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

Reading fiction is a way to escape the mundane world and explore something different. The way characters deal with situations is a way of learning social skills, for example. It's learning by absorbing feelings, emotions and situations you probably hope not to be dealing with yourself. Children like to explore the harder stuff in a safe way which is why these kind of plots are so popular. They are educational without appearing to be.

My eldest daughter loved JW books, although her sisters didn't seem to read so much. I read Lily Alone to check it out first as she was a little young at the time she wanted it and it made me cry lol.

I should add that, despite the title, these are actually very funny, innocent, and age appropriate books! I remember feeling like someone had taken all the funniest moments with me and my best friends and written them down. Some of Louise Rennison's later books weren't quite as brilliant, but the first three Angus books were ones I went back to again and again.

Please remember that she's young; there's plenty of time for her to discover new genres and read "improving" books, but if this sort of thing is what's captured her imagination right now, great! Enjoy the fact that she's enjoying it 🙂

Trying to remember what I read at that age..

Audrey Rose
Flowers in the Attic and ALL the follow up books
But my main interest was actual true Ghost stories books .

I remember one called KINFLICKS , an American book, and boy was that Hot. I was about 15 then though and EVERYONE was reading Kinflicks loll

I wouldn't worry in the slightest. DD1 and 2 were both huge JW fans. They particularly loved the historical ones - Hetty Feather, Opal Plumstead etc - one dressed as Hetty for WBD, we went to the Foundling hospital, saw JW read a few times on book tours. DD1 wrote JW fanfic! They have both moved on. DD1 is doing English at Cambridge and DD2 has been writing about absurdist drama in her Personal Statement this am!

It could be worse. I didn’t enjoy reading until I was 14 and discovered Jilly Cooper.

She’s reading; and for some kids/young people, JW books will be the first/only time they’ve encountered their experience in a book and it may give them the comfort/empowerment/‘you are not alone’ message they need.

What aspect of JW do you object to?

As in, you think she should be reading up on chemistry?

Or, you think she should be reading books for adults, as JW too easy?

Or that they're somehow inappropriate?

Or that the stories she reads should be more varied, rather than by the one author?

Or something else?

I don't get what your gripe is...

This makes me sound like the biggest MN arse of all time but I had a dc was obsessed with JW and is now reading English at Oxford so I wouldn't worry ...

At 12 we were reading erotic novels aloud to each other…..so I guess you’re lucky….

I'd let her enjoy them while she can. It won't be long until GCSEs and A levels rear their ugly heads and beat any enjoyment of reading out of her. It's taken a fair while for my DD to read for pleasure again and my DS who was an avid reader has never got back into it although I still live in hope :(

This is really funny. Fancy being cross your 12 year old is reading JW, the target demographic. Your dd sounds lovely and totally age appropriate in her reading!

OP, reading is meant to be an enjoyable leisure activity, and it's the summer holidays. Stop fretting about her reading habits and just let her relax.

I'm a very keen reader with a degree in English literature, a creative writing diploma and a book reviews blog, and my job consists primarily of copywriting and editing. I'm more than happy to read a weighty classic or a 'challenging' literary prize-winner. I'm also more than happy, however, to chill out in the sunshine with an easy and formulaic thriller. This year I've read Bleak House, Middlemarch and Notre Dame de Paris, but I also read a 12-book crime series with a will-they-won't-they detective pairing as the main characters, and I have not suffered any kind of intellectual decline as a result.

We don't expect adults to spend all their spare time on improving themselves, so we shouldn't be expecting kids to do it either. She's fine. Let her read what she likes.

As for Jacqueline Wilson being 'inappropriate' for a 12-year-old... she is literally Wilson's target audience. If anything she's maybe a little older. I think you need to unclutch your pearls here.

11yo DD is really into the Crookhaven, Skandar and Scarlett & Ivy books atm I think they'd be worth looking at. Skandar is an interesting take on unicorns (scary wild monsters which need to be tamed, go on quests etc), Crookhaven is about a school for young criminals and Scarlett and Ivy are twins at a 1920s(?) boarding school who solve mysteries (but definitely not Blyton-esque type boarding school)

I definitely read JW at a similar age and loved them 😁

If you're not despairing of what a child is reading you're probably not doing things properly...

I really struggled with reading/writing - had remedial classes with the special teacher in primary school and then once the penny dropped, my reading age was off the charts (actually!) by the last two years of primary...

Everything with words, I read - from Enid Blyton to Dick Francis, Nevil Shute, Agatha Christie - all the dire drippy Pony Books from the Pullein-Thompson sisters, Monica Dickens, Ruby Ferguson, Patricia Leitch..

Mother hated it, but kept that hatred to a low simmer really, and kept the book supply coming (I did have to buy the pony books with my own money from charity shops though, she drew the line there).

These days... I am a writer, and on my kindle right now are several fantasy novels, a recently republished Patricia Leitch from the Jinny series of pony books and Irving Finkels - The First Ghosts.

At least she’s reading like a Pp said it could be bloody TT I wish my DD would read more and I also was another who read the flowers in the attic series at a VV young age . I used to also steal books from the sixth form section at school that is lowers wernt allowed 🥲🤣

I'm am English teach and I adored Jacqueline Wilson as a child. Even now, I think they are great books, she is such a gifted writer with so much depth to her books. They introduce more sheltered children to situations so outside their own norms and help to create tolerance and empathy.

Also, pushing her to read more 'educational books' is a bad idea. Let her enjoy reading as a hobby, whatever it is she likes to read!! You run the risk of making reading a chore. And let her enjoy her holidays!

I'm not even sure what you mean by 'educational' books when you're talking about fiction, OP? And it's hard to tell from your post whether you think JW is too adult for your daughter, or that her books are poorly written.

My 10yo is also obsessed with JW and I can completely understand why - she introduces kids to the slightly darker side of life in a way that is safe and age-appropriate.

I think I wasn't much older that that & I was reading Jacqueline Susann, Harold Robbins & Jackie Collins.

Don't think there was much specifically for that age group when I was 12!

They were banned at my school (along with Mizz magazine) naturally that made sure we read every single one!

I would steer away from "Love Lessons" (the one with the teacher-pupil relationship which is not framed as grooming, and the pupil gets blamed for it in the end) and some of the very early ones like "Falling Apart" (main character attempts suicide)

I suspect it's a similar misogyny that makes books aimed at women "Chick-lit" and almost identical books with a male protagonist as "an interesting character study"

*Jurassic
Needs glasses

At 13 I liked Jirassic Park (novel) and others by Michael Crichton. Could she give those a whirl?

I actually think Judy Blume was a quality writer (although I should admit I missed out on Forever as I was reading her stuff in primary school and just wasn't interested in sexual themes at the time, so I started it and thought it was boring). I think I first learnt (indirectly) about the Holocaust from reading Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself.

Anyway, my parents let me read whatever I liked, I read some awful shite (as well as some good stuff) and now I have a PhD in literature and still read a mix of highbrow and trash.

They’re fine - similar sort of topics to the Judy Blume and Paula Danziger books that we were all obsessed with back in the day.

They are all ishooos based books as I remember. So clunky.
What about some Eva Ibbotson?

I had never heard of that book but I've just read the plot summary and I'm pleased that I did not read that when I was a child.