12 year old obsessed with Jacqueline Wilson books.. Aibu to think there is better out there?

Think yourself lucky- I was reading James Herbert by 12 years old!!

I became a teenager in 1989 and they were YA books - maybe not as many as there were now, but they were out there! Jean Ure, for example, was a popular British YA author who wrote some books for younger kids but also some that were very much not.

My favourite Jean Ure was The Other Side Of The Fence, about a middle-class teenager who has been thrown out by his parents and meets a homeless girl his own age who is escaping from an abusive relationship. They go to London and live in a scuzzy bedsit together (platonically, though, because as it's revealed later on, the reason the boy has been thrown out by his parents is because he's told them he's gay).

I was a Stephen King reader, probably why I ended up so fascinated with the supernatural, demonic entities and the mind of psychotic humans. I'd recommend! 🤣

I read them when I was a teenager. Looking back, I can't believe how inappropriate they are.

Not saying there isn't a reason? Wondered which, if any, of those reasons was the one OP had in mind. Then people can answer with relevant points... No point arguing or agreeing about how "appropriate" it is, if the OP thinks their daughter should be brushing up on her GCSE physics. I'm getting the feeling there are a lot of things you have an interest in not being a fan of??

And fwiw, I am pretty clever 😊Unsure how much it was helped or hindered by reading JW as a girl.

Inappropriate how?

Genuinely interested as loved them as a kid and can't think how they would be but perhaps I've blanked out plot details in my mind!

My understanding is they were written with a desire to depict kids in challenging situations grappling with challenging issues - to ensure that kids with all sorts of circumstances get representation and to encourage kids to be more empathetic about what others might be going through.

Had some of it dated really badly?

My DD (reluctant reader) LOVES the Lottie Brookes books

I think it’s partly the cartoony covers that suggest they are lighter weight than they are. Many have some quite heavy themes or they’re set in historical periods which they then learn about. I’d take them over Percy Jackson any day, they are incredibly repetitive. But they did create a real love of history and myths in my son so I won’t complain about them either. I read constantly but at that age was working my way through all the babysitters club books and all the sweet valley high books. Hardly educational! But they’re all nurturing a love of reading.

I was despairing of my 11yo DD who will only read Lottie Brooks and graphic novels the other day. My mum told me she’d similarly despaired of me at the same age as I’d only read the Chalet School, Trebizon etc, but my English teacher’s view was to just keep me reading whatever I chose- better than not reading (and the English teacher’s own child who was on the year above was obsessed with Jilly Cooper, so she thought Chalet School sounded a bit more appropriate 😂).

Like one of the PPs, I got an A at English A level and did a lit based degree, so it clearly didn’t do me any harm! I wouldn’t worry OP, just be glad she reads!

What educational books were you hoping she would read over the summer holidays?! She’s 12 and at that age I’d just be happy that she’s reading and not spending all her time on tiktok.

I loved the JW books at that age and it hasn’t scarred me. I am still a bookworm now.

Ah, Christopher Pike, loved those books too! 😄

@aodirjjd @Blarn After Junk, did you read Melvin Burgess' teen mash up of Norse myths and London gang warfare: Bloodsong?

I think I read that at 12ish and bloody hell It sticks in my mind as my introduction to what being hamstrung was 😱 Pretty sure there was some shape shifting incest in there too…

The Illustrated Mum seemed very tame after that!

I was obsessed with Enid Blyton as a kid and my family had to endure hours of me pretending I lived in a boarding school (dad was the gardener, mum was matron etc). There are some very unfashionable views in those books but I’ve turned out alright.
As others have said; she’s reading and that’s a good thing. I love John Grisham books now. Hardly stretches my brain but that’s partly the appeal.

No. Her work is a sort of creative cross-over of Jackie Collins and Pam Ayres. It’s very niche.

Be pleased that she's reading at all, even if it is JW. Fair to say that one of my DSs had to read one of hers (Tracy Beaker?) in Y6 and had to be dissuaded from writing an extremely sarcastic review for his homework.

Back in the day, though, they didn't have YA books. I dimly remember reading historical novels, science fiction and the odd classic (Jane Eyre, I think) at that age.

Yes ffs let her enjoy it.

My mother was like this. Hated me liking stuff she didn't like and tried to put me off it.

It only intensified my interest.

Mizz magazine!

Ha ha blast from the past

Reminds me of Just 17 and the much more racy More! magazine with its 'position of the fortnight'...lol we were 15/16 and not having sex with anyone

I read those. Along with Judy blum and Paula danziger. The less said about 'the babysitters club' the better. Not exactly Dostoyevsky is it.

I guess it's cool that kids now still read them though? I'm not familiar about current early teen authors I'm afraid.

this x 100

Yet you’ve managed to come up with quite a few different possible t reasons, but you don’t understand the OP’s gripe. You are not coming across half as clever as you think you are.

Im not a fan of JW either OP. Reading the thread with interest.

I wouldn't say they are especially inappropriate for a 12 yo, they deal with many of the same themes you find in the secondary school RSE and PSCHE curriculums, but they are terribly written. I'm sure it's just a phase which will pass and she'll read something better one day.

Snobbish and strange comments on this thread.

I read Jacqueline Wilson as a child. I’m still a voracious reader as an adult, and work as a writer, so it obviously didn’t hinder me.

My six year old reads Jacqueline Wilson. I don’t think they are inappropriate. They talk about real-life issues e.g., foster families. Anything my daughter doesn’t understand, she can chat about with me. Can’t abide the idea of certain books being inappropriate for children. I’d rather my kids learn about any topic through a book than the brain rot that is tiktok/social media.

That is amazing
Well Done to your DD

Is she Lisa Jewell ? I ask as I love her books and bought a new one just Today. The Girls.

I was a massive JW fan as a child. My mum didn't approve of them (said they were sexist against men) but I wasn't an academic child at all much to her disappointment and she was glad I was reading at all

I'm horrified at the pedo teacher one though. Im sure that has to be out of print by now??

No, that’s very MN pedestrian.

My daughter read Jacqueline Wilson and is now a best-selling author, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Harvard and frankly a shoo-in for the Nobel Prize.