to feel uneasy about my son reading Enid Blyton books

Enid Blyton has all those references to Ginger Beer. Was she homophobic?
I loved EB as a child and would be quite happy for my kids to read it. We have several Noddy books and no one has got upset yet about Big Ears getting picked on for body dysmorphic syndrome.
If he is enjoying it then let him get on with it.
No doubt in 50 years mothers will be upset about something in Harry Potter.

hmm. yes, that would annoy me I think, as I spend quite a lot of time trying to impose a bit more authority on my children.

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LOL at what a pair of boobs

"I say Mamzelle, what d'you think of the new gym teacher's boobs?"

NN - my objection to it is that the adults portrayed in the programmes appear to have no authority whatsoever over the children and the children appear to have a level of autonomy and control over their lives which I find unacceptable for a ten year old/ eleven year old or whatever she is.

But that is really a very superficial objection as I've never managed to actually sit through and concentrate on the bloody programme!

It all has moral endings and stuff. Just a whole load of bad manners, attitude and bad behaviour all the way through.

I think the Wiinie the Pooh stuff is wonderful, I can't think of any racist remarks in them though

Wow we are still here!

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Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh is vile stuff.

I couldn't be doing with it as a child and can't be doing with it now.

I remember cheering when coming across a Richmal Compton savaging of the Christopher Robin stories and poems in a Just William story when she calls him "Antony Martin" and does a whole load of poems which mimic the AA Milne ones. Hysterical stuff.

what is the objection to Tracey Beaker?
I have tried to read them a few times, but found them really irritating. my children havent picked up on them yet.

This is a great time to talk to him about how ignorant some people can be

Bizarrely totalitarian statements in this thread.

I loved EB as a child. I think some of her books are great for children as they encourage reading stamina. I still find them far more interesting than Harry Potter which I cannot bear (but would not ban my children from reading - I can't see that I'm really going to ban my daughter from reading anything).

I think some of her books have been rewritten to remove the golliwogs and the names like this. Fine by me. Not suitable for this day and age and the names can easily be changed without affecting the story. But there are many other books with equally concerning stereotypes that would pass the censor because they are cooler.

Shakespeare is pretty full of this stuff especially on Jewish characters, as is Dickens who is also dreadful on women. Almost all fairytales demonise people we prefer not to demonise today (eg stepmothers). One of my favourite books, the L Shaped Room, just wouldn't be written today because of its depictions of black and Jewish characters despite actually being a very "liberal" book for its time. Roald Dahl has some very odd views I think (and is particularly lookist in parts). Wind in the Willows (a favourite book even now) is pretty unpleasant on class issues and almost every pre 1970s children's author would have had a very non pc attitude to what girls could and couldn't do with their lives.

One of the things I love about these writers and books is that they reflect a different world to my own. I love Dickens despite his shortcomings and I used to love reading Ballet Shoes despite what is clearly now its raging class snobbery - partly because it described a world that I didn't understand - "galoshes" and "supper". There's a value in books being different to the world we live in.

One of my favourite childhood books was "Little Black Sambo" which is an incredible story. Of course you'd never call a book that now (I had my mum's 1940s edition) but I just thought the boy's name was Sambo just like Noddy's name is Noddy. Didn't know Sambo was a generic name for black men. It's also a fantastical story about a little boy who turns tigers into butter so entrancing and amazing.

Personally I hated Winnie the Pooh and Alice in Wonderland. Twee and/or irritating. This insistence that they are "beautifully written" is rather bizarre. And this statement is just alarming:

"And it really isn't a subjective issue, you know. Enid Blyton's books really are the equivalent of fruit shoots"

Didn't realise the global arbiter of literary quality was now posting on Mumsnet. May I post my own reading list for this year and see if it gets the seal of approval? .

My children watch Tracey Beaker and I always feel uneasy about it.

Can't bring myself to censor it though, just throw in the occasional disapproving comments.

Oh dear, have turned into my Dad.

Funny thing is if it were on ITV instead of CBBC, there's no way I'd let them watch it.

Have just outed myself as a hopeless TV snob. Because I wouldn't dream of not letting them read the book.

Jacqueline Wilson's Tracy Beaker btw....

I can happily pass on Tracy Beaker's diaries but to me it's got pc written all over it. It's as far from my dd's experience of life as EB's children were to mine at her age. Where do you draw the line?

I read most of Enid Blyton's books when I was a child and grew up to be a balanced, non-racist and morally sound person! OK, I wouldn't have been aware of the non-pc tone of some of what she wrote, but I enjoyed the stories, particularly the Famous Five and Secret 7 series.
Personally, I'd rather my kids read Blyton than some of the other rubbish that's out there.

I think with Dickens' work, it's worth bearing in mind he was subtly cricitising the social conditions of 19th century England which EB is patently not doing with her work. Shakespeare was doing the same thing inasmuch as he wasn't allowed to overtly criticise the political system of his day. Setting scenes in the past or in mystical lands got around that one. I imagine if you look at Shakespeare closely, you can find all manner of things that read as racist today .

Is his name Lionel Bart? Or am I confused?

And that awful saccharine kid who played him with a posh voice...

Why would you stop your kid from seeing Oliver?

Your average child isn't even going to realise that Fagin is supposed to be Jewish. I never did until I read the book.

Mind you, I don't think I could cope with sitting through Lionel Bart's soundtrack...

why whats wrong with oliver?

its hthe poor kids innit? its the rags - you call them chavs doncha?

I haven't got time to read the whole thread, but has anyone said anything about Oliver Twist or Shakespeare? If you object to anything in Enid Blyton then surely you've got to say that Oliver Twist (or the musical version) and The Merchant of Venice are just as bad. OK so The Merchant of Venice is not bedtime reading, something more likely to be read in school when there can be a discussion about anti semitism, but would you stop your children from seeing Oliver!?

Coming late to this interesting thread, I think I'm a lax parent because I don't put that many constraints on what my children read.

AFAIC the fact that DS is reading and sees it as a positive, fun thing to do at the age of 8, is great. Having said that he's never expressed the remotest interest in Enid Blyton. Is it more of a girl thing? DD is five so only learning to read atm, perhaps she'll want the Blyton books. If she does, I won't be buying them for her, but I won't be stopping her reading them either, they're crap but so waht, I sometimes let her eat crisps and shite as well. As with eating or watching TV, so with books, I don't expect every single thing my children ever consume to be improving.

I do remember reading them as a child and consciously suspending disbelief about the attitudes and language. Words like "wizard" and "ginger beer" instantly sent out the message that these kids were not like me, I knew they weren't, and I could cope with it. Just as I could cope with the fact that the kids in the Phoenix and the Carpet had maids and wore pinnafores and bloomers. I think children have some kind of strange ability to stand back and distance themselves and filter out the crap, while all the time subliminally recognising it is crap, because it doesn't tally with what they see going on around them in their own lives.

Absolutely right, Balls, I stand corrected.

By the way, the OP says that 50 years ago, "people didn't know any better." 50 years ago is only shortly after the enormous shock of the Holocaust was discovered, so there was perhaps less excuse for racism then, than at any other time in history.

Anybody ever notice any anti-semitism in EB's oevre?