I love that the two reactions to this book are “omfg this book traumatized me” or “lol I loved this book as as a kid”. We need to do some science or some shit to understand this polarized reaction.
I loved it as a kid and got it for my friend for her birthday, and she was so horrified of it that the mere existence of it in the house was having her cry and panic so much her mom had to tell her that she threw it away and that it was gone. (Her mom didn't actually, she just gave it away to someone)
This book was either made to: a. Scare children into not making their personality into their friend’s standards b. Scare children into eating their vegetables c. All of the above
this didn't scare me for some reason, instead I was afraid of an imaginary monster called "Potty" who was a living vase with a triangle nose and sharp teeth who wanted to eat me if I wasn't hiding
OMG THIS BOOK USED TO SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF ME. I remember coverin my ear everytime i heard the Pledge because i thought i would turn into the USA flag. this book scared me so much that i used keep lights on everywhere i go and even used the restroom with the door being slightly open because i thought the girl would attack me if i was alone.
SAME AS A KID I SAW THIS BOOK ON THE BOOK FAIR MAGAZINE THINGY AND STARTED CRYING AND THEN I SAW IT AGAIN IN ELEMENTARY AND MY REACTION WAS SO EXTREME THAT THE TEACHER TOOK THE BOOK OUT OF THE PILE FOR THE KIDS TO READ. Just seeing this thumbnail was enough to send chills down my spine.
Samee, there are also some children songs that I used to listen and they have some creepy texts but as a child I didnt realise 😂, but now I cant even sleep if i read those texts
This and Coralie were my favorite stories as a child. I made my mom read them with me all the time, and she recently admitted that Coralie was terrifying to her but I always demanded it before bed.
@@rose-gt1vt I was never quite the same after I realized the song “Clementine” was about a girl who drowned and then her father killing himself in grief.
I forgot about this book, now the memories are flooding back. My teachers would read it often and I was pretty unsettled. The beginning images were fine, but it was the part she morphed into a pill and the wall horrified me. The image of her in a chair with bandages was the one that scared me the most.
i think the reason why this is so unsettling is because of the way the art style is half realistic and half cartoony, also bc the the way it just escalates from something weird to something borderline insane.
The writer wasn’t a horror writer, and technically his writing is for all ages, because he truly knows how to show real actual life in a picture book: unsettling, confusing, harmful, and horrific.
I actually adored the book as a child, and as an artist now, I consider that book, and just David Shannon's art in general, one of my earliest inspirations. It definitely influenced me as a kid. Though I never was, I can totally see why some kids were scared by it now...
I actually was gonna say the same thing, the art is so amazing. It's probably one of my earliest inspirations too. A little freaky to me, but never horrified me. For some reason.
That's weird I like drawing and I remember reading this book likeing it but not understanding it. It's a pretty easy book though I was pretty stupid. I could barely remember this but I remember I did enjoy it. I think I paid more attention to illustrations when I was a kiddo. I actually been drawing since I was a kid
I love drawing, but as a 5 yr old, i couldn't handle it, but everyone else could. The art is pretty but i just was pretty scared. Though I wasn't a kid who would get scared easily lol.
Personally it didn’t scare me as a kid and it still doesn’t go this day, but I can see why it could freak children out lol. I wonder if this author could be one of the reasons why I like spooky/weird art styles.
I think that this is more a book about the loss of self-identity. These symptoms all started when her friends changed her personality because she stopped eating lima beans. Later, it changed when people called her names and she became what they called her, thus she is losing her "self" or ego. The doctors give her medicine, so she is defined by medicine and sickness and she becomes the medicine. Later in her room, she is a sick patient, and BECOMES THE ROOM. As a bedridden girl, the sick room is associated with her and her with the sickroom. This is the ultimate loss of ego, as she even loses her physical form, the most defining feature that makes you "you". However, as soon as she eats the lima beans and "finds herself" again, she regains her physical form (aka her ego) and thus her identity, free of cognitive dissonance and identity crisis as is represented by her physical form (her ego) becoming unstable.
That's what I understood it to be when I read it ages ago. I thought it was a great book. Too bad some people just take things at face value and get scared over the stupidest things.
To an older human with the brain power to see that, that's a great interpretation. Pretty sure this was read to me in kindergarten or 1st grade... I was scared of the cover alone for many years
Being honest, I think the art style is really charming, along with the story. His art style is really captivating and although a bit strange, I think that just adds to it. I personally was freaked out by the book, yet at the same time I absolutely loved it. Idk if that makes sense but whatever
That makes absolute sense, I was the same way! It kinda freaked me out as a kid but the art style was kinda intriguing too. Looking at it now, I question how the hell I even had the guts to read this a bunch as a child lol, but, the art is honestly just wildly amazing. Like, that's some serious talent.
Same 😂☝️ I actually liked the art style and the stories message when I was younger. I was like in 4th & 5th grade at the time, so that's why I wasn't really as freaked out. It's a tad creepy, but endearing and nostalgic to me
The deep, traumatized memories you brought back in me when I saw this thumbnail. Holy crap, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was terrified of this book as a kid. I remember my kindergarten teacher *reading this book to the classroom* and it phased me. I lived in fear that I would one day catch this stripe disease and eventually turn into my own bed. And watching this video and seeing the illustrations, this is even more horrifying than I remember. I do not remember the imagery looking this weird and creepy
I know it's not a book, but for me, it was the Tornado on Sesame Street. I think I'm more scared of it than real tornadoes. 4 years as a teenager, and it still terrifies me.
I used to love this book as a kid. Seeing it again now makes me realize that my weird fascination with body horror might have roots further back than I realized
I think the book actually has a pretty interesting meaning, the gum ball machine might have been a bottle of pills because the doctors gave her medicine, she turns into whatever people tell her to, it is an extreme of what she was doing before not eating like beans because her freinds told her to
@@Sickmmaner I mean, your room can be a reflection of the state you're in. If it was a metaphorical book, it might be referring to a kid wanting to appease to expectations and falling sick because of trying to put up with it, thus the changes she goes through.
I don't know why I, quote-unquote, "ENJOYED" this book as a kid, but even still "enjoyed" was a strong word. I had this book lying around in my library at home, I have no idea where it came from but I'm pretty sure we also had an audiotape or SOMETHING go along with it. Even still, the whole thing is like a fever dream to me. Every time I opened the book, I just lost my train of thought in the art and the story. I can hardly recall my reasoning for CONSTANTLY going back to reread this book a hundred times, but that thought - that feeling of unwanted nostalgia - has been lingering in the back of my mind for the past few weeks. In high school, I had to write my own children's book. The book I wrote was called "The Mongoose and the Hedgehog". It was supposed to be a book educating kids on the idea of hidden potential and accepting your own gifts and abilities rather than comparing yourself to people that you believe have "more talent" than you. I got an F (from what I recall)...writing a children's book which makes me wonder: who thought it'd be a good idea to publish this horror book labeled "for children"? David Shannon and Blue Sky Press...apparently. This book - as an adult - gives me more anxiety than when I was a kid. When I was young, I was fearless. This did not disturb me. It does now. So, thank you, UA-cam recommends, for tapping into my childhood nightmares by unleashing this rainbow-y horror into my feed so that I may finally reopen the wounds of my forever tainted youth, and stitch them back up so that they may properly heal.
the part where she turns into her room scared me so hard 💀 i spent so much time looking around my room trying to figure out what decoration would be each part of my face
I loved this book. I have bipolar disorder, and it was early onset, so I developed it at the age of five. As an adult looking back, I realize that I think the reason I loved this book so much is because I related to what I believe is its real meaning. The lima beans represent who Camila really is. She suppresses that part of herself because other people make her feel like she should. They don't like it. But in doing so, she develops problems. She's suddenly self-conscious. (I know believe this to be "masking.") Then the kids start making fun of her, and the problems get worse, because of course they would. Then the doctors come and give her pills she probably doesn't need. She becomes the pill because that's what happens when you take pills you don't need - you become a manifestation of symptoms and side-effects. As more doctors coldly examine her and throw treatments at her, Camila gets worse. Nothing is working, and she begins to feel more and more like a broken freak who will never get better. It is only when the kind old lady comes to tell her it's okay to be true to yourself (aka gives her the lima beans) that Camila recovers. At the very end, Camila still has the rainbow stripes, but she's displaying it voluntarily and proudly, and it's just a small part of her. Obviously, considering this book is from the 90s, I'm not sure how much of the language we have today was thought of when he was writing it, but I do believe this was the underlying message. It made my little neurodivergent heart happy, and it made me feel a little seen. But that's me.
