to hate ALL Beast Quest and Sea Quest books

[SnotandBothered]

...even though I haven't read a single one.

DS (7) brings endless Beast Quest/Sea Quest books home from school. Based on the cover designs, I assumed they would all be shit (no pre-judging here :)) so I did read two random pages on one just to clarify, and it appeared to be utter bilge.

I have FINALLY got him to admit that he doesn't enjoy them that much, but he feels obliged to read them because all the other boys choose them - which would be ok, if broken up by things he does like (David Walliams / Michael Morpurgo etc) but it's just endless Quest after flipping Quest and there are millions of the fuckers.

I hate them. I can't bring myself to read them with him and just the sight of the stupid covers makes me feel a bit ragey on the basis that they are too brightly coloured and I hate anything 'fantasy'.

AIBU to insist he stops choosing them?

[GerbilsAteMyCat]

He's reading. Leave him be.

[Wolfbasher]

ha ha. I LOOOOOVE Beast Quest, because DS (7) goes to bed early with them and is v happy to do so, leaving DH and I with a long, quiet evening to drink wine and watch unsuitable boxsets. We are on no. 30 now, dreading the day when he's read all 82.

[atticusclaw]

They are shite. Read one and you've read them all. So formulaic its unbelievable. Mix them up with other things like Michael Morpurgo and throw in other easy readers like dinosaur cove, astrosaurs etc for very light reading.

[neverputasockinatoaster]

No, YANBU!
DS is 10 and has an ASD. One of his obsessions is completeness of collections.......
He is an astounding reader but gets 'stuck' on books so was still reading books way below his reading age until he discovered these. At first I was delighted but then I realised they were all formulaic.
DS will not have a bad word said against them........
He keeps obsessing about how many e owns and how many more he needs to complete the set.

I seem to have headed him off to Percy Jackson......

[SnotandBothered]

82? There are 82??

weeps

[GooseyLoosey]

Ds read these when he was around 7 - there were only about 40 of them then and no Sea Quest.

By about 30, he was hoping that Tom (the hero) would die or at least be maimed in one of them just for a bit of a change. I think if he had had to read 80 he might have taken matters into his own hands.

Be thankful though because although at the time I thought there was nothing worse than Beast Quest, I discovered I was very wrong. When dd got to 7 we encountered the literary horror that is...

The RAINBOW FAIRIES (by the same writing consortium as Beast Quest).

I think I would rather gouge my own eyes out with a spoon than have to encounter them again and there are over 100 of them.

[SnotandBothered]

oooh Goosey are the Rainbow Fairies the ones who have names which 'remarkably' resemble the UK 100 top names for girls?

Thank god DD, 9 was never a Rainbow kind of girl. I think there might have been a Fairy Book Bonfire otherwise.

[Wolfbasher]

Of course they are formulaic, according to wikipedia 'Adam Blade' is a made up name and they are actually written by a consortium. A committee at the publishing house decides the storyline and then commissions one of a pool of writers to flesh it out.

But it is cheap babysitting for us, and all part of developing the habit of reading, so I will not be complaining. DS1 reads one a night, so we have nearly 2 months of him going to bed early before we run out.

[SnotandBothered]

Wolfbasher I do see the advantage (shit box set fan here), but sadly DS counteracts any quest-baby-sitting perks by endlessly calling down because he can 'hear a noise' 'is going for a wee' or wants to share the 'plotline' with us all .

So unfortunately we get all the misery of Beast Quest with none of the benefits.

[december12]

Beast Quest was the thing that go my very reluctant reader DS2 to start reading under the covers at night! OK I might have preferred it if he was reading the classics but don't be knocking that books that get boys to read.

FWIW 11yo DS2 is currently tackling Don Quixote. Can't say for sure that he's understanding a word of it, but I have to yell at him tell him to turn the light out every night.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

If he's feeling pressured by his peer group into reading them, that's a shame. Otherwise, what Gerbils said.

If you must intervene, leave other, more exciting books, lying around, until he picks one of them up and gets hooked. But if he's reading he'll be benefiting from the extra fluency which will lay the groundwork for him to progress to something more challenging. I suspect that the repetitive plots are actually one of the things that makes these series a success, because it means kids don't have to worry about the plot and can concentrate on the reading itself.

