Bad books for children?

I don't think there is a bad book. Perhaps a bad age to read them but not a bad book as such.

Obviously there's some shit out there but if the reader is enjoying it then that's all that matters.

Interesting. I'm on my phone, so this won't come out as eloquently as I'd like it to, but, DD (just turned 4) is obsessed with fairy stories and has numerous versions of all her favourites (I think we owned 11 different versions of Cinderella last time I counted, not to mention library books and complications, etc)

This seems to be looked on very favourably at the moment (was picked up on in her nursery class report and linked to various eyfs cultural type targets). However some, most in fact, of her favourite fairy stories are in fact thinly masked 'be a good girl or get raped/killed' or 'be a good girl and if you're lucky a man will come along and complete you' type morality tales. We have some modern adaptations which challenge this, but I can't help but wonder whether the more faithful versions are better suited to teen/adult audiences who are better able to recognise them for what they are.

Perhaps you could see bad books as ones which underestimate the reader's intelligence, ones that are lazy and don't leave any meanings to be uncovered. We're def shaped more than we think by expectations. We respect the opinion of those around us, again, more than we think- so if we get the message that we should be aiming for this level (when actually we could be aiming for a higher level), we'll probably take that as authority and settle. And miss out on enjoyment & so on.

Enid Blyton is excellent esp. I think for aspiring writers because she does controlled structure and character so well. As a kid, when I suddenly realised she did follow a formula however loosely, I found it almost reassuring, it was like rules for writing or something! Didn't she try to write a play for adults, which got turned down, with the publisher telling her to stick to kids books....poor thing. I bet she got fed up of bloody fairies in the end. I do wonder if she ever had a ghost writer....like Francine Pascal! Did FP ever even exist I'd like to know....

I agree that disturbing content for whatever age can be damaging, for the time it takes to process what you've not yet 'digested'....but what's true for one may not be for the other.....my mum had The Kid and the 3 Dave Pelzer books lying around when I was circa 9 and I read them a few times (simple language, drama, easy to read, fascinating to a kid raised on a diet of school stories....) and wasn't scarred, I don't think. In fact I think those books helped me very much in the process of piecing together my psychological outlook on people, I think it made me more sympathetic in general, especially made me think about the different types of unhappiness there can be.

My niece was utterly addicted to Rainbow fairies a few years ago and is never out of a book - is currently working her way through the Carnegie short list. The RF books are only bad for the grown ups reading them aloud!

Tiara Club books are FAR worse than Rainbow Magic imo. I can't stand the way they are written with EVERY other WORD written in CAPITALS!!

I think that reading 'bad' books (Rainbow Fairies, Beast Quest et al) is just as important as reading 'good' ones. How else are children going to learn to discriminate?

On the whole, anything that gets them reading is fine by me - so long as it's reasonably age-appropriate and doesn't contain excessively foul language (Some Jacqueline Wilson would fall into this category due to its content, and I had to hide Nicky Hornby from my son when he was 10). The Harry Potter books are badly written, but one can't really complain when they made so many children excited about reading...

As for Enid: my DD devours her stories, and I still think they are fab.

I was also going to say Jacqueline Wilson books - they are written in such an informal chatty way. The kids try to emulate it and end up not writing full sentences.

Another vote here for Horrid Henry and also Dirty Birty although my son loved them

DD has happily read hundreds of Rainbow Fairies and now hundreds of Enid Blytons. I'm happy with all of it - she has fantastic reading stamina now and will be a lifelong reader as a result.

Rainbow Fairies are formulaic but I think that's a good thing at a certain stage of reading comprehension. They are not having to work too hard on the plot as they know there will be three stolen things and some goblins so they don't lose momentum and give up. I think they are great for this transitional stage.

As for Enid Blyton, my DD has found them gripping and compelling so what's not to like? As long as the out of date inappropriate language is gone (which it mostly is these days) I'm fine with them and I remember the joy of the hours spent in the company of the Famous Five or the Malory Towers lot. It's also fairly exotic these days - nothing like a childhood today. So you can't even claim they are dull.

The Large Family book A Piece of Cake. Starts off with "I'm fat" said Mrs Large. Ends with them all secretly binging.

My personal nos were Jacqueline Wilson & Jorrid Henry - the first for what I felt was inappropriate content for the target age range & the second for encouraging & celebrating bad behaviour.

Stephen King? Although DP would disagree

my daughters have a mix of things like Rainbow Fairies (kind of the child version of chick lit in the sense that they can switch off when reading it) and Holly Webb, Jill Murphy, Jill Tomlinson, Roald Dahl, Dick King Smith, Gobbolino, Little Mrs Pepperpot, Paddington, other old texts from my childhood lots of people probably vaguely remember etc.

To me personally BAD books for children would describe ones which involve inappropriate material for children of that age. However each person's definition of that obviously varies. My children have happy, simple, sheltered lives so there is no need for them to read stories about divorce, violence, gore, crime etc at the ages they are. but they are still very young and would rather read about fairies, mermaids, animals and so on anyway.

I would stop them reading matter which I feel is too grown up for them but not stuff which is just simple happy reading. I think Rainbow Fairies are formulaic and not exactly literary works of art but I do think they have a place in that if a child is enjoying them then they are reading which is the main thing and they are able to escape into a happy little world for a while, in some cases escaping a very different reality.