This book was the source of my nightmares as a child and still is. I found this book and "The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" to be absolutely terrifying, I would cry whenever the librarian had to read them to us😭
I remember sitting in music class back in elementary school and my music teacher decided to have us watch the animated short of “The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly”, and when I tell you watching that old lady basically vore live animals, flop around, seeing her circular mouth, then watching her DIE terrified me as a kid.
I didnt know it was a book, for us it was just a choir song, our parents were a bit weirded out hearing 'there was an old lady who swallowed a horse, she's dead of course"
I had forgotten the plot until now but this was literally my favorite book when i was a kid. I genuinely loved the art. I’m worried about my younger self…
I loved this book and as an adult, I can see the message in it. It’s about being true to yourself. This all started because Camilla wanted to be like everyone else- to the point where she wouldn’t eat the foods she liked. The children bullying her by making her become things was her subconsciously trying to fit in with what they wanted her to be, even if she knew they were doing it for malicious reasons. She became a pill because the doctors wanted to give her all those medicines, and she eventually became her room because her insecurity became bigger than herself. It wasn’t until she embraced who she was and accepted that she didn’t need to fit a mold or meet expectations that she went back to normal. This story clearly aged and the imagery is very vivid and shocking, but I can see what David was trying to do. Overexaggerating smaller conflicts can be a tactic to make the real-life equivalent more manageable to kids. But it can also make them worried that if they don’t eat Lima beans that they’ll turn into a house. Either way, this book had a good intention but became a very interesting source of polarizing responses.
Oh man, I remember being read this in elementary school, didn’t really bother me that much until now. I’m in high school now and I still find the concept of this book terrifying, from the art style, the body horror, the cruel punishments, and then the room, she’s went from a normal little girl to a shape shifting monstrosity. I really do like the eerie art style in the book, David did a really good job at showing the body horror, would love if he created a book like this again.
The characters' eyes are the biggest problem. No characters make eye contact with each other or look toward the reader. The eyes are also dark, beady, and round which is why all the facial expressions look hollow. This way of drawing the eyes aggressively creates distance between the reader and the characters by preventing any sort of empathy. Other aspects of the book's art that are unsettling are the harsh, washed-out lighting that makes every scene look like it's in a leaky, dank basement lit by a single swinging incandescent bulb. You know, the sort of place a kidnapper would take you. There's also the body horror of seeing the girl on the cover have stripes and a thermometer in her mouth, implying she's feverish with a sickness unfamiliar and therefore psychologically threatening to the viewer. And finally, if Camilla is her room, is she also the spiders in the corners, or are they instead crawling on her giant wall-face?
There is the one unsettling picture with Camilla making eye contact with the reader when she’s a pill. But, yeah, I agree with your overall comment. You make some very good points.
Damn, I thought it was just me who had the shit scared out of him every time I saw the cover on the shelf of his elementary school’s annual book store. Also I think the reason the cover is so unsettling is because of just how realistic it looks, and just the fact she’s staring directly into your soul in the picture.
I had that fear too, but it was from an advertisement for a horror movie, not the book. Edit: Why the fuck is there drama going on in this reply section?
I loved “No, David!” and this book as a kid, since it was so detailed I could stare and stare and stare at each page, literally for hours, like I was studying it. I honestly would be really sad if it had not been in my life. Its interesting to read how some of us were fascinated by it and others horrified. I wonder why. I don’t think it’s right to say David Shannon should not have done children’s books, though. I know I’m not the only one who adored his art as a kid (and even now).
the illustrations in the no, david books is actually genius in hindsight! bc they look like drawings that could have been done by little boy "david" himself.
I forgot entirely about this book until this video but I forgot about everything other than "she didn't eat lima beans so she had stripes on her skin". My brain just forgot entirely about the whole body horror aspect of this book, that or it blocked that shit out because the painting of her turned into a pill didn't sit easy with me when I saw it in the video.
This book always scared me this came across me four times in my life ever. Hearing this video changed my perspective and I feel overcomed im 19 now and I'm was literally shaking seing this again. I am SHOCKED to learn to hear the same MAN to make this book and No David (literally my favorite childhood book) it comes full circle.
I remember being read this book as a child and being terrified of it. To this day, even the memory of this book seriously frightens me. I cannot even look at mis-matched rainbow patterns without remembering this book.
You aren’t alone man. The cover alone was enough to make me anxious going to the library in the 1st grade. I thought I was the only who felt this way. So much so that I was thankful our teachers made us focus on chapter books starting the 4th grade, knowing we wouldn’t read this book out loud. I’ve since overcome it mostly and oddly enough have become a grade school teacher myself. I still find the story messed up though.
This book completely unironically ruined my life. When I was a very young child I was pretty normal but one day in the library I saw someone reading this book and like the creepy little weirdo I was I discreetly read it over their shoulder. At the time I was disturbed, but it only got worse. For MONTHS. I would be plagued every night with the worst panic attacks of my life. I was absolutely TERRIFIED of this book. And once I got over this, there were other books I was scared of. But this was the first. Realistically I would have still had problems with the others had I not read this book that day but it still marks the beginning of a ~7 year time period of increasingly worse panic attacks every night until I ended up vomiting from fear one night and somehow just, ending the fear. So this book still gives me an instinctive reaction of pure terror. It was kind of hard to watch this video but I suppose this is the first time I am reading it since that day. Interestingly enough I still remember 80% of the illustrations. Sorry I just felt like saying my experience.
When I was younger my teacher read it to the class. It honestly made me kinda comforted, this also started my interests in body horror. This also made me like more “horror” and creepy type of books and just things in general.
I have a insane fear of body horror, like genuinely have nightmares as a 18 year old when I’m forced to watch those types of movies with friends. I partly blame this book I read and got scared by as a child
I think the reason why it's unsettling to people is bc this is pretty similar to how junji ito's works are. Unexplainable horror the reader is just tossed into thats not scary on surface level, but it gets worse and worse and the fear makes itself known. It doesn't start scary. Whats off-putting is the artstyle and that amplified the more bizzare and horror like events in the story
I remember loving this book unconditionally. I loved how slightly "off" the art style was and how bizarre the concept was. That one scene of her sitting in front of the window was the only drawing that got me though. I remember sitting on the floor in kindergarten just staring at these drawings, always getting upset when I finished the book and there were no more weird drawings. I think the slightly uncanny art style from this book (and honestly other media like The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack) really shaped my childhood. Wish more recent kids books were illustrated like this.
I absolutely LOVED this book as a kid and actually thought about it constantly for years after it was read to my class as a child. The art was super memorable and vivid and while I do remember feeling a bit of that like "horror" aspect being there--even as a kid--I loved it. That being said, I was *not* a kid who enjoyed being scared and I was deathly afraid of many things. Also, as an aside, she wasn't turned into a gumball machine; she turned into a pill due to the medicines. I forget which one it is but there's a specific medicine that usually comes in a gelatin capsule that has little ball-shaped things inside it that you can see. :)
my 1st grade teacher read this to our class, and I just remember bawling on my little carpet square, my teacher had to stop reading the book to address me😜 i went outside to not be as freaked out & took a friend with me, & I’m pretty sure the school called my parents after too
this book didn't necessarily traumatize me like how it did for some people, but it still definitely unnerved me at times. my least favourite pages were the one where she turns into her bedroom, that one stuck with me for years. I only found out it was by the same creator of No David a few months ago actually, and I still kinda can't believe it
She tried to be what others wanted her to be and (literally) lost her sense of self until she finally stopped caring what other people think I had never heard of this book until today but I think I would’ve liked it as a kid actually 😂
I don’t think most children would’ve known the meaning behind the book. It’s easier to understand as an adult but as a child who’s very impressionable I don’t think it would’ve had the same effect.
yeah! she was trying to be a social chameleon (hence the name) and in a "be careful what you wish for" type twist, literally became one, and realized that that isn't who she wanted to be
this unlocked a DEEP childhood memory in me… I have not thought about this book in literal years and honestly if I did I probably would have thought it was a dream. I don’t know if I still own this book. Kinda wanna go back to it now.
THIS BROUGHT BACK SO MUCH NOSTALGIA- I have no clue why this book was even a book for kids, but I remember watching teachers read this as a kid and thinking "aw man I'd like to have colors like that"
I'm definitely part of the "this book traumatized me" club. As a kid, the lessons I learned were doctors are scary, kids will pick on me if I'm different, and eat your veggies. I'm just going to shove this book right back down into the depths of my almost forgotten memories where it should have stayed.