The fact that he's saying he doesn't really like them suggests he will move on soon of his own accord and then you'll be wondering why you ever worried.
If it's any help, my 8yo who liked BeastQuest a while ago now loves Wimpy Kid.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

December - I LOVE that your ds is reading Don Quixote! I don't know why that thought makes me so happy but it does

[cornflakegirl]

They are awful, but they did help DS1 through the transition from reading scheme to chapter books, so my hatred of them is not unalloyed. I do sigh audibly every time he borrows one from the library, but he reads proper books too, so I don't complain too much.

Snot - is it really that much of a problem that his school books are all BQ? Does he read decent stuff at home?

[Wolfbasher]

yes, I agree with pp who said that it is a good stepping stone for developing fluency in reading. DS1 is a very good reader for his age, on free-reader books at school tc. but I can tell that he's missing something in plot-lines etc. when he's reading to me - and he doesn't get lots of the subtleties that are in more 'classic' books. These books are easy for him to understand the 'big picture', so he is able to tear through them, getting the fun of reading a whole story quickly.

But I wouldn't be so keen if I had to get involved in reading them too, so I sympathise, OP.

[SnotandBothered]

cornflake I don't mind what he reads at school. I don't mind the odd Beast Quest. But they are ALL he brings home. Every day. Quest after bastards Quest. And I feel obliged to be engaged, but I hate hate hate them.

And now I know he doesn't even like them much I feel like we are all being tricked into reading pages of utter mindless shite based on stupid covers and free tear out cards.

Ggggggrrrr

[StripedCandycaneOss]

my 8yo is reading them.. well, we all are as i read them at bedtime a chapter at a time.. makes them about tolerable.

i mix them up with Onk Beakmans Skylander Books, some Mr Gum and random other stuff like The Gruffalo...etc.

They're very samey samey!

[Waitingonasunnyday]

Don't worry, this too shall pass... my Beast Quest loving son is now into Wimpy Kid and Tom Gates and there are fecking zillions of them too

He has comandeered my kindle and just appears now and then to tell me hes run out of books...

[CeeloWeevil]

He's reading. My son HATES reading and I, therefore, would dearly LOVE to see him with his nose inside a Beast Quest book (he dabbled in a couple).

[SnotandBothered]

Waiting we did actually enjoy a brief Quest-Hiatus whilst he devoured all his sister's Tom Gates books. I thought he might forget about them, but no, back he went....

[DrDre]

The main thing is it gets him in the habit of reading. If it does that, it is not too important that the content is rubbish. They are the books that helped my son make the transition from what you would call picture books to books that are more like proper novels. In six months time he will move on to better stuff. My son now likes the David Walliams kids books, which are very funny (for kids).

[weeblueberry]

Does he like the fantasy aspect of it or is it purely because his friends are reading? If it's the former you can suggest other, better age appropriate books in the genre - Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, How to Train Your Dragon, The Hobbit etc.

[LovleyRitaMeterMaid]

They are shit and lazily produced shite at that.

[WookieCookiee]

YANBU but YAN the target market! We have lots of the little beggars on our bookshelves, but they were read avidly by DS1, have got DS2 reading independently and were a welcome relief after the Magic Key/ Biff, Chip'n'Kipper chronicles.

DS1 is loving Barry Loser (haven't read it myself so not sure it's right for 7yo- he's 9). Tom Gates is another favourite, plus Roald Dahl, all the Walliams ones, Percy Jackson and he's been very taken with the Secret Breakers series by HL Dennis.

However if he's only choosing Snooze Quest books to fit in could you have a chat with his teacher about it? If he's picking books he doesn't enjoy, it defeats the object of trying to get kids to read for pleasure!

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

I wouldn't read them aloud. Same rule with Rainbow Fairies when dd was into that. IMO reading aloud should be fun for the reader as well as the listener, and there are so many terrific books that are sheer joy to read aloud that I'm not wasting my precious bedtime story time on something I hate when I could be reading something we'd both enjoy. Someone on MN once told me this was ungenerous, but IMO you're far more likely to instill a love of reading if the kid sees you genuinely loving it yourself.

[SnotandBothered]

Wookie he has read all the Tom Gates, Wimpy Kids, Roald Dahls and David Walliams books so I suppose I shouldn't complain, but every time I see a Quest book (in other words, every day) my heart sinks.

Shit excuses for books based on the only two pages I have ever read