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

Omg are we talking about A Wrinkle In Time?? It’s one of the best books ever

you sound really fun.

I read a mills and boon a day from my great aunt when I was 13 or so - I now have have several professional qualifications and a law degree, and just took War and Peace on holiday 😂
Reading is reading - it’s amazing whatever it is (in my view)!

It's one of the most frequently challenged and banned books in America.

It wasn't a personal attack on you 😕

Maybe Wrinkle in Time is banned in some ultra-conservative states, but it certainly isn't in mine.

For undermining Christianity by showing the occult apparently!

My 12 yo is obsessed with rick Riordan's books. She has all of them has gone through tje fables and non fiction and now wants to go to Greece...

@rosyAndMoo as several have pointed out J W has been Children's Laureate and also won major children's book prizes. She is not trashy. The Rainbow and Ark series are - but they are written by syndicate (like Sexton Blake).

@Grammarnut 💯

I think this is a bit of snobbery by OP. Sometimes wannabe writers are like this about female authors in particular.

'A Wrinkle in Time' is one of my favourite books ever. One of those books that changed my life (along with Dr Syn, which got me interested in history, which I later studied at uni) by showing me that sci-fi was not all about teenage boys having adventures in space. W in T is also a good intro to dystopias like Brave New World and 1984. Wonderful. Why is it banned in US?

JW writes about unconventional families and mothers - she's great. My daughter devoured them all and then moved on to Judy Blume, S.E Hinton and now is on Jane Austin, and George Orwell.

Maybe read some of them before dismissing them? I enjoyed reading some of my daughter's JW novels and JW herself is a talented and prolific writer - a lovely woman who really cares about children. www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2020/12/jacqueline-wilson-interview-2020-childhood-fiction-books-sexuality

Not only are you allowed to read for pleasure, doing so is a strong marker for success academically. OP is being snobbish - also a lot of other people on this board. JW writes about working-class life without being supercilious about it. Good thing.

I think The Tenant of Wildfell Hall underated - Anne was the best of the Brontes.

I think you are lucky to have a bookworm. My children all were and it was great - I used to read along with them so we had things to talk about at dinner. Another good series that she might miss are the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer. They are great fun.

TBF at that age, I was reading a combination of real life murder books, Jean Plaidy and Jilly Cooper 😂

My friends and I were reading Judy Blume books at that age. Anyone remember Forever? And Ralph? 😆

No more than oldest, I only wish she would read jw , she's less into reading and follows a tiktok where they review them . She's 13 oldest is a lot older and had quite the collection of jw . I'm just glad they have no interest in v.c. Andrews

Why are you so down on JW? And suggesting that fiction is not real life in connection with JW is molly-coddling - the situations she rights on are real life for a lot of children. By all means go to a second hand bookshop and give £20 - to buy what she likes, including JW. Telling a child not to read what she enjoys is the best way ever of putting her off reading for pleasure, or for any other reason.

My DD who is now 25, read all the JW and Judy Blume she could read when younger and went on to get a first in Classics from a top university.

I agree with your DD about Wuthering Heights. I love reading and read widely ACR all genres. Wuthering Heights is one of the worst books I've ever read. It took me 3 attempts to get through it! I actually liked Hard Times though. But I detested They Catcher in the Rye, which everyone else seems to love.

No-one should tell your DS off for reading Warrior Cats - his teacher is doing him a disservice! If DS wants to read Warrior Cats let him. Leave some sci-fi and fantasy around that he might like. Reading is for pleasure and those who read for pleasure (rather than because they are told it's good for them or that they must read classics) do well in later life. Indeed, reading for pleasure is one of the indicators of future success - and it does not matter what DS reads (but check he's not discovered porn!).
I think this obsession that all DC reading should be improving is a left-over from Blair's national curriculum which taught children that reading was for information etc but that reading for pleasure was a waste of time (truly, I found children who had absorbed that notion!).

Yes. (She probably read them anyway!)

Well I read Judy Blume, not sure that’s any better! But I turned out ok. It actually helped educated me in some things I would have been too embarrassed to talk to my mum about.

To be fair, I was obsessed with reading and would read almost anything.

Does DD still read after you stopped her reading something she actually enjoyed?

Agree! @Leafygreen84! I suspect OP is a book snob and wants her DD reading classics. She will put DD off reading if she tries - stuff like 'Wuthering Heights' (own DD did this for A level and said it was the worst written book she had ever read with too many characters have the same name! Only one worse was 'Hard Times' which is didactic) etc are not for 12 year olds; nor is Dickens (Victorian families read them aloud but we are not Victorians).