I think it was about not changing yourself for others (at least, not changing harmless things about yourself). Camilla starts off staving off harmless bits of herself to fit in, and then keeps changing herself for people in a literal/physical sense when she gets the stripes, and the cure is eating lima beans--something Camilla liked but refused to do for the sake of conformity. I remember watching a video of this for class in elementary school. I'm kind of surprised that it scared people.
@@aerinhinton964 oh yes, I agree. I can see the morals they were going after now, but as a kid the the imagery and uneasy nature of the illustrations is what stuck with me and skewed my interpretation of the book.
If I’m being honest, I was afraid to eat Lima beans after reading the book because as a stupid little child, I thought once I ate them then stopped, I’d become a house.
I actually don't remember being actually terrified of this book growing up. Idk if it's because I might be looking at the world differently than everyone else but this book was one of my favorites and I loved hearing the story in school.
As an artist I’m realizing he decided to show a really complex thing for a children’s book which is why it just fails to teach children correctly. She’s shapeshifting because she’s trying to please the people around her by agreeing despite her own opinions.
wow, it's kinda neat to know that other people read this book as a child, and it wasn't just something from a different dimension that appeared in my household. i honestly adored reading it as a kid, or at least looking at the pictures. i guess it just weirdly fascinated me, and was definitely an early sign of a fascination for horror lol
I could see this story improving by going one of two ways: 1. Either the girl changed her skin so her friends would like her more, and she eventually started shapeshifting and couldn't control it because she spent so long changing herself up so people would like her -> losing identity trying to please others. 2. The real experience that happens when children experience a long-term illness. There's a series of books that are really good for this, one is called "Smile", after a girl gets her teeth knocked out and has to spend years using braces and such. Basically, they're about rough things kids can deal with that makes life complicated but are necessary to go through for their health. The stripes could've represented a physical sign of illness, especially with how none of the doctors knew what was going on.
I remember reading this book, and later in class we did a thing where we traced our hands and then colored stripes on them to mimic the illusion of the drawing being 3D. It was cool.
i have a theory: camila is experiencing some kind of psychosis, which causes her to believe her body is contorted/disfigured. she goes to her mother, expressing concern about her stripy body, and her mother takes her to a doctor. because, of course, her stripes aren’t really there, the doctor sends her to school. her symptoms only worsen with the stress of school. the lima beans are just a red herring i guess. this is straight up psychological horror, why did this man make a children’s book.
Love the theory🤔 but on a side note, wasn’t the theme or whatever about being true to yourself and comfortable in your own skin (or something along those lines)? And then buddy decided to show this through some kid turning into a literal pill? Does sounds like psychosis tho. But if the theme really was what I said, I really do appreciate our manz (more) for writing it tbh
Who else vividly remembers “The Book That Eats People”? That book traumatised me much more, I was terrified of my books potentially eating me because of it.
@@MissSteak06 The one where children would check the book out, open it to read and it’d eat them. I vividly remember one character who didn’t wash their hands after eating one night and the book ate them in their sleep.
honestly this comforted me as a kid because in the end she was able to overcome everything and be herself on the outside. i didnt have a lot of friends growing up so it just hit me diffrent
As a fellow scared shitless by their own shadow kid I'd like to also add to the list of books with art styles that absolutely horrified me as a child. 1. the stinky cheese man 2. the true story of the the three little pigs 3. most of the art of the the iSpy books.
This book actually started my love for the "horror" genre, and much more creepy things. It holds a special place in my heart just for that, I don't think I'd be so into horror and such if I hadn't had that book at least once in my life.
I actually understand the extremes that this book takes. I think it gets a little lost in the metaphor, and I do think it should’ve been more obvious because of its target demographic, but the message isn’t just “be true to yourself,” it’s “don’t give in to peer pressure, because if you do instead of being yourself, you’ll be what other people want you to be.” It’s why she becomes her room when the woman says “be one with your room,” among other things. Yes, it’s extreme, but apparently the author was a philosopher who wanted to get children interested in philosophy, and he just took it a bit too far and made the point a bit too subtle.
that actually makes a lot of sense looking at it this way. like bro i know i have some vague and messed up metaphors i use from time to time but WHAT THE ABSOLUTE F*CK, DAVID SIMMONS
I used to love this book, when i saw the thumbnail, i was immediately hit with a wave of nostalgia, i always found the book, strange but never frighting, weird.
Huh, it’s cool seeing this book again. I remember being fascinated and concerned by it. Now it’s reading as, “Because she wasn’t true to herself, she slipped into being a reflection of what everyone around her wanted or assumed of her.” A reflection of her environment and others instead of just- her. The kid who likes Lima beans
I didn’t know people where scared of this book when they were younger. For me it made me feel comforted and started an interest with other forms of “horror” and creepy things. I also loved the art style as well, yeah some frames are kinda strange but that just makes the book feel like itself.
I thought the art was cool as a kid, I never seen someone paint someone’s skin like that in a children’s book so I was entertained. Honestly books like that made me wanna become an artist, It was genuinely really creative and well made, kids just have different preferences
I was probably the most crazy child because I loved this book😭😭 I realized how wild this book it now but..I still love it because my past self loved it-
I have NEVER heard of this book but I’ll be honest I was a child who loved the slightly unsettling books to a degree that sometimes made my mom uncomfortable so I probably would’ve loved this lol
I feel like this book is an allegory for the autistic experience and having to mask (i.e, pretending to be something you're not to people please) all the time, but honestly the illustrator must have been smoking crack and doing LSD at the same time holy shit
This being a nostalgic children's book for me probably explains why I love body horror and scary stories. Honestly I thought that would stem from something that made alittle more sense....
when i was a kid my mental illnesses were very severe, to the point my mom couldn’t take me to a super market until i was 10 or 11. i remember strange things would send me into a straight mental breakdown. as a child i saw this book as an audio book on yt kids and barely watched 3 minutes because i got distracted. the cover on the other hand looked really cool to me so it’s funny hearing him say this
I remember when I was in 1st-2nd grade when we listen to a lady on UA-cam read “a bad case of the stripes”..I had terrible anxiety to the point where I threw up a lot when I was younger and the amount of nauseous I got just from looking at the cover was horrible to me. I had nightmares for about for a week, I would go to sleep crying bc of how bad the nightmares were, I would wake up crying, and I would always think I could actually get “the case of the stripes” and it terrified me and I honestly wish that book was never made in general
The part when she turned into her room out of all things, used to scare the f*** out of me as a kid! Also, the dead colors look like they were drawn to more of a horror type of book.
I was never scared by the drawings, but slowly turning into random things while not knowing how to fix it is a level of anxiety that’s terrifying to me.
I remember briefly watching this going "wow she looks pretty" and now that I'm watching this I'm going "it's not the fact that it exists, it's the fact that it's drawn visually and it quivers bones I never knew I had"
I had the EXACT same experience except worse with the 'Ms. Nelson is Missing!' books. They feature horrifying illustrations and psychotic plot lines. Viola Swamp littered (more like infiltrated) my nightmares from the ages of 8 to 13. THIRTEEN. It was so bad that I would legit complain to my parents about it. Children's book authors are a menace and should pay for our therapy bills.
This book used to scare the crap out of me whenever the teacher read it. I was a kid who was diagnosed with anxiety at a young age, and I would always have my anxiety flare up whenever the teacher or librarian read this book in school.
I saw this on my recommendations and had a full on ptsd dropped my phone on the floor kind of panic attack. This story HORRIFIED me as a kid. Like I would have NIGHTMARES about it. I saw the thumbnail and suddenly YEARS of childhood trauma reared it’s head like “what’s up doc? Ready for therapy again?” The raw primal FEAR that image invoked in my was not something I was ready for.
holy shit man you read my mind the librarian had to lock this book away for years until after i left elementary school because i would have an actual panic attack every time i saw it 😭 edit: STOP LIKING THIS COMMENT SO I DONT HAVE TO SEE THE THUMBAIL AAAAAH
I'VE LITERALLY BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS BOOK FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT TRYING TO REMEMBER THIS BOOK I READ AS A CHILD ONCE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS OHMYGOD
I remember reading this book as a kid and for some ungodly reason it inspired my weird squishy child-mind so much that I would actually AVOID eating lima beans so this could happen to me and I could be a terrifying chameleon eldritch being. No, I don't know why either. Yes, I'm still disappointed nothing happened.
Aren't we all a little disappointed that nothing happed? This book is the reason I even bothered to try Lima beans in the first place though. I do actually like them a lot though so that's good news. But yeah. I did spend some time wishing this would happen to me too. Kids are just weird like that sometimes.
