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

DD was obsessed with Harry Potter for a while to the point she wouldn't read anything else. I like HP but wanted her to branch out a bit so I looked up books which were similar but a bit different and bought those books second hand / found them in the library and suggested we read them together, take them to places she might get bored and want to read for a few minutes etc. she liked Hermione as a character so I looked up books with main characters similar to her. She liked magic, boarding school and friendship etc. Maybe you could work out what your DD likes about JW books and find some which are similar but different enough to encourage her to branch out a bit.

Has she read the obvious- HARRY POTTER and prequels? Also, Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence are fabulous and make history come alive for kids. Also: A Wrinkle in Time- exciting story and mixes science into it

Yes YABU and a bit controlling. Reading is something pleasurable and people, tweens included, should read what they enjoy, unless it's totally inappropriate, which these books aren't. At 12 she should have complete autonomy in her age-appropriate choice of books.

My sister loved Jacqueline Wilson books. I'm a bit older so I read Judy Blume, the Sweet Valley High books. Jacqueline Wilson is probably better than Sweet Valley to be honest! I was reading Mills and Boon at 13 - at least JW is actually for kids 😅

She can still be academic and read JW. She is a kid, let her enjoy her summer holidays, that's what they're for. Don't be a pushy parent. It doesn't mean she is any less academic. I would just be happy she loves reading. She may well find another obsession to replace this one. Reading these books could be her safe zone. I say this as somebody who regularly goes through phases of reading and watching the same things for comfort, and I know this is something many children do.

Book snobbery annoys me. She’s reading. That’s a great thing. You say she’s academic which is wonderful but … You’re allowed to read for pleasure. Let her enjoy the books. She will move on at some point. So much better than watching rubbish on tik tok or you tube.

I remember my dad banning me from reading Are You There God? It's Me, Margret at about that age. The banning was not successful.

I loved JW (and have preordered the update on the Girls in series!), Judy Blume, Point Horror, Point Crime, Paula Danziger, Louise Rennison etc when I was about that age. I'm sure the OP would deem all of them to be unsuitable.

There's nothing wrong with JW and trying to stop her reading them will backfire in any event.

I get it right to the point where she wants her daughter to read "more educational" books which is where I balk! Also the child is reading the books herself so she doesn't have to do the teeth gritting reading. I have a theory about W in the W that it was never written for children to read but was written to appeal to adults for them to read to children and not as children's books at all. I read a comment that its actually two books...the chapters with Toad in and the ones without. Much of Kenneth Graham's writing is, I think, intended to evoke nostalgia for childhood in adults rather than to entertain children...same with Winnie the Pooh.

I agree, I think it also can really help create empathy and understanding that other young people can be dealing with really difficult circumstances and as others have said JW does a good job at breaking down stereotypes. I read massively as a child and a teen (including any JW) I could get my hands on and also read lots of much older books. It's probably what piqued my interest in social/ community work and it definitely helped me navigate my own difficult circumstances knowing that other people were able to be brave in much harder situations. As a community worker I see many kids who can't engage with their peers because their peers don't understand what it's like to be in care, or to have a struggling parent, or to lose a parent, or to have an ED or struggle with mental health. If they were more aware and informed it would probably help young people to be more compassionate to those in different situations to what they've grown up in which would make for a more inclusive society. I think JW navigates a careful balance between being real and honest about what some children face growing up, and not overdoing it.

I don't think OP should try to stop her reading JW books or make her read anything. I just agree that JW is quite poor quality literature and there's much better out there, but that books written 100 years ago are a bit out-of-sync now with their maturity vs reading level. Look at Wind in the Willows, the storyline is suitable for maybe aged 5-7 but I can't imagine many kids under 10 being able to read it now.

My 4 yo is obsessed with the Rainbow Fairy books which is basically the same story, badly written multiple times by a "collective of authors" in case you're not familiar with them, and she's 4 and can't read yet, so guess who it is that has to grit my teeth through the appalling sentence structure, stilted dialogue and endless cliches to read them out? So I do understand the OP's perspective.

They’re probably a bit young for her. JWs an odd one as content is much older than the quality of the writing

Oh god those rainbow fairy type books are so badly written and repetitive! Nearly as bad as the Animal Ark series and all its copycats - mostly utter dross!

I think Jacqueline Wilson writes very well. Over lockdown I did a book group where we re read What Katy Did and then JW's version "Katy". I thought it was good, the language was of a high enough standard. I've read a few others as an adult and I think JW has a good sense of how to make a reader feel, to empathise with the characters, and for me that is a very important part of writing.

Absolutely loved Stranger With My Face by Louis Duncan.
Also Locked In Time where the family never aged was brilliant!

