Thread of assistance for people who find it tricky remaining breezy about the books their dc choose in the library.

Years and years ago (must have been in the early 60s I think as my mum was still living at home), my granny (a nursery school headmistress) went to a meeting and defied her brother (primary school headmaster and labour councillor) to stand up and speak out against a proposed ban on Enid Blyton in the authority's schools. She said what became my parents' mantra 'as long as kids are reading, it really doesn't matter WHAT they are reading - let them read what they love and they will grow up loving to read'.

She passionately believed this and so did my mum and dad (also both teachers), I think it must have worked as I read anything I could lay my hands on as a child/teenager and went on to study obscure foreign literature at university. Admittedly I now read mostly detective novels although some of them are set in ancient times so must be educational, right but I figure I've worked my way through more 'worthy' French and German literature than most native speakers so I'm due a bit of fun

I'll agree with those defending Horrid Henry,

When I read them the one about the Nativity Play I was laughing out loud as I read it. I also liked the posh restaurant when he had the snails.

For reading out loud, I think funny books are the best.

The problem with those fairy books is that there are so many of them, all the same, and most of the girls go through the fairy phase before they can read the books themselves (mine were in nursery and reception), so you have to read them out loud.

douche bag was a bit confusing too...

coolasacucumber I managed to work out the dykes but somehow thought that giving head was something to do with taking drugs, must have been a drugs & sex session in that or a Jackie Collins that confused me!

Hmm my early teen reading was Harold Robbins. Took me ages to work out what a dyke was as my only frame of reference was geography!

Rainbow fucking fairies.

I had almost expunged them from my memory. I remember reading half a page to dd one night and breaking off mid sentence "gosh, dd, those two girls do gasp a lot don't they?"

Then there are the pet fucking fairies, the party fucking fairies, not to mention the bloody prosthetic fucking fairies.

I have to go and lie down. Peel me a grape, manslave.

I Love Maia! I remember being thoroughly shocked it was by the man who wrote Watership Down though
I tend to just let/will let the DCs read whatever they like though - I was always allowed to read anything I got my hands on (Kyle Onstott and Lance Horner at 7 anyone?!) - I think my parents just thought it would go over my head, or I would ask what things were/meant and it more or less worked. I did terrify myself when I read The Fog at about 9 or 10 though - I think it was a fortnight before I dared sleep :( I was petrified! but other than that I don't think I've been "psychologically scarred for life"

My DD went through the fairy, Magic Kitten, Animal Ark books. To expose her to more weighty material I read a bedtime story to her long after she was an independent reader. We read Stig of the Dump, Secret Garden, Tom's Midnight Garden, Goodnight Uncle Tom and many others. At a suitably exciting part each night I would say that would be all for that day. she could not take the suspense and read ahead of where we left off. Now, at the age of 11 she will tackle all sorts of books. crafty eh!

Ok, I'm now grateful that DSs are unlikely (I say unlikely) to go through the Rainbow Fairy phase (DS1, nearly 4, does have a massive thing for a storybook called 'The Dollshouse Fairy' at the mo, but I encourage it because it's lovely, beautifully illustrated and has made him want to play with his gender-neutral ELC dollshouse.).

BUT. Have you ever had to read Thomas the blinking Tank Engine books out loud and mean it? If you think the newer ones, the little square jobs, are bad, try reading the original series by Rev Bastard Awdry. They are fecking unreadable. Pages and pages of inconsequential, plotless farting about, interspersed with mechanical gobbledigook. What a crashing nerd the man must have been.

Any reading is great! Macdonald's signs, cereal packets, anything. But the more I hate a book, the more my kids love it. Sigh. So pretend to LOVE Rainbow Fairies - they'll soon get bored and move on. And what would happen if you said ' the one thing we're absolutely not going to read tonight is Michael Morpurgo' ...

I will also defend Horrid Henry. Formulaic to some extent, but Francesca Simon is a genuine human being rather than a committee (I heard her on Desert Island Discs, it must be true) and it shows.