I honestly like this book. And I think the art is nice. She turned in a pill, because the doctors gave her pills. The point is just she pretended not to like lima beans. It's because she was pretended not to like them BECAUSE HER FRIENDS DIDN'T LIKE THEM. So she started changing to fit what others wanted. Like the stripes where from her bow, the flag was because of the pledge, the pill because of the doctors, the weird plant-cat thing because of weird things people tried, her room probably because she was told to stay in her room.
This book didn't traumatize me, but it definitely freaked me out when I was in kindergarten. My teacher at the time decided to sit the whole classroom down and read it to us as part of story time. All the other kids seemed entertained by it, but as a child myself, I found it weird and disturbing. It was the imagery that really got me. Some of the pages made me feel an urge to faint. In my opinion, I could hardly call it a "children's book." I'd call it straight up body-horror. And honestly, it's a bit nice to know that some other person shares the experiences I had regarding this book. Mind you, it's not nearly as scary as, let's say, the work of Junji Ito, but it's definitely something that can easily make people feel uncomfortable.
A kids book containing graphic and grotesque body horror. What could possibly go wrong? Lol I remember reading this book as a kid and being both terrified and loving it but I completely forgot what it was called. I think this book might have actually triggered my subconscious love of disgusting and disturbing body horror like gorefield to this day. Like, I'm beyond terrified of it, it's one of the few things that legit scares me, but regardless I'm incredibly curious as well and just can't look away. I 100% agree this guy should have been a horror illustrator instead of a children's author. He's a master at unsettling, creepy, and disturbing artwork.
I love that the two reactions to this book are “omfg this book traumatized me” or “lol I loved this book as as a kid”.
We need to do some science or some shit to understand this polarized reaction.
I loved it as a kid and got it for my friend for her birthday, and she was so horrified of it that the mere existence of it in the house was having her cry and panic so much her mom had to tell her that she threw it away and that it was gone. (Her mom didn't actually, she just gave it away to someone)
now that i think about it i think the reason i loved the book so much as a kid was because of how weird it was
@@user-ui3qs9rk6g ah-
This is the perfect example of the polarized reaction omg
drop the skincare routine bc babes your skin is perfect
@Mushroom Lord same, obscurity was so fucking appealing to me as a child.
This book was either made to:
a. Scare children into not making their personality into their friend’s standards
b. Scare children into eating their vegetables
c. All of the above
Well I was greatly effected with a.... Thank ks teachers I'm broken bc of you 👍
This story didn't scare me when I was younger, but now that I think about it, uhhh, it's kinda messed up.
I got scared everytime I saw the pictures, but I kept on reading it, idk why lmao 💀
forget the life lesson nonsense, this author staight up wanted to terrorize small children. There's nothing to learn here besides don't fuck with them
this didn't scare me for some reason, instead I was afraid of an imaginary monster called "Potty" who was a living vase with a triangle nose and sharp teeth who wanted to eat me if I wasn't hiding
OMG THIS BOOK USED TO SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF ME. I remember coverin my ear everytime i heard the Pledge because i thought i would turn into the USA flag. this book scared me so much that i used keep lights on everywhere i go and even used the restroom with the door being slightly open because i thought the girl would attack me if i was alone.
verified person
There is not a single normal person who wasn’t terrified of this book when they were younger
yup
I didn't have an issue.
@@pey12slash09 I wasn’t terrified.
i was remembering this book a while ago… old children’s books are a different breed! yet they give me nostalgia and a strange comfort lol
Remember reading too the whole book just same like a dream
Yup. "Teacher From the Black Lagoon" was on 100. Today somebody's parent would complain and say it's too violent and scary.
It has kind of a wonderful message too. This book is the reason I found out I love lima beans.
@@shortbreadgirlscout3463 YOO I remember that one too!
@@shortbreadgirlscout3463 the art style was epic too
You just unlocked a deep anxious memory of mine. I swear this book scarred me for life.
SAME
AS A KID I SAW THIS BOOK ON THE BOOK FAIR MAGAZINE THINGY AND STARTED CRYING AND THEN I SAW IT AGAIN IN ELEMENTARY AND MY REACTION WAS SO EXTREME THAT THE TEACHER TOOK THE BOOK OUT OF THE PILE FOR THE KIDS TO READ. Just seeing this thumbnail was enough to send chills down my spine.
@@neon_honkai ?? bro I do not understand how any form of media can be traumatizing to people
this ended up on my recommended and my heart DROPPED into my stomach when i saw the thumbnail LOL THIS STORY TERRIFIED ME AS A KID
DuDE!!!
literally i would start balling crying when I would see it in the Library.
@@the_ebony_maiden879 SAME
SAME
Yep
The thumbnail and title of this video brought memories I thought and wished I entirely repressed in my mind
I love how I found NOTHING wrong with this book when I was younger, but now I actually somewhat understand the meaning lol.
Samee, there are also some children songs that I used to listen and they have some creepy texts but as a child I didnt realise 😂, but now I cant even sleep if i read those texts
This and Coralie were my favorite stories as a child. I made my mom read them with me all the time, and she recently admitted that Coralie was terrifying to her but I always demanded it before bed.
@@rose-gt1vt I was never quite the same after I realized the song “Clementine” was about a girl who drowned and then her father killing himself in grief.
Same 😭😭😭😭
Same😂
I forgot about this book, now the memories are flooding back. My teachers would read it often and I was pretty unsettled. The beginning images were fine, but it was the part she morphed into a pill and the wall horrified me. The image of her in a chair with bandages was the one that scared me the most.
I like barely remember this book too.
same...
I REMEMBER THAT PART. But for some reason I thought she turned into a tree. That gave me nightmares.
same O-O
fr i literally didn’t sleep at night. i was 5 😭
i think the reason why this is so unsettling is because of the way the art style is half realistic and half cartoony, also bc the the way it just escalates from something weird to something borderline insane.
Despite being scared of literally everything and having horrible anxiety as a child I was one of the weird kids who liked this book lol
I loved this and no David
MEEE THOUGH
yeah no same
@@mossy1148 yes same
This is me
The writer wasn’t a horror writer, and technically his writing is for all ages, because he truly knows how to show real actual life in a picture book: unsettling, confusing, harmful, and horrific.
Bojack Horseman b3 like:
@@danielcantiego9374 Bojack Horseman is an adult series
I actually adored the book as a child, and as an artist now, I consider that book, and just David Shannon's art in general, one of my earliest inspirations. It definitely influenced me as a kid. Though I never was, I can totally see why some kids were scared by it now...
I actually was gonna say the same thing, the art is so amazing. It's probably one of my earliest inspirations too. A little freaky to me, but never horrified me. For some reason.
That's weird I like drawing and I remember reading this book likeing it but not understanding it. It's a pretty easy book though I was pretty stupid. I could barely remember this but I remember I did enjoy it. I think I paid more attention to illustrations when I was a kiddo. I actually been drawing since I was a kid
Same I always read this book
I love drawing, but as a 5 yr old, i couldn't handle it, but everyone else could. The art is pretty but i just was pretty scared. Though I wasn't a kid who would get scared easily lol.
same
Personally it didn’t scare me as a kid and it still doesn’t go this day, but I can see why it could freak children out lol. I wonder if this author could be one of the reasons why I like spooky/weird art styles.
same even as a kid I loved the part when she was her room I just thought it was a cool book lol
Same
yeah no same too
I loved this book as a kid, personally.
@@bricow3202
Same
I think that this is more a book about the loss of self-identity. These symptoms all started when her friends changed her personality because she stopped eating lima beans. Later, it changed when people called her names and she became what they called her, thus she is losing her "self" or ego. The doctors give her medicine, so she is defined by medicine and sickness and she becomes the medicine. Later in her room, she is a sick patient, and BECOMES THE ROOM. As a bedridden girl, the sick room is associated with her and her with the sickroom. This is the ultimate loss of ego, as she even loses her physical form, the most defining feature that makes you "you". However, as soon as she eats the lima beans and "finds herself" again, she regains her physical form (aka her ego) and thus her identity, free of cognitive dissonance and identity crisis as is represented by her physical form (her ego) becoming unstable.
jesus that feels dark
Man's been reading carl jung's way too much.
This is a brilliant interpretation of the book. Holy heck.
That's what I understood it to be when I read it ages ago. I thought it was a great book. Too bad some people just take things at face value and get scared over the stupidest things.