Just be glad she's got an interest in reading!
I was a complete and total bookworm at 12 (still love books) and read so much.
Would have been pissed off if my mum had been the Book Police or whinged about what I was reading/what I should be reading instead!
Just leave me alone with my Lois Duncan and Judy Blume please 😁

JW is great!if she likes that encourage Judy Blume too

I was well into adulthood when JW began to be a thing so haven't read them and I trained as an Occupational Therapist but I could have written the rest of your post (oh and not "naice area", deffo working class council housed but happy stable family life) What is it with bloody Garth Nix? which I loathe. Not fond of Diana Wynn Jones but I couldn't have read her as a child (too old) which may explain it. I loved the JRRT books and still respect them but am kind of over them now. Another Chalet School fan here, also a fan of Elsie Oxenbury (Abbey Girls).

I'm in my 60s, highly educated with numerous professional qualifications. I spent my summer holiday rereading the Little House on the Prairie series as I have done many times over the last 50 years. Over Easter I read several Chalet School books. None of them were challenging but they were hugely pleasurable.

Reading isn't only for education and self improvement. It's also for comfort, relaxation, rest and escapism. As an academic child whose parent clearly has high expectations of her, I can understand why she wants those things.

sorry I don't agree its an unavoidable given. I am still a voracious reader of all kinds of books and a voracious screen user too. I am 71 and never liked E. Nesbitt etcetera as a child. I read them as an adult and thought "oh Ok but meh" To people who don't want their child to re read but to "move on" I would suggest that the books are still giving the child something that they need which surely is the base reason for reading anything? to give the reader something that they need. Children today seem to have so much that they MUST do that to interfere with their reading choices to make them read something more "advanced" "educational" or whatever, especially during school holidays seems to me to be bonkers and a good way to stop their reading altogether.

On the one hand, I would be delighted that she’s reading, but on the other, if she were to get to the end of the JW books and not move onto some other authors I would be worried…
My own DD was fixated on animal books (one particular animal) and later on we discovered that this had been a sign of hidden ADHD, which caused all sorts of problems from age 15 to age 23 before she was properly diagnosed.
I, on the other hand, liked reading the body of an author’s work before moving onto another author: like PP, I was into Agatha Christie at that age, but I didn’t start Poirot until I’d read all the Miss Marple ones (a habit I kept until I discovered Discworld in my 20’s)
After AC I moved on to GK Chesterton, Graham Greene, Noel Coward, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Orwell Etc. I’d already at around 10 - 12 read all of the Narnia, LOTR and Hobbit, Swallows and Amazons books
Reading is amazing - encourage her to keep it up and branch out!

I started reading Stephen King at 11. I was in bed with chicken pox and my mum bought me The Shining, I have loved 'scary' books ever since!

I've just remembered that in a Judy Blume book (can't remember which one, maybe one of the more autobiographical ones) a character is reading Nancy Drew books and her mum or aunt doesn't approve because she thinks they're trashy! My mum, by contrast, never commented on anything I might choose to read - I've no idea if she had opinions. She quite enjoyed the Terry Pratchett phase though.

I read JW from about 8-11. I went on to read English Lit at a college of the University of London so I don't think a bit of JW held me back at all. I was - and still am- perfectly happy reading classics, Booker contenders and medieval passion plays in the original alongside chick lit or crime novels.

Quite honestly you need to leave her alone. Going on about "unsuitability" just breeds curiosity and trying to get her to read what you want her to read is more likely to put her off, particularly if she already isn't that interested. Summer holidays are also good for recharging - she may not be in the place to tackle something worthy right now. Don't put her off reading. Just tell her it's great that she does it.

I also grew up in a naice family in a naice area and attended naice schools. A lot of the issues in the JW books were also my first real exposure to people living different, more difficult lives in different circumstances or seeing the direct impact of things like divorce. They made me more empathetic. I remember reading Vicky Angel being the first time I understood grief as an all pervading, lasting concept.

I never read some of her first novels which were seemingly aimed at older teens, although I probably would have been allowed. My mother bought JW books for me and never said a word against them- I think she thought they widened my scope. That said, my parents were very open and there was very little censorship in our house. The only thing banned was Jackie Collins, my mum thought she was crude. At 12 I was reading Meg Cabot (Princess Diaries) and Louise Rennison, still collecting Lemony Snicket, all the Anne of Greengables and Little Women and various Anthony Horowitz books but also getting into Patricia Cornwell, Jilly Cooper, Dodie Smith, Maeve Binchy, Daphne du Maurier, Steinbeck, Laurie Lee, Margaret Drabble, H E Bates and others. One of my favourite books at that was a collection of stories of people who had encountered Anne Frank whilst in concentration camps.

When it came to YA novels though, I much preferred real life, slightly gritty or girls issues ones or straight historical fiction. Joan Lingard was a favourite. A lot of the YA stuff around at the time was fantasy and I've no interest in it so I did go looking for adult books rather than plod through Garth Nix to please my absolute cow of a school librarian who viewed a dislike of Dianne Wynne Jones or the Hobbit and similar as a character failing.

Also like a huge chunks of MN I make no apologies for a life long affection for the Chalet School.

@meandkarmavibe Apologies - I misunderstood what you meant 🙂