You tell us: Characters worth smacking, children’s lit worth reading

Every reader has done it — cringed at a character’s behavior and steamed over their inability to stop it.

Or, as the Goodwill Librarian put it, sometimes you just wish you could smack a character with his or her own book.

We asked our Facebook fans who inspired that same, um, passion in them, and we can’t argue with any of these responses!

Carola L.: The Poisonwood Bible comes to mind. I really wanted to slap the a****** preacher, preferably to death.

Beth B.: Bella in the Twilight series.

Priscilla M.: I felt that way about both the main characters in Gone Girl.

Sue P.: Jane Austen's Emma needs a good talking to and a slap.

To cheer ourselves up a bit after thinking of all the bad decisions, we polled readers on good choices to make — namely, which children’s books every adult should read.

We were inspired to do so by author Katherine Rundell’s picks in the Guardian: The Paddington books, by Michael Bond; the His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman; Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak; One Dog and His Boy, by Eva Ibbotson; and Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie.

Our fans suggested the following additions:

Candace G.: Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Giving Tree.

Katy J.: Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck.

Enjoy this post? Make sure to comment on our Facebook posts so we can share your bookish stories and opinions in the future!