To an older human with the brain power to see that, that's a great interpretation. Pretty sure this was read to me in kindergarten or 1st grade... I was scared of the cover alone for many years
Being honest, I think the art style is really charming, along with the story. His art style is really captivating and although a bit strange, I think that just adds to it. I personally was freaked out by the book, yet at the same time I absolutely loved it. Idk if that makes sense but whatever
That makes absolute sense, I was the same way! It kinda freaked me out as a kid but the art style was kinda intriguing too. Looking at it now, I question how the hell I even had the guts to read this a bunch as a child lol, but, the art is honestly just wildly amazing. Like, that's some serious talent.
Same 😂☝️ I actually liked the art style and the stories message when I was younger. I was like in 4th & 5th grade at the time, so that's why I wasn't really as freaked out. It's a tad creepy, but endearing and nostalgic to me
I feel the same! I just was never freaked out by it
Honestly as an artist i love his art style so so much, find it so pretty and comforting
@@sunny_sophie_art yea!
The deep, traumatized memories you brought back in me when I saw this thumbnail. Holy crap, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was terrified of this book as a kid. I remember my kindergarten teacher *reading this book to the classroom* and it phased me. I lived in fear that I would one day catch this stripe disease and eventually turn into my own bed. And watching this video and seeing the illustrations, this is even more horrifying than I remember. I do not remember the imagery looking this weird and creepy
The moral of this book reminds me of when your parents say “if you’re friends jumped off a cliff, would you?” but in a wayyyy more dramatic fashion
I’d take a cliff over this shit any day
gotta be honest i would jump off a cliff because fuck family
... it's not normal for your parents to say that. are you ok?
@@personone1382lmao yes it is
@@personone1382 Yes it is
I was actually just terrified of the “there once was a woman who ate a fly” books. That was pure horror
oh boy i remember that
YO WHAT SAME
the book in the video was fine but THOSE books were TERRIFYING
idk why tho...
but still traumatizing anyway
YOU TOO.. I feel validated
Wow I don’t think I acknowledged that as fear back then but reading this comment just got me feeling eerie.
I know it's not a book, but for me, it was the Tornado on Sesame Street. I think I'm more scared of it than real tornadoes. 4 years as a teenager, and it still terrifies me.
8:07 "Camila turns back into a girl with no stripes." " *Thank fucking god.* "
I used to love this book as a kid. Seeing it again now makes me realize that my weird fascination with body horror might have roots further back than I realized
same, im glade that im not the only one who owned this book as a kid that then fell down the body horror pipeline
Saaaaaame!
I just got done watching American Mary , and now I'm here....
Same tbh
actually same, i adored this book when i was super young and now im an adult and obsessed with horror and dark content
I think the book actually has a pretty interesting meaning, the gum ball machine might have been a bottle of pills because the doctors gave her medicine, she turns into whatever people tell her to, it is an extreme of what she was doing before not eating like beans because her freinds told her to
True, but HER ROOM?
She didn’t turn into a bottle of pills. She was a literal pill capsule. The ‘gumballs’ were the beads that are in pill capsules.
@@Sickmmaner maybe she turned into her room because people told her to stay inside and not go to school
@@Sickmmaner I mean, your room can be a reflection of the state you're in. If it was a metaphorical book, it might be referring to a kid wanting to appease to expectations and falling sick because of trying to put up with it, thus the changes she goes through.
Very interesting interp
I don't know why I, quote-unquote, "ENJOYED" this book as a kid, but even still "enjoyed" was a strong word. I had this book lying around in my library at home, I have no idea where it came from but I'm pretty sure we also had an audiotape or SOMETHING go along with it. Even still, the whole thing is like a fever dream to me. Every time I opened the book, I just lost my train of thought in the art and the story. I can hardly recall my reasoning for CONSTANTLY going back to reread this book a hundred times, but that thought - that feeling of unwanted nostalgia - has been lingering in the back of my mind for the past few weeks.
In high school, I had to write my own children's book. The book I wrote was called "The Mongoose and the Hedgehog". It was supposed to be a book educating kids on the idea of hidden potential and accepting your own gifts and abilities rather than comparing yourself to people that you believe have "more talent" than you. I got an F (from what I recall)...writing a children's book which makes me wonder: who thought it'd be a good idea to publish this horror book labeled "for children"? David Shannon and Blue Sky Press...apparently.
This book - as an adult - gives me more anxiety than when I was a kid. When I was young, I was fearless. This did not disturb me. It does now. So, thank you, UA-cam recommends, for tapping into my childhood nightmares by unleashing this rainbow-y horror into my feed so that I may finally reopen the wounds of my forever tainted youth, and stitch them back up so that they may properly heal.
Your book that you wrote in high school actually sounds really wholesome! I would love to see some more books like this.
@@vanessakosa6905 I agree. Why on earth did he get an F?
Wait why did you get an F? That sounds really cool :(
I ate this up as a kid, I had it memorized from how much I read it
This book was horrifying to me as a kid, especially when it leans into body horror with the bacteria limbs and crap.
Baby's first David Lynch
Body horror is the best way to describe this
the part where she turns into her room scared me so hard 💀 i spent so much time looking around my room trying to figure out what decoration would be each part of my face
I loved this book. I have bipolar disorder, and it was early onset, so I developed it at the age of five. As an adult looking back, I realize that I think the reason I loved this book so much is because I related to what I believe is its real meaning. The lima beans represent who Camila really is. She suppresses that part of herself because other people make her feel like she should. They don't like it. But in doing so, she develops problems. She's suddenly self-conscious. (I know believe this to be "masking.") Then the kids start making fun of her, and the problems get worse, because of course they would. Then the doctors come and give her pills she probably doesn't need. She becomes the pill because that's what happens when you take pills you don't need - you become a manifestation of symptoms and side-effects. As more doctors coldly examine her and throw treatments at her, Camila gets worse. Nothing is working, and she begins to feel more and more like a broken freak who will never get better. It is only when the kind old lady comes to tell her it's okay to be true to yourself (aka gives her the lima beans) that Camila recovers. At the very end, Camila still has the rainbow stripes, but she's displaying it voluntarily and proudly, and it's just a small part of her. Obviously, considering this book is from the 90s, I'm not sure how much of the language we have today was thought of when he was writing it, but I do believe this was the underlying message. It made my little neurodivergent heart happy, and it made me feel a little seen. But that's me.
I love this interpretation
I was diagnosed bipolar at five as well and went through similar stuff
DUDE I LOVED THIS BOOK TOO IT WAS SO FRICKIN GOOD?? WHENEVER WE WOULD READ IT IN CLASS I WOULD GET SO EXCITED AND THIS TAKE ON IT IS SO GOOD
Oh geez, that's brilliant
@@foggypebble5159what does bipolar mean
This book was the source of my nightmares as a child and still is. I found this book and "The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" to be absolutely terrifying, I would cry whenever the librarian had to read them to us😭
I remember sitting in music class back in elementary school and my music teacher decided to have us watch the animated short of “The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly”, and when I tell you watching that old lady basically vore live animals, flop around, seeing her circular mouth, then watching her DIE terrified me as a kid.
I love the book and didnt think of it as terrifying. And if I did, I probably just like the style
I didnt know it was a book, for us it was just a choir song, our parents were a bit weirded out hearing 'there was an old lady who swallowed a horse, she's dead of course"
I loved those books.
I thought I was the only one. Truly nightmare fuel. I couldn't sleep the first time I read that book.
I had forgotten the plot until now but this was literally my favorite book when i was a kid. I genuinely loved the art. I’m worried about my younger self…
I loved this book and as an adult, I can see the message in it. It’s about being true to yourself. This all started because Camilla wanted to be like everyone else- to the point where she wouldn’t eat the foods she liked. The children bullying her by making her become things was her subconsciously trying to fit in with what they wanted her to be, even if she knew they were doing it for malicious reasons. She became a pill because the doctors wanted to give her all those medicines, and she eventually became her room because her insecurity became bigger than herself. It wasn’t until she embraced who she was and accepted that she didn’t need to fit a mold or meet expectations that she went back to normal.
This story clearly aged and the imagery is very vivid and shocking, but I can see what David was trying to do. Overexaggerating smaller conflicts can be a tactic to make the real-life equivalent more manageable to kids. But it can also make them worried that if they don’t eat Lima beans that they’ll turn into a house. Either way, this book had a good intention but became a very interesting source of polarizing responses.
