Disappointed by the choice of books in my son’s reception class

I remember reading Robert Cormier books at secondary school, which were equally bleak and dystopian!

Oh god yeah Barry the fish with fingers! Someone gave that to DS for his birthday one year along with Norman the slug with the silly shell. I was horrified to discover that these books are apparently quite popular. But as you say, my kids lapped them up 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’ll risk the wrath of MN and admit I feel the same when recommendations for children’s books are asked for on here and everyone replies with the tired old Julia Donaldson, Tiger Who Came To Tea stuff.

It isn’t that it isn’t good, it’s just there are so many bloody wonderful books that don’t even get a look in because the market is dominated and no one can be bothered looking further than the deep dark woods.

Gosh this is very sad! So happy my children’s school isn’t like this at all 🙏

Wait til they get into secondary school and their choice is The Sad Refugee Trans Boy From the Council Estate with Cancer OR 1984.

My son could read very well before he started school but I definitely remember having our own copy of The Bunged up Trunk at home and he chose it for his bedtime story from time to time. It’s a donut I think that’s stuck up there? Anyway yes it was nonsense but definitely not as bad as some. That one about a fish called Barry, ugh. Smart kids who can read more advanced stuff still like stupid nonsense too 😊 You can jazz it all up by doing silly voices.

Tbh I think my kids have rather questionable taste in picture books. My heart sinks a little every time my youngest picks out ‘aliens love underpants’ again despite my suggestions for one of the many other excellent books we have - but she loves it. Things got much better with my eldest when he moved onto proper novels.

I think that, sadly, @dominose , you have to find a way of communicating to your son that school isn't any longer the place for real, deep creativity or thought or the enjoyment of others' creativity and thought.

You can put a positive spin on it by saying that school is a place where certain tools can be learned to allow children to gain pleasure from accessing all the better stuff that is elsewhere. And, of course, there are lots of cracks and crevices in the curriculum that do facilitate (or at least leave space for) some sort of depth.

Oh gosh remember this well. And then beast quest a few years later for my son.

My daughter outgrew them abruptly and we donated them to the school. She reads lots and lots of different things now at 13 - loved little woman and animal farm and in a bit of a murder mystery fantasy phase at the moment. I despaired over the rainbow fairies but her wonderful teacher reminded me that reading for enjoyment is a very different skill set to reading for learning and I need to encourage both. She was, of course, totally right.

OP - we have a wee school library that I created about 5 years ago with the PTA. Totally staffed by parents and resourced through donations and handmedowns. Each classroom has a little library as well - charity shop finds by the teacher and donations from parents. Theres not a lot of curation outside of us asking kids what they’d like to have and trying to fundraise for that. Mostly graphic novels and comics to be honest but also requests for books on sharps and d&d. Reading = good, particularly if you’ll be supplementing at home.

I also hate crap books, I would never buy them myself and dispair when my kids would get one of those crappy 10 for £10 books from the works in lieu of a party bag (so often recommended on here!) But I think you are being pretty unreasonable.

As PPs have already pointed out, the teacher may be very financially restricted in what books can be bought in, probably relies a lot on donations. There may even be an element of not wanting to let the best books leave the classroom and risk getting lost/damaged. That will happen a lot.

You just have to make the best of it. My kids would often bring home dross books like this (sometimes they’d choose the same book on repeat 😩) and while I could see them for the rubbish they were, they would often still get a lot of enjoyment out of them - the pictures, the silliness of the storyline etc. Even if they were really terrible we’d just have a good laugh about it. It’s the process of the child selecting a book for themselves and reading it together at home which matters, not the exact content. It can spark a discussion and we would review the book afterwards. Basically I think a good parent can make any book a worthwhile learning experience. It takes a few short minutes to read, so in the grand scheme of things these picture books they bring home from school in the early years should form a tiny fraction of the total reading they are doing at home.

I also appreciated that the books from school were at least always different to the ones we have at home. We’ve already got all the Julia donaldsons, Judith kerrs, Jon Klassens etc etc.

Sad to think that some children won’t have access to good books at home. But libraries are free to use, so it won’t be for financial reasons, it will be because their parents don’t care. And these parents will probably not be bothering to read the books brought home from school with their children either anyway.

I think this is the main benefit of the rainbow magic fairies - because they are essentially plot-less, they are good for practising the actual mechanism of reading words and you don't need to engage the "what's going on here" bit of your brain. Like playing scales on the piano instead of a melody.

I think (well, hope/trust) that when dd becomes more of a fluent free reader, she'll want to read stories with actual story in them. It's been nearly a year of the fairies now though and I can't wait for this phase to be over!

We’re lucky my son’s school has a great library, but I’ve noticed that the children’s books are in a bit of poo epidemic atm. There’s obviously a market for them and my son enjoys the dinosaur who pooped a… series, but I’m sure Waterstones could do a sub category of just poo and fart stories 😵‍💫

My DD’s school has reading scheme books for reading, but the children have free choice for their weekly library book option.
sometimes they bring books we already have at home, DD1 once brought home a book about how to care for guinea pigs and the next week she brought home “Heidi”

if it’s a book your child is choosing themselves, then why is it school’s fault?

I’d forgotten all about those! My DD was OBSESSED and I was as disappointed as you were! (Obviously I read them to/with her, through gritted teeth 😂)

I do know that this varies by school, but I was a teacher and DD is, and in both schools the class library is mainly stocked by the teacher. They trawl second hand book shops and car boots, they beg from friends and often rely on gifts of books from parents or hand me downs. If you can afford to buy some books from the class, please do.

I can recommend this website.
https://www.inclusivebooksforchildren.org

Rainbow Magic Fairies were the classics for me. I loved them as a little girl. I have a Masters Degree in Literary Studies so clearly they didn’t leave me stupid and illiterate.

The Rainbow Fairies books really helped my dyslexic DD... they were that