I find this whole thread sort of enlightening. Have I just gotten really good at ignoring all of the advertising that's sold as a product, or is my area better than others for not being so blatant? The last time I went to the bookstore (the B&N, because it's easily biked to, even with a toddler in tow) did have some of that stuff, but mostly I was seeing Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, Little House, and yes all the Wimpy Kid books, as well as amazing young children's books. Has anyone else looked at "The Book With No Pictures"? Or "Room on the Broom"? What about "On the Night You Were Born"? So good.
We've got quite a library for my Munchkin (all gifts) and not one of the books is just an ad in disguise, so I'm having trouble figuring out how it could be so hard for others to find good books for little kids? (However, I will jump on the bandwagon of hating on "The Runaway Bunny".)
Also, don't idolize the Little Golden Books too much, and I don't even mean because a lot of them were basically ads themselves. The ones that aren't? Still total crap. We have two and my 2-year-old loves them but my husband and I always quote Despicable Me to each other: "This passes for literature?" One of them I change the wording, every time I read it. The kitten isn't fucking shy, she's curious goddammit! The cynical part of me thinks that she's described as shy because that was considered an appropriate attribute for a female at the time of writing.