Completely agreed
You nailed it
Yes this is literally it. And this is a message that more kids should be taught today
Oh man, I remember being read this in elementary school, didn’t really bother me that much until now. I’m in high school now and I still find the concept of this book terrifying, from the art style, the body horror, the cruel punishments, and then the room, she’s went from a normal little girl to a shape shifting monstrosity. I really do like the eerie art style in the book, David did a really good job at showing the body horror, would love if he created a book like this again.
i saw this when i was 5 ahaha whyy
honestly
his other books I was a bit older when I saw but dude… they’re creepy too lol
The characters' eyes are the biggest problem. No characters make eye contact with each other or look toward the reader. The eyes are also dark, beady, and round which is why all the facial expressions look hollow. This way of drawing the eyes aggressively creates distance between the reader and the characters by preventing any sort of empathy.
Other aspects of the book's art that are unsettling are the harsh, washed-out lighting that makes every scene look like it's in a leaky, dank basement lit by a single swinging incandescent bulb. You know, the sort of place a kidnapper would take you. There's also the body horror of seeing the girl on the cover have stripes and a thermometer in her mouth, implying she's feverish with a sickness unfamiliar and therefore psychologically threatening to the viewer.
And finally, if Camilla is her room, is she also the spiders in the corners, or are they instead crawling on her giant wall-face?
The old lady makes contact. Creepily tho
That question at the end sent chills down my spine oh my god that shit is terrifying
There is the one unsettling picture with Camilla making eye contact with the reader when she’s a pill. But, yeah, I agree with your overall comment. You make some very good points.
This makes me realize how horrifying it'd be if the house Camilla became had an ant infestation
Damn, I thought it was just me who had the shit scared out of him every time I saw the cover on the shelf of his elementary school’s annual book store.
Also I think the reason the cover is so unsettling is because of just how realistic it looks, and just the fact she’s staring directly into your soul in the picture.
A different children's book that I loved as a kid was "The Little Match Girl". It was about a girl dying of cold and hunger in an alley.
.
Still my favorite! I was a child with depressing taste.
Have you seen the animated film of it by Disney? It made me cry for 20 minutes.
its worse that she saw warmth and food every time she lit a match
At least she's with her grandmother now.
I suggest you read a funny story such as Van Hunks and the Devil.
Finally, people are talking about this, I was absolutely terrified of even sleeping on my back for 6 years.
I had that fear too, but it was from an advertisement for a horror movie, not the book.
Edit: Why the fuck is there drama going on in this reply section?
Oh, oh no.
dumbass people
Bro I thought I was the only person who was scared of this shit
@@Cloudfiin says the weeb
I loved “No, David!” and this book as a kid, since it was so detailed I could stare and stare and stare at each page, literally for hours, like I was studying it. I honestly would be really sad if it had not been in my life.
Its interesting to read how some of us were fascinated by it and others horrified. I wonder why. I don’t think it’s right to say David Shannon should not have done children’s books, though. I know I’m not the only one who adored his art as a kid (and even now).
YESSSS
the illustrations in the no, david books is actually genius in hindsight! bc they look like drawings that could have been done by little boy "david" himself.
I absolutely loved that book as a kid
8:45 "she turned into a GuMBaLL mAcHiNe" got me dying lmao
Fr😂
As a kid I liked this book, and enjoyed when the teacher would read it to the class, but looking back on it it’s literally body horror 😭
Peak surrealism
Bro same
It’s not that scary
@@CasualCat64 I don;t find it too unsettling either-
This book fr got me into body horror
I was scared of the illustrations as a kid, but I reread this book so many times regardless. Guess it was my first step towards becoming a horror fan.
Oh my god, I thought I was the only one who didn’t like the cover as a child. Lol, guess not.
I forgot entirely about this book until this video but I forgot about everything other than "she didn't eat lima beans so she had stripes on her skin". My brain just forgot entirely about the whole body horror aspect of this book, that or it blocked that shit out because the painting of her turned into a pill didn't sit easy with me when I saw it in the video.
YEA I FUCKING FORGOT THAT PART
Yea, same
All I remembered was the body horror. I forgot the reason she even had stripes
i remember seeing this book in my elementary school library
This book always scared me this came across me four times in my life ever. Hearing this video changed my perspective and I feel overcomed im 19 now and I'm was literally shaking seing this again. I am SHOCKED to learn to hear the same MAN to make this book and No David (literally my favorite childhood book) it comes full circle.
I remember being read this book as a child and being terrified of it. To this day, even the memory of this book seriously frightens me. I cannot even look at mis-matched rainbow patterns without remembering this book.
Completely agree
Same it scarred me
Agreed, I would get hallucinations of the book.
You aren’t alone man. The cover alone was enough to make me anxious going to the library in the 1st grade. I thought I was the only who felt this way. So much so that I was thankful our teachers made us focus on chapter books starting the 4th grade, knowing we wouldn’t read this book out loud.
I’ve since overcome it mostly and oddly enough have become a grade school teacher myself. I still find the story messed up though.
This book completely unironically ruined my life. When I was a very young child I was pretty normal but one day in the library I saw someone reading this book and like the creepy little weirdo I was I discreetly read it over their shoulder. At the time I was disturbed, but it only got worse. For MONTHS. I would be plagued every night with the worst panic attacks of my life. I was absolutely TERRIFIED of this book. And once I got over this, there were other books I was scared of. But this was the first. Realistically I would have still had problems with the others had I not read this book that day but it still marks the beginning of a ~7 year time period of increasingly worse panic attacks every night until I ended up vomiting from fear one night and somehow just, ending the fear. So this book still gives me an instinctive reaction of pure terror. It was kind of hard to watch this video but I suppose this is the first time I am reading it since that day. Interestingly enough I still remember 80% of the illustrations. Sorry I just felt like saying my experience.
Oh my god that's really intense
When I was younger my teacher read it to the class. It honestly made me kinda comforted, this also started my interests in body horror. This also made me like more “horror” and creepy type of books and just things in general.
I was scared of Pete the cat if you ever heard of that and this book called DONT push the red button
your fear manifested into bile which you puked out and you were cured.
@@MLFLimeyO interestingly enough I’m now obsessed with horror and gore and creepy stuff but this was too much for my young mind
I have a insane fear of body horror, like genuinely have nightmares as a 18 year old when I’m forced to watch those types of movies with friends. I partly blame this book I read and got scared by as a child
I think the reason why it's unsettling to people is bc this is pretty similar to how junji ito's works are. Unexplainable horror the reader is just tossed into thats not scary on surface level, but it gets worse and worse and the fear makes itself known. It doesn't start scary. Whats off-putting is the artstyle and that amplified the more bizzare and horror like events in the story
I remember loving this book unconditionally. I loved how slightly "off" the art style was and how bizarre the concept was. That one scene of her sitting in front of the window was the only drawing that got me though. I remember sitting on the floor in kindergarten just staring at these drawings, always getting upset when I finished the book and there were no more weird drawings. I think the slightly uncanny art style from this book (and honestly other media like The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack) really shaped my childhood. Wish more recent kids books were illustrated like this.
I remember this book as well, And I also really liked it
I loved the book too as a child. I love the art style too
ikr? loved that shit too as a kid. this video gave me a lot of nostalgia
@@axlr1029 it unlocked memories for me that I forgot I had
Same
I absolutely LOVED this book as a kid and actually thought about it constantly for years after it was read to my class as a child. The art was super memorable and vivid and while I do remember feeling a bit of that like "horror" aspect being there--even as a kid--I loved it. That being said, I was *not* a kid who enjoyed being scared and I was deathly afraid of many things.
Also, as an aside, she wasn't turned into a gumball machine; she turned into a pill due to the medicines. I forget which one it is but there's a specific medicine that usually comes in a gelatin capsule that has little ball-shaped things inside it that you can see. :)
"Specific"
You mean multiple xDDD
Ive taken multiple meds for multiple different things that have come in a capsule like that loll
@@sparklingchoice lol tbh I rarely take medicine so I've only encountered it once lol
@@lospagnolofalso xDD Thats fair-
I take a ton of meds so I know that there are a lot-
my 1st grade teacher read this to our class, and I just remember bawling on my little carpet square, my teacher had to stop reading the book to address me😜 i went outside to not be as freaked out & took a friend with me, & I’m pretty sure the school called my parents after too
this book didn't necessarily traumatize me like how it did for some people, but it still definitely unnerved me at times. my least favourite pages were the one where she turns into her bedroom, that one stuck with me for years. I only found out it was by the same creator of No David a few months ago actually, and I still kinda can't believe it
I think its a metaphor for how some people lock themselves up in their room whenever they feel too ostracized.
Bro i was terrified of it
same here, but its her sitting in the chair as the amalgamation of all the things. its still creepy after all these years.
