Mumsnet Talk

I would not put them down gently, I would chuck the bloody books in the bin!!

I was wondering what happened to the Papal Inquisition but apparently it seems to have resurfaced in the writing of books for children. Perhaps it would be kinder and more humane to just put them down gently.

Oh God!! It gets worse!!

She had a non fiction one on how to look after a pet dog (which she loved).

oh and one about sewing machines

Exciting subject for children isn't it?

I think I will have to mention how much she hates it tbh...

How can there be a book about chairs?? <<intrigued>>

Simpson ...they aren't ...but there is a one about chairs

Well then, I know what your daughter will be reading be reading in the non fiction department from now on.

Your daughter can read and everybody in the school, including the head knows it. Obviously there's no need to slap the teacher on the nose. But she does have to see reason some how. Maybe you can suggest it to her in such a way that she thinks reading your second hand books is her idea.

Educator - a boy in DD's class got "antarctica" today, will be interested to see how he gets on with it!!!

LandS - I found a massive collection of "my animal kingdom" books (40 of them) in a charity shop for £5.

I would rather she read them (and so would she).

DD did not have any blue level ones but went from green to ORT.

The ones she hated were "Wait and see" although that was fiction about a girl getting a dolls house and "shells" (non fiction) and "The Outing" (again fiction).

And tbh if DD hates a fiction book that's saying something (ie it's pants!!)

If I ever get stuck on a knot like that, simpson, I'll work on my daughter's non fiction reading. But I'll ask her to read something else. There's no point in torturing a child because the teacher thinks it's a good idea. You can read non fiction in the newspaper!

That's rubbish Simpson, my feeling is that if they aren't enjoying it, ditch it. I wish I had had the confidence too previously rather than trying to push on dd1 to read it and end up having a negative association to reading!

So any book written within the last 70 years for young children isn't real

Oops, blooming iPad!!

Simpson have you 'enjoyed' the Antarctica one yet ;)
I'm sure it was the JP non fiction that put my dd1 off reading during year1.

Mrz - I wish!!! Which ones are those? They sound good.

LandS - she had a Ginn 360 book a few weeks ago about spiders which she enjoyed.

This one is a snap dragons book about healthy bodies/eating or something. But it is soooo dull.

She does not want to read it. I am torn between just doing 4-5 pages a night or telling the teacher she hates it.

Her teacher has said her non fiction readi g needs work hence this book but quite frankly she would rather read about how elephants live etc than how a heart works a d what carbon monoxide is.

Also she has got a "thing" about the glossary and every time a word is highlighted (it feels like the same word is highlighted a million times) she has to look it up and re-read it.

It took us 30 mins to read 5 pages this eve <<sigh>>

Books with a deliberately restricted vocabulary, whether it's Marinarik's, Seuss', William Murray, or Donaldson's limited vocabulary, have their place, for sure. But if a child is reading Beatrix Potter at home and yellow, albeit non decodable. at school, should the school be making a slow transition to Potter books for that child? We're not quite at the point of it becoming an issue. But it will become one at some reasonably near point.

Are they the National Geographic books simpson?

We had some non fiction books a little while ago. They were very short, things like planting a herb garden, a book on frogs and whatnot. I don't know how many books we've had but those two and Stitch the Witch stick out as being quite good. I thought the Ginn Zoom Set Bs were fantastic because the one we got first had diary headings spelled out as long dates. Looking back on it now I don't think the children were meant to read those titles. But my daughter did because I didn't know she wasn't supposed to. That's why I thought the Ginn readers were so brilliant. For a while I thought at least, real words!

The JP books seem pretty new (to my DC school) as DS did not have them.

Poor DD is having to wade through some shit boring non fiction books ATM

as opposed to unreal books?

Sort of, I suppose. But if the child keeps on reading whatever's put in front of it then sooner or later it's going to need real books.

"The only problem for us was that all the words looked the same red or not so my daughter just read them." which is what she is meant to do learnandsay

If the JP books go up that far then I should imagine that our school doesn't have any at all. I've not seen one. We used to get some RWI books last term. The only problem for us was that all the words looked the same red or not so my daughter just read them. We stopped getting those books now.