Matt, Brainerd, MN

As long as someone like Spike Jones directs, the book is in good hands. -Josh

Why don’t you just call it “the elderly hate change”? What a silly and loaded question. -Mookie, St. Paul, MN

No children’s books should be made into movies. Children should be reading, not watching a screen. -Robert Collins, Eden Prairie, MN

From Twitter:

“Everybody Poops”. -@jpwest

Goodnight Moon. -@andreakremer

Share your reply in the comments: What beloved children’s books should not be adapted to the screen?

Perrin

Where’s Waldo.

Kara

Alexander and the No Good, Very Bad Day

Sarah

I wish no children’s books written before 1985 would be made into movies. I don’t want the pictures I have in my head to disappear!

Kevin

Where the Wild things are. H.R. Puffenstuff meets E.T.

Kit Hansen

One series that should NOT have been made into a movie is “Winnie the Pooh.” A generation has been deprived of the delightful combination of A.A. Milne’s stories and drawings and the fun of hearing their own parents don various voices to portray the characters.

Shane

The Giving Tree.

Steve

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Jessica Anderson

Everyone Poops.

Tim

No Fighting, No Biting
Jen

The Very Hungry Caterpillar! The story is great, but how to get 2 hours out of it??
Karen

Any of the Dr. Seuss books.
Ann W, Mounds View

Hollywood will not leave childrens literature alone! I wish they would either stay true to the story or at least not change the plot in major ways. Great example of an adaptation: Coraline. Bad example: City of Ember.
kennedy

Stories are meant to be told. Telling them on a big screen is fine. No limits.

I could see it being difficult to translate “When Sophie Gets Angry”.
Adam H

The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Nothing good for children could come from a movie with that title.
Stuart

Goodnight Moon
Mary

I may have said “The Secret Garden,” but the film adaptation was done so well that I like it as well as the book. Same thing goes for “A Little Princess.”
Elizabeth T

BTW – The Very Hungry Caterpillar is already a “video”.

My kids got it on a collection of Carle story “videos”. (warning: don’t buy videos for other people’s kids without asking the parents first) …

It’s totally lame with basically a series of still pictures I could probably do with my computer’s video editing program. It’s really an excuse to put your kids in front of a TV and have “someone” “read” to them, because that’s pretty much all it is.
Brian

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Maybe not a children’s book per se but I read it as a child.
Jenny

I don’t like it when they make any children’s book into a movie and market it to adults. I don’t think there are any children’s books that shouldn’t be made into movies as a general principal, but a lot of them would not translate well at all, and when they turn it into an adult movie in disguise, such as Wild Things, Horton, and the live version of The Grinch, they destroy the magic of that movie and, by association, the book for the children. They take it away from the kids and tell them, “It’s mine. Go away now!”
Marina

Lord of the Flies should never have been made into a movie, because it felt somewhat inappropriate for the age that was the movie’s intended audience. The book can teach children a lot, but a movie helps them visualize the childish cruelty that I would not want a child to see.

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What beloved children’s books should not be adapted to the screen?

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Eric Ringham