I read this book as a kid, Literally never realized how horrifying it is until now
She tried to be what others wanted her to be and (literally) lost her sense of self until she finally stopped caring what other people think
I had never heard of this book until today but I think I would’ve liked it as a kid actually 😂
I don’t think most children would’ve known the meaning behind the book. It’s easier to understand as an adult but as a child who’s very impressionable I don’t think it would’ve had the same effect.
yeah! she was trying to be a social chameleon (hence the name) and in a "be careful what you wish for" type twist, literally became one, and realized that that isn't who she wanted to be
I know this is so off topic but I love your pfp 😂
@@emilysutton4639 I have to agree I also like it
I did
This used to be my favorite book as a child, I would be so happy when I found it in the library
this unlocked a DEEP childhood memory in me… I have not thought about this book in literal years and honestly if I did I probably would have thought it was a dream. I don’t know if I still own this book. Kinda wanna go back to it now.
THIS BROUGHT BACK SO MUCH NOSTALGIA- I have no clue why this book was even a book for kids, but I remember watching teachers read this as a kid and thinking "aw man I'd like to have colors like that"
I also remember thinking "I'd love to have colors like that" until I saw her get bullied for it
I'm definitely part of the "this book traumatized me" club. As a kid, the lessons I learned were doctors are scary, kids will pick on me if I'm different, and eat your veggies.
I'm just going to shove this book right back down into the depths of my almost forgotten memories where it should have stayed.
I think it was about not changing yourself for others (at least, not changing harmless things about yourself). Camilla starts off staving off harmless bits of herself to fit in, and then keeps changing herself for people in a literal/physical sense when she gets the stripes, and the cure is eating lima beans--something Camilla liked but refused to do for the sake of conformity. I remember watching a video of this for class in elementary school. I'm kind of surprised that it scared people.
@@aerinhinton964 oh yes, I agree. I can see the morals they were going after now, but as a kid the the imagery and uneasy nature of the illustrations is what stuck with me and skewed my interpretation of the book.
Spicy memories
If I’m being honest, I was afraid to eat Lima beans after reading the book because as a stupid little child, I thought once I ate them then stopped, I’d become a house.
I actually don't remember being actually terrified of this book growing up. Idk if it's because I might be looking at the world differently than everyone else but this book was one of my favorites and I loved hearing the story in school.
As an artist I’m realizing he decided to show a really complex thing for a children’s book which is why it just fails to teach children correctly.
She’s shapeshifting because she’s trying to please the people around her by agreeing despite her own opinions.
oh my god i just realized this
Probably why i never understood it
wow, it's kinda neat to know that other people read this book as a child, and it wasn't just something from a different dimension that appeared in my household. i honestly adored reading it as a kid, or at least looking at the pictures. i guess it just weirdly fascinated me, and was definitely an early sign of a fascination for horror lol
i too enjoyed this book as a kid and forgot about it until just now lol
I loved the book and we read it at school and idk why the school let us
me too 💀
I loved it too
I could see this story improving by going one of two ways:
1. Either the girl changed her skin so her friends would like her more, and she eventually started shapeshifting and couldn't control it because she spent so long changing herself up so people would like her -> losing identity trying to please others.
2. The real experience that happens when children experience a long-term illness. There's a series of books that are really good for this, one is called "Smile", after a girl gets her teeth knocked out and has to spend years using braces and such. Basically, they're about rough things kids can deal with that makes life complicated but are necessary to go through for their health. The stripes could've represented a physical sign of illness, especially with how none of the doctors knew what was going on.
Oh my god I loved the Smile series-
@@heroidiot same, I read all of them in a day...
Smile represents being a teenager really well
I was scared of this book so much that during Covid I ran out of my room when they were about to read it 😭
I remember reading this book, and later in class we did a thing where we traced our hands and then colored stripes on them to mimic the illusion of the drawing being 3D. It was cool.
no way dude I did that in elementary school too
I did that in 2021 but we never read this book in school
dude same it was in like first grade or something
Yep 4th grade I think
This book terrified me as a kid, but it also got me to eat lima beans whenever they were offered. I think I misunderstood the moral as a child.
oh my... mb but lollllll
I wasn't scared of Sid's toys in Toy Story as a child, but I was scared of this story
Wait, eating your vegetables wasn’t the moral?! I thought that was the moral for the longest time
“Eat your vegetables or else you’ll morph into your *own fucking room* ”
i have a theory: camila is experiencing some kind of psychosis, which causes her to believe her body is contorted/disfigured. she goes to her mother, expressing concern about her stripy body, and her mother takes her to a doctor. because, of course, her stripes aren’t really there, the doctor sends her to school. her symptoms only worsen with the stress of school. the lima beans are just a red herring i guess. this is straight up psychological horror, why did this man make a children’s book.
Ah yes psychological horror for kids
maybe the lima beans helped gave her a sense of relief by giving her something she can handle/something she likes
Love the theory🤔 but on a side note, wasn’t the theme or whatever about being true to yourself and comfortable in your own skin (or something along those lines)? And then buddy decided to show this through some kid turning into a literal pill? Does sounds like psychosis tho.
But if the theme really was what I said, I really do appreciate our manz (more) for writing it tbh
The bad case of the stripes strutted the highway so kid horror media can skyrocket the earth in that case
@@theSkin_of_a_Killer_Bella Maybe it can line up to ops theory as she may felt guilty about it to cause it happening
Wait this actually unlocked like an era in my life. I forgot this book even existed
Same
I loved this book. "Don't let others change you like a stop light" probably caused me to be who I am today.
Who else vividly remembers “The Book That Eats People”? That book traumatised me much more, I was terrified of my books potentially eating me because of it.
yooooooo wtf? lmfao that author a menace he knew what he was doing fr
I remember
🥲
any book that broke the fourth wall destroyed me as a child. i didnt know they could do that
You mean the one where the book would eat the little puppets? we had that in our school and the librarian would always read it to us
@@MissSteak06 The one where children would check the book out, open it to read and it’d eat them.
I vividly remember one character who didn’t wash their hands after eating one night and the book ate them in their sleep.
honestly this comforted me as a kid because in the end she was able to overcome everything and be herself on the outside. i didnt have a lot of friends growing up so it just hit me diffrent
I was like "I actually really like the artstyle and character desi-" *human pill appears*
6:32 “I don’t either! 😃 Who would?? SHE’S A GUMBALL MACHINE. 🤌” 😂😂
As a fellow scared shitless by their own shadow kid I'd like to also add to the list of books with art styles that absolutely horrified me as a child.
1. the stinky cheese man
2. the true story of the the three little pigs
3. most of the art of the the iSpy books.
OMG I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT STINKY CHEESE MAN!! THAT WAS MY FAVORITE BOOK!!!!
Why do I know what the stinky cheese man is?? Like I don't but it dwells in the deep recess of my brain
What about David, and Parts?
Mine were the diesel engines in Thomas the Train
@@flowerchild2496 it’s a book of parodies of fairy tales! it’s genuinely very funny and clever, i’ve loved it since i was little
This book actually started my love for the "horror" genre, and much more creepy things. It holds a special place in my heart just for that, I don't think I'd be so into horror and such if I hadn't had that book at least once in my life.
Exact same experience, oh my lord.
Same tho-
I actually understand the extremes that this book takes. I think it gets a little lost in the metaphor, and I do think it should’ve been more obvious because of its target demographic, but the message isn’t just “be true to yourself,” it’s “don’t give in to peer pressure, because if you do instead of being yourself, you’ll be what other people want you to be.” It’s why she becomes her room when the woman says “be one with your room,” among other things. Yes, it’s extreme, but apparently the author was a philosopher who wanted to get children interested in philosophy, and he just took it a bit too far and made the point a bit too subtle.
that actually makes a lot of sense looking at it this way. like bro i know i have some vague and messed up metaphors i use from time to time but WHAT THE ABSOLUTE F*CK, DAVID SIMMONS
yea, I thought the main message was that people will paint you any color if you give them the power to.
That's what I thought, because it explains it in extreme visuals
Yeah, I remember understanding that in 2nd grade. I think the teacher also explained the metaphor to the class.
Well it worked for me as a kid, I never had any problems with this book and understood the meaning, I thought the images were interesting
I used to love this book, when i saw the thumbnail, i was immediately hit with a wave of nostalgia, i always found the book, strange but never frighting, weird.
Huh, it’s cool seeing this book again. I remember being fascinated and concerned by it.
Now it’s reading as, “Because she wasn’t true to herself, she slipped into being a reflection of what everyone around her wanted or assumed of her.” A reflection of her environment and others instead of just- her. The kid who likes Lima beans
And the aspect of her turning into her room, is giving metaphoric depression....
