to feel uneasy about my son reading Enid Blyton books

Football idea is stroke of genius. There must be some kind of football magazine as well ... all they talk about and play at school is football

Yes they do. I'd keep it short and sweet to be honest. Jeremy Strong? Is very silly. Mine loved him. Oh I know, ds1 loved those Greek Myth books, edited by Lucy Coates I think, short chapters, sort of stories but also reliably non-fiction too.

Actually you know what, don't worry about it. The books are there, if he wants to read one he'll pick it up. Leave them lying about the place, on the edge of his bed. He'll find something he likes and then he'll go for it. Horses and water and all that.

QC, what is your son most interested in? My nephew (now 16) resisted reading valiantly until he discovered that the sports pages of the newspaper were full of stories about football, his absolute favourite thing. I treasure the memory of him, aged about seven, patiently sounding out match reports and stories about transfers, and only asking for help with the names.

Will try HP (doubtfully) but worried it might require a bit too much in the way of effort. Will try more factual books (more cheerfully) the horrid histories might work.

Well of course 100x - knew I was setting up an open goal. Bloody school have no clue what I am worried about - they have produced some garbage statistic saying that his reading age is around 3.5 years ahead of his chronological age - which (trust me) is total tripe.

Quattrocento - my nephew, a voracious and advanced reader (a book a day, reads both English and French) at nearly nine, hated Horrid Henry and Captain Underpants but read every single EB going... . A few years ago now, of course.

Oh Quatt, you're so honest but you know what everyone is going to pile in to say right now don't you?

Beano. Go for the Beano, get's them all reading, then Asterix and Tintin and then they take up books. Non fiction too for ds's. Problem is, and I say this as your friend, EB's Secret 7 is perfect for that age.

Quattro, can you get him to read non-fiction? And have you tried getting him to write books? I have known boys who won't read fiction who have been keener on doing both.

100x thanks for bumping child reading age thread. DS WILL not read at all. Bookshelves packed full. Lotsa reading time with us. Went into school to discuss this with them in the autumn term. Managed to get him into horrid henry and captain underpants but he is now 7 and 3 mths and he has read 5 books in his ENTIRE life. Not been nagging at all but am starting to worry seriously.

Hi Quattro
No need to duck, not remotely offended by your post. Unaware is a much nicer word than ignorant, which I do find offensive - it has a much harsher intention I think and I would consider myself 'unaware' in this case. You are probably right also I think, I do really enjoy these books! I so much more look forward to reading them each night than the picture books we've now moved on from with him. He does seem to genuinely love them though, always talking about 'what might happen next' etc so we both love it, which is good enough for me.

Don't think the two - entering consciousness of others, and fun and thought provoking, are in any way mutually exclusive

lol. I once had a hilarious night on here with Franny and Mrs Carrot and others, and we did have a midnight feast at Malory Towers. Was very very funny.

I read and loved Enid Blyton as a child, at first I thought the names of some of the children were funny (Dick, Fanny etc) but then got lost in the magic of the stories. Even from a young age I understood that EB was from a different time and that her books were full of out-dated opinions/behaviours but still I loved the stories, the adventures and the magic.
I would like my children to enjoy reading a wide variety of things and don't think it is my place to say "you can't read that because it is un-PC". Surely its far better to do what my mother did and explain the differences between our time and EB's time and allow the children to just enjoy the stories for what they are - stories.

Shall we make a date for a midnight feast, 100x? Do lets! We can sneak down into the room next to the junior dorm. We'll have to be very very quiet. I'll make some jam tarts and you can bring the cake! We'll ask Cod as well in Secret Code.

Erm - thought the whole point of literature is that it was fun and thoughtprovoking - gosh - didn't know that I was exploring the world through other consciousnesses - that might work for some novels I guess and maybe some drama but could that ever work for poetry?

And I NEVER read that as a girl, so can't be told off for being sentimental (shock horror, I am many things but never that). Oh they like the formula I think, and all the food. That's how EB draws them in, she's always going on about food.

Xenia - completely agree, life is riddled with class differences.

The whole point of literature is to go on a journey into the consciousness of others and live another life by proxy in order to gain insight into the huge variety of human experience...

Quattro - I didn't read these books as a child - came across them quite by chance. Never for one second did I associate the name Chinky with a character with 'slitted eyes'.

This thread is utter madness - am honestly LOL at you lot!!

Oh no, I'm very fair and responsive to what they want really, but there are some books I refuse to read out loud on the grounds of sheer awfulness.
DD and I read MIlly Molly Mandy and she adored it. She loved all the jobs MMM had to do around the home and was quietly intrigued by the girl who lives in the Big House and her mother in the fur coats who take MMM out for a ride in her car, while all the rest of her family had to go in the cart.

Frances5, I am NOT calling EB a Nazi, just saying that there is no more excuse for racism 50 years ago than there is today, in fact there is less. I was not the first on this thread to call her a racist, and I am not accusing her of anti-semitism, just wondering if any one else ever noticed any in her writing.

Hey 100! Must've been all those EB stories you were reading them

well of course but were there some that they enjoyed that were not EB? or did you torture them for years with bedtime stories they did not enjoy

Really Quatt doesn't have to read them EB if she doesn't want to, does she? This is a long thread isn't it though? Has it all been about that?

I can think of lots of stories I've read where their eyes have glazed over with boredom and they've asked me to STOP.