Sorry, I refuse to accept there is any literary worth whatsoever in those fucking fairies. I really can't.

Horrid Henry I actually rather like. It becomes apparent, really, seeping round the edge, that Francesca Simon is literate (she has a new stand-alone which is all about Norse myths). They are formulaic but I am quite charmed by them. Also by the fact that they appeal, by definition, to the Perfect Peters who are actually reading books rather than being Horrid. One reads them with a thrilled sense of transgression, as a result.

Lady Chatterley, PurplePidgin, is tripe . Doesn't Mellors go on about his ex's vagina dentata when he's not sticking flowers in Connie's (shudder) 'maidenhair'?

Shagmund - what a corker of a book! I have been shaking with laughter at the Good Reads review. Love the quoted dialogue!!

I too am a librarian and I too have read more than my fair share of tat. As a child and as an adult. I have a creditable set of qualifications so it can't have been all bad! Agree with the poster who wrote that your reading is so very personal.

DS1 (6.5) loves Astrosaurs and Mr Gum. I remember very little of what I did read aged 6-10. Harriet the Spy. Blyton. Arthur Ransome. Arabel's Raven. In the 70s there were no glittery books for girls. We got short hair, duffle coats and cars to play with!

shagmundfreud you have reminded me of one of my 13yo self's favourite books, this eye opening sex slave fantasy romp which I found in the school library, no less I am rofling at this line from the Wiki page: "he employs some "Beklan" vocabulary for honorifics, natural objects, and sexual terms; the last "allows adults to leave the book within reach of children"". Err, no it doesn't! I learned a lot from that book.

Haven't read whole thread but I have to back letting them read trash as long as they read. I read a lot when I was little and I was always one of the advanced/fast readers in the class. But aged 8 upwards I did read a LOT of rubbish - point horror, sweet VH, ramona quimby, Judy blume, enid blyton - anyone who churned out the same old crap with a different cover, I hoovered up. I got thru it and still went on to be transported, captivated and overjoyed by really good writing. That doesn't mean that I don't have occasional lapses into Mills and Boon

I hope that when my DD is at the stage of "free reading" rather than on a level series at school and reading the picture book stories with me taht I will not be judgmental! I want to encourage her to read as much as possible.....though I dread these fairy books and Horrid Henry!

I read lots and lots of Enid Blyton as a child. DH happily says he read loads of trashy science fiction, Doctor Who and Star Trek novels and Biggles (which he swears was very good literature!). At 12 I dscovered Stephen King, Shirley Conran and Judith Krantz. I had about two years of total trash. Debutantes where one of the leads loses her virginity to a coke bottle may be the worst! Then for 10 years I went through a very snobby phase with literature and looked down on anything that wasn't a classic or prize winning. I was appalling.
But I learnt my likes and dislikes and can now appreciate trash, genre fiction, classics and contemporary literature fiction. My parents never ever vetoed anything I read and I hope I can be as encouraging.

When I was 13 my favourite book was this:

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=purity%27s+passion+janette+seymour+amazon&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1024&bih=643&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnso&tbnid=TGdySzzOmLybXM:&imgrefurl=www.goodreads.com/review/show/107813048&docid=Vg05p4PecgyfeM&itg=1&imgurl=photo.goodreads.com/books/1276705337l/454728.jpg&w=276&h=455&ei=I3MxT-ThO4zzsgbF5KCEDQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=428&sig=103472035180222175814&page=1&tbnh=124&tbnw=78&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=13&ty=66" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">vile

Smutty trash. And my mum gave it to me! I've never forgotten the scene where the platinum blond heroine is stripped naked in a slave market, and fondled by all the Arab slave traders

Mind you, it was a step up from Barbara Cartland, who I'd been reading obsessively since the age of 10.

DD (12) reads Louise Rennison books pretty much exclusively. Her soap watching schedule doesn't leave her the time or energy for anything more taxing.

We love the David Walliams books and the How to dragon books too.Wimpey Kid which I got for my reluctant reader has been a hit with all 3.We've got the lot, they had a massive row over who was reading the latest one first!

Ahhh but do kids want to read them.

Dd just adored RF in a way she wouldn't have with Animal Ark sadly.The addiction gets her reading book after book.She loved the funky clothes,different themes and has a had a strange fascination with those goblins.Ours didn't cost too much,think mil got the 4 entire sets from The Book People for £12.Haven't seen all the other stuff.

Dtwin 1's addiction to Beast Quest,Super Powers,Horrid Henry is the same. Animal Ark just didn't get him reading book after book.

The thing with kids is you have to go with what they want to read.Pushing them into what you want them to read is just pointless particularly in the early days as you won't find them continuously with their head in a book that doesn't excite them.

I found this out with my twins.Dtwin 2 was an avid reader from day one,anything and everything.He was a joy to get books for.Enid Blyton was his first fav and he read the lot,then Mr Gum,Spiderwick etc,etc.I tried to push dtwin 1 onto the same books and got nowhere,he just didn't read other than when I made him.The minute I gave in to his interests and books he loved he was off.

Due to this I had a far more relaxed approach with dd and her addiction to "the tiny winged bastards".Having said that I've just bought 2 box sets of Felicity Wishes books for a bit of variety in fairydom.Dd is a very avid reader now though,anything and everything.Ivy and Bean,Ottoline have been a recent discovery-they're brilliant!

Plus the Rainbow Fairy books are so so so blatantly Girl Books. The message seems to be that if you are a good girlie girl who likes frocks and sparkly shite then fairies will come to play with you

yes, they do grow out of the fairy princess unicorn phase.

Mine are now 7 and 9. I let them choose whatever they like from the library to read to themselves, but I refuse to read anything out loud that I don't enjoy myself.

I got bored half way through the endless Enid Blyton boarding school books and made her read the rest herself, which she happily did. At the moment I'm reading dd2 the 'how to train your dragon' series, which we are all really enjoying. I'm reading dd1 a mixture of books - the last one was 'gansta granny' by david walliams (really funny) and now I'm reading 'buried alive' by jacqueline wilson.

I try to steer them away from the Jacqueline wilson books 'for older readers' as I'm not sure they are ready for those yet.

MrsHeffley - I do agree that the RF aren't that bad in the sense that they are ideal for those just gaining confidence reading (repetitive plot, limited vocab, plenty of pictures etc.).

What I really object to is the whole surrounding marketing frenzy - Rainbow Magic magazine, cut out fairy books, etc etc; they're all designed to part you from your cash while giving as little as possible in return.

I guess that's why I didn't mind Animal Ark; they're simple early stage reading without all the full-on commercialisation.

My Year 8 teacher used to refer to Point Horror books as 'chewing gum for the eyes', which must have made the reluctant readers who loved them feel delightfully inferior. She also banned Just 17 from the classroom...

The trick is to buy a Rainbow Fairy/Beast Quest set to have at home then they're old hat.

I have to say I do think poor old RF get more bashing than they deserve. Admittedly they're not great works of literature but when kids come off reading schemes and venture into chapter books they need formulaic easy to read stuff to give them confidence.

Bash em all you like but they do get kids reading. We had the entire Daisy chapter book collection,ditto Worst witch,Ottoline,Far Away Tree,Heidi etc dd would only flick through to begin with.After a couple of months working her way through a masseeeeeve RF box set(thanks mil)she started devouring anything and everything.

Dtwin 1 was the same.Only dipped in and out of paperbacks until he literally read every Beast Quest/Horrid Henry he could get his hands on.Now he reads masses of other good stuff.

We're currently trying to avoid the Slime Squad books and huge Star Wars manuals that we take out time after time and have to lug home.I read some shite (sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High) but still ended up with an Eng Lit degree.