YOOO I LOVE THIS SO MUCH
I didn’t know people where scared of this book when they were younger. For me it made me feel comforted and started an interest with other forms of “horror” and creepy things. I also loved the art style as well, yeah some frames are kinda strange but that just makes the book feel like itself.
This feels like it was written by junji ito
Same! I remember when I was younger and I used to love this book. Something about it being so unsettling I liked for some reason 😂
Honestly same here
I thought the art was cool as a kid, I never seen someone paint someone’s skin like that in a children’s book so I was entertained. Honestly books like that made me wanna become an artist, It was genuinely really creative and well made, kids just have different preferences
I was probably the most crazy child because I loved this book😭😭 I realized how wild this book it now but..I still love it because my past self loved it-
I have NEVER heard of this book but I’ll be honest I was a child who loved the slightly unsettling books to a degree that sometimes made my mom uncomfortable so I probably would’ve loved this lol
Omg when i was in kindergarten my teacher would read us this book like 3 times a week-
Bro, you would love the original Pinocchio book. That shit was DARK
@@fueledbycandy5920 Funnily enough that's one of the books that I loved as a kid so you're dead on 😆
Girl: *pretends to be something she isn't*
Universe: *"You have failed the vibe check."*
I feel like this book is an allegory for the autistic experience and having to mask (i.e, pretending to be something you're not to people please) all the time, but honestly the illustrator must have been smoking crack and doing LSD at the same time holy shit
"ABSORB THE RAINBOW"
“TASTE THE RAINBOW MF.”
This being a nostalgic children's book for me probably explains why I love body horror and scary stories. Honestly I thought that would stem from something that made alittle more sense....
I actually grew up reading this book and i never understood it. I forgot all about it until this video popped up on my recommended
I remember absolutely loving this book as a child. My mom used to read it to me all the time. This video just unlocked memories I forgot I had
SAHME-
Seeing those pages again is for me like the Mandela Effect & Nostalgia put together.
when i was a kid my mental illnesses were very severe, to the point my mom couldn’t take me to a super market until i was 10 or 11. i remember strange things would send me into a straight mental breakdown. as a child i saw this book as an audio book on yt kids and barely watched 3 minutes because i got distracted. the cover on the other hand looked really cool to me so it’s funny hearing him say this
I remember when I was in 1st-2nd grade when we listen to a lady on UA-cam read “a bad case of the stripes”..I had terrible anxiety to the point where I threw up a lot when I was younger and the amount of nauseous I got just from looking at the cover was horrible to me. I had nightmares for about for a week, I would go to sleep crying bc of how bad the nightmares were, I would wake up crying, and I would always think I could actually get “the case of the stripes” and it terrified me and I honestly wish that book was never made in general
awww, i'm sorry about that ;_;
hope you're better now
Aww sorry for you
@@cremmy_crem621 I am! That was a few years ago and I’ve learned to cope with my anxiety and other negative feelings.
@@TheAlastríonaProject that's good! i'm glad you've got it all figured out ^^
I felt the exact same! I could never look at the book cover back then without feeling the need to throw up
The part when she turned into her room out of all things, used to scare the f*** out of me as a kid! Also, the dead colors look like they were drawn to more of a horror type of book.
This was actually one of my favourite books as a child. I'm an art student now and I feel like it was and still is very inspiring visually.
I was never scared by the drawings, but slowly turning into random things while not knowing how to fix it is a level of anxiety that’s terrifying to me.
I was scared of the audiobook of this because of the whole “melt into the walls thing”
I remember briefly watching this going "wow she looks pretty" and now that I'm watching this I'm going "it's not the fact that it exists, it's the fact that it's drawn visually and it quivers bones I never knew I had"
That’s exactly how I felt about it.
I had the EXACT same experience except worse with the 'Ms. Nelson is Missing!' books. They feature horrifying illustrations and psychotic plot lines. Viola Swamp littered (more like infiltrated) my nightmares from the ages of 8 to 13. THIRTEEN. It was so bad that I would legit complain to my parents about it. Children's book authors are a menace and should pay for our therapy bills.
i remember that book. i found it quite scary how many possibilitys of what could have happened to her
YES! those books were scarring
I remember one or two pages where a character would just have like black possessed eyes
omg yes i know exactly what u mean, that was horrible for kindergarden me
I liked that book D:
As a person who has read this book in my childhood, it is scary
This book used to scare the crap out of me whenever the teacher read it. I was a kid who was diagnosed with anxiety at a young age, and I would always have my anxiety flare up whenever the teacher or librarian read this book in school.
Fr
I saw this on my recommendations and had a full on ptsd dropped my phone on the floor kind of panic attack. This story HORRIFIED me as a kid. Like I would have NIGHTMARES about it. I saw the thumbnail and suddenly YEARS of childhood trauma reared it’s head like “what’s up doc? Ready for therapy again?” The raw primal FEAR that image invoked in my was not something I was ready for.
"whats up doc" lmaooo😭
holy shit man you read my mind the librarian had to lock this book away for years until after i left elementary school because i would have an actual panic attack every time i saw it 😭
edit: STOP LIKING THIS COMMENT SO I DONT HAVE TO SEE THE THUMBAIL AAAAAH
Camila must’ve been traumatized out of her mind. The bullying, the medical trauma.
I know right?
Imagine someone asking her later in life why she always eats lime beans probably any time she can and having to remember what happened
Exactly like she’s probably gonna be terrified to not eat lima beans or she’ll be terrified OF them
Sure the book is unsettling, but it send the kids a message they will never forget.
As a kid… I found this book interesting.
I'VE LITERALLY BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS BOOK FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT TRYING TO REMEMBER THIS BOOK I READ AS A CHILD ONCE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS OHMYGOD
same! :o though I’ve been looking for literal years
Saaame, this thing horrified meeee
I remember reading this book as a kid and for some ungodly reason it inspired my weird squishy child-mind so much that I would actually AVOID eating lima beans so this could happen to me and I could be a terrifying chameleon eldritch being.
No, I don't know why either.
Yes, I'm still disappointed nothing happened.
Your weird squishy child-mind was living in 2050. I salute you.
Aren't we all a little disappointed that nothing happed? This book is the reason I even bothered to try Lima beans in the first place though. I do actually like them a lot though so that's good news. But yeah. I did spend some time wishing this would happen to me too. Kids are just weird like that sometimes.
That would would have been cool
Same but im genderfluid now so ig it makes sense, with the chamelion-shapeshifter-ness thing shdh
I honestly found the skin changing kinda sick as a kid
I honestly like this book. And I think the art is nice.
She turned in a pill, because the doctors gave her pills. The point is just she pretended not to like lima beans. It's because she was pretended not to like them BECAUSE HER FRIENDS DIDN'T LIKE THEM. So she started changing to fit what others wanted.
Like the stripes where from her bow, the flag was because of the pledge, the pill because of the doctors, the weird plant-cat thing because of weird things people tried, her room probably because she was told to stay in her room.
i think this is what the message is, but oh my god the art is horrifying
that book actually scared me as a child
This book didn't traumatize me, but it definitely freaked me out when I was in kindergarten.
My teacher at the time decided to sit the whole classroom down and read it to us as part of story time. All the other kids seemed entertained by it, but as a child myself, I found it weird and disturbing. It was the imagery that really got me. Some of the pages made me feel an urge to faint.
In my opinion, I could hardly call it a "children's book." I'd call it straight up body-horror.
And honestly, it's a bit nice to know that some other person shares the experiences I had regarding this book. Mind you, it's not nearly as scary as, let's say, the work of Junji Ito, but it's definitely something that can easily make people feel uncomfortable.
A kids book containing graphic and grotesque body horror. What could possibly go wrong?
Lol I remember reading this book as a kid and being both terrified and loving it but I completely forgot what it was called. I think this book might have actually triggered my subconscious love of disgusting and disturbing body horror like gorefield to this day. Like, I'm beyond terrified of it, it's one of the few things that legit scares me, but regardless I'm incredibly curious as well and just can't look away. I 100% agree this guy should have been a horror illustrator instead of a children's author. He's a master at unsettling, creepy, and disturbing artwork.
Honestly same
For some reason, I was never freaked out by it.
@@parker-boy98 probably had something to do with bebe brainz
That book genuinely kept me up at night after a teacher read it to the class, and nobody else found it alarming
^
Bruh same
@@like_amelia_or_somthin280 😭
Same
I STILL CANT READ IT AND IM IN HIGHSCHOOL
The memory of this book has been living rent free in my head since I read it as a kid