to feel uneasy about my son reading Enid Blyton books

Most of you wouldn't let them eat crap, so why let them read it? It's not about censorship its about helping them to choose wisely.

Rubbish

I don't let my kids browse libraries.

I ban lots of books and comics and tv programmes.

I slate morpurgo

There you go awen. Fits all your PC boxes. Carry on with your sneering you are so justified

TBH, it's not worth arguing about.

But there really are some good books out there. Not PC books necessarily but really really good books. As a book worm, I hate to see children's minds fed with rubbish when you could be feeding them with good stuff.

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

Ouch. I enjoyed EB as a child although my mother did point out that the Famous Five and Secret Seven were very sexist given the way the girls had to wash up while the boys had adventures. Don't think I read the stuff with gollies, was that Noddy? And don't remember 'chinky' either although I do recall Moonface.

If I came across a word like that in a book I was reading with ds, we'd have a little digression about why it was Not A Nice Word.

I never read chinky.

You know what, I let my ds browse the kids book section at the library himself - therefore I wouldnt ban him from children books.

Current list of ds books out of the library (not listing home ones as he literally has hundreds incl micheal morpurgo.. is that to be slated too?)

Big Cat & Wild Dogs - information book
Horrible Histories - The Woeful Second World War
I'm bored - Bel Moony
Avoid BEing a Mammoth Hunter - information book
Islands - information book
Inside the Whale - infomration book (where he learnt the word anus
The Wolf's Footprint - Susan Price (fab book)
The Usborne Big Book of Fantasy Quests - Andy Dixon
Harry and the Robots - Ian Whybrow
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble - William Steig
Animals in Danger - Information book

Am proud of the wide choice he makes and do not intend to stop it.

What does 'all this PC crap' actua;lly mean?

I am talking about one opinion and you throw over-used generalised terms at it

You read Blyton but don't use the word Chinkiy

'nuff said

I read blyton, my kids have, I don'; ban it. I do think Chinky the lsitted eye elf goes too far.

I think you're all hell bent on your sneering anti-PC approach though

Normally I hate applying today's values to yesterday's world. For example I think any decent person would appreciate that slavery, for example, was wrong and wicked, without feeling the need to apologise for somethig over which they had no possible influence or control. I similarly would not expect today's Germany to apologise for the Holocaust. However I would expect societies to learn from the past and not repeat behaviour which may have been deemed OK at the time but not now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if EB had been around today writing the famous five and secret seven, I guess she's have done it differently. The fact that she was actually around about 70 years ago means that golliwogs, chinky, Dick and Fanny pupulated her books.

However, my DSs both loved Noddy and to be honest I've managed to read Noddy stories to them without a Golliwog in sight. Most of the 'new' versions seem to have successfully filtered them out.

We all love reading Roald Dahl but the "messages" therein are horrendous when you examine them. Doesn't mean the books aren't fab,though.

I wouldn't go out of my way to encourgae my boys to read Enid B, but wouldn't stop them doig so at all.

Do we really HAVE to project all this PC crap onto our kids? If my DS pointed to a kid in the street with slitty eyes and said "Chinky" he would be saying it because the child looked like the elf from the book which he liked. It would be my attitude and those of others that turned that into a racist remark. And I'm sure it would reflect badly on me if someone were stupid enough to take it seriously, but that is no reason to stop my child from reading the book.

I'm slow.

Nothing to do with better behaved.

You're all so confident it would never happen but at least you';ve said you wouldn't like it

but the enid blyton books i have hardly show racism more morals.

im not saying that some off her stuff cant be portrayed as racism im saying equally they do have good morals to them. in one book of short stories i have it shows what happens if you are selfish, greedy, mean etc with no reference to race.

in regards to a bed time story i definatly wouldnt want my son to be scared before falling asleep.

i do sometimes think the world has gone mad when you cant even read a story to your child. enid blyton also calls some of her characters fanny and dick is this now seen as sexualising children?

also golliwogs were very popular toys back in her day so no i dont think she is being racist when it comes to writing a story about them.

i have read one book of enid blytons which specifically showed a 'black man' however in her day it was common to have 'black' servants/handymen so of course it is incorporated in her stories.

i think what passes for racism now probably didnt when she wrote her books.

no it wouldnt pointdog.. ds is 7 therefore has some social graces.

I think I am teaching my children to discriminate between trash and good writing when in fact I am probably teaching them to be snobbish about sunreaders.

But why not introduce them to some really lovely and well written books? Your school probably has a list of suitable ones (and I would bet money that Enid won't feature on it)

Actually I would think that you are being unreasonable to not allow your children to read them. Sorry it's late.

i loved EB as a child. And it didn't turn me into a raving racist quite the reverse.

I am sure that if you have a varied and level home life, your child will not be logging on to the BNP website. So no I do not think you are unreasonable.

As long as you are giving out the right signals yourself and answering any questions that your child has honestly.

I read Enid Blyton books to death but knew that you simply didn't call people names because of something that was different to you. I didn't ever call anyone ginger or fat although I might have called someone thick. Certainly not ever racist names. Our primary school went to great lengths to stop it. The fact that my best friend, even now, was one of the only two black girls in our school possibly went some way to helping this . Their was one chinese boy, and to my knowledge no on ever called him chinky. He is on Friends Reunited and is very happy with his school days. Well at least he was the last time I spoke to him.

ditto morocco

if a child knew of a lovable little slitted eyed elf called chinky he would point it out in an excited way, not in a 'i'm laughing at him way'.

SO you wouldn't like that to happen but you don't believe it ever would happen. ok

It's only an issue if you make it an issue though isn't it? I mean I don't remember any racism at all - if it was there I didn't notice it. People are projecting modern attitudes onto books from a different age. But children born today aren't inherently more likely to pick up on these things, we make them so if we make an issue of it.

Pointydog - read my post.. I think I addressed your point! It would bother me if ds pointed at anyone in the street and said anything. the fact is he doesnt becasue he is better behaved than that.

twinklemegan - I agree

"Chinky" shows an elf like creature with slitted eyes"

SO the scenario where your child sees a child in the street with 'slitted eyes' and laughingly calls him 'chinky' doesn't worry you at all?"

I don;t like chinky because I would not like to be part of the above scenario. None of you have said if that would bother you or not.