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

Thetokengirl - the Cows in Action joke book is fab - dd's best school reading book yet IMO :)

(disclaimer: I have a somewhat childish sense of humour and I also like Captain Underpants )

My mum used to let me choose whatever I wanted and would take out several at the same time on her ticket "which I could read if I wanted to, but ask first" which would be left around or she would read avidly on the sofa. Her choices were always the best ones and the ones I reread though I would never admit it even now.

At home I was allowed to read anything I wanted from her shelves. She put a whole load on the top shelf randomly without saying anything . I was halfway through Pride and Prejudice before I realised they weren't 'naughty' books . Master of child psychology my mum. The dubious books were at eye-level.

I let DD (6.5) take whatever she likes out of the library but I won't read books aloud that I don't like, so the ones I like get lots of attention and she is left to read the dross by herself. Did encourage her to learn to read much faster.

Ds1 aged 10 just finished his first Michael Morpurgo book last night. He was in floods of tears and needed a very big hug, but has insisted that he still wants to read War Horse next. More hugs needed, I suspect .
DS2 aged 7 loves reading Cows in Action/ Astrosaurs/ Astrosaurs Academy (all by the same person), although has recently got the latest Clumsies book which he has been waiting avidly for.
I rememebr reading complete trash as a child (remember going through a phase of reading Mills and Boon aged about 13!), infact I still do at times, but I agree that I think for kids any reading is good. I am however glad that mine seem to have outgrown Captain Underpants

DD is nearly 12 and has a reading age far beyond that. I want to steer her away from anything too sexy at the moment - any recommendations please?!

Grown-up equivalent of hamsters in tiaras - all the Twilight books, read in indecent succession. I don't know what came over me.

Currently unable to leave an Agatha Raisin omnibus alone after one book ... two ... on the third and suspect I will read the four and final one, then download some more.

DD likes sparkly fairy shit, but has come to realise that mummy does NOT put on her best reading performance when forced to read them. She had one for Christmas with the proviso she reads it herself ... we will see. She has just finished a proper chapter book, which was unutterably tedious (it was about a kitten, albeit not in a tiara) but she is SO proud that she finished it. She's nearly 8 and a good reader but has NO stamina.

I will continue reading to her until she has to beat me off with a stick - it's not like there are any other opportunities in life for me to read Terry Pratchett out loud in ridiculous accents, after all.

I'm very much of the view that any reading is good, as long as they're getting the reading habit. After all, how many adults can say hand on heart that they never read the grown-up equivalent of hamsters in tiaras?

My DD doesn't read at all. It pains me greatly.

I think that the alliteration in the titles is appealing to budding mathematicians who like order in the world Ishall

I think if any jewellery wearing guinea pigs had been around when DD2 was younger I sure she would have wanted to read those

DD1's problem is that she just can't choose what to read. Going to the library was some sort of torture with me shouting "just choose anything!" Now that she's 20 if she asks me to go into Waterstones with her I refuse.

I can't stand JW and CC and having moved on from Rainbow/pet fairies they are all DD2 will read.

She won't read HP or Northern lights (she's seen the film) or read Percy Jackson or black beauty or James Heriott (sp) which I'm shire she'd love.
No she's brain washed my Tracy bloody Beaker into what 10y girls read.
She's the best reader in her class she gets 100% in comprehensions. Surely she could be more adventurous.
< bangs head on wall>
her dyslexic big sister will try most things, having read and reread twilight even though she couldn't read until she was 10!

I've still got my copy of forever by judy blume

webwiz, DD1 had a thing for the Animal Ark ones too, till we started taking the piss got fed up with them and called them all Tiger in the Toilet . Maybe there's some kind of hypnotism in them that makes them want to do maths later on ?

I forced DD3 to start indepedent reading by refusing to read Sodding Rainbow Fairies (SRF?) to her. Now she can't do anything without a book in her hand.

DD liked the Animal Ark books too. I thought they were fine tbh, much better than the Rainbow fairies in that they're more varied in plot & not that painfully written (and also quite 'sound' IYKWIM). She had a few on tape and I would certainly take them as car-journey listening over the Secret Seven any time

I used to read whatever books were on the shelves, childrens' and adult (sometimes VERY adult!) alike. In retrospect I will never understand why Enid Blyton, James Herbert and Jilly Cooper were all allowed to live on the same (child-height) shelf! Don't think it did me any harm, I just devoured everything.... I will prob take this approach with my own kids but may have more of a 'child-friendly' ethos!!

I do still have an abiding love for Terry Pratchett though and any child of mine who doesn't like his books is getting disowned :)

DD2 read masses of those dreadful Animal Ark books housemum Kittens in the kitchen, puppies in the pantry, Bunnies in the bathroom etc etc aaargh!

Today in the Guardian:

adults secretly reading pulp on their e-readers shock

PMSL at this thread (as I have a dd who has safely outgrown the Rainbow Sodding Fairies).

However I would warn you to tread very carefully with Michael Morpurgo.

At least the Rainbow Fairy authors don't write a nice heartwarming story and then have Kirsty's dad come out and shoot the fairies down with a machine gun as an 'endnote' which is no doubt what MM would do if he wrote them. (Yes, YOU Mr M, I have been there with that sleepless crying child who was happily reading her school book before bed.)

So, don't kids read Judy Blume anymore (not seen her mentioned at all). I learned about sex from Forever! But you had to prove you were 16 to take it out of the library.

It's not just the DC, I try and read worthy novels - currently reading Dickens (oo topical!) but every so often I have an overwhelming urge to read the worst kind of chick lit, curly writing, fancy shoe and handbag on the cover with a hero called Bruce / Brad / Chad

I also read just about anything I could at my hands on. Mostly my mums books, as my dad had weird science fiction crap I would get into. Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins were certainly educational

I also remember being told off by a librarian for trying to take a Virginia Andrews out on a childs ticket, when I was 13. My aunt (who I lived with at the time) went in and complained that it was up to her and my mum what I read, and made them change me onto adult tickets. Which meant I could get even more books out

rhondajean - I remember those books - will get back to you if I can find the name of the series.

I adored the Anastasia Krupnik books when I was younger. They are very funny and aimed at 8-12 year olds I believe. I bought second hand copies of all of them, and the Sam (her little brother) books a few years ago.

No one mentioned "Animal Ark" yet? The author, "Lucy Daniels" isn't even a real person! The books are written by a team of writers, but it looks better to have an author's name. Still, DD1 read loads of that tripe and she still enjoys reading now, she's just moved onto adult trash on her Kindle (Martina Cole, Stephen King etc)

The DDs get to choose 8 books each and then I get to choose another 8 for each of them. The glittery, mermaid, hamster rescue faeries get read pretty quickly then through sheer boredom the others get read.

So, tolerate a certain level of boredom within the house so that literature becomes an entertaining prospect.

Insist on reading the first chapter of every magical fairy book. Do not feel obliged to stick to the correct names or plot as written by committee Daisy Meadows. The poor fashion faries in the first chapter always suffer from terrible bloating and flatulence, the rest of the book is never as entertaining.

Sympathies re: the Fairies stage and the Jacqueline Wilson stage, but at least they are reading. (And not on bloody YouTube on their Blackberry AGAIN!)

We had lots of fun deriding reading Enid Blyton books (Famous Five, Naughtiest Girl in the School in particular) when dd was 9-10, she derived great mirth from the archaic turns of phrase and we still remember '...with a friendly PUNCH' which had her in fits of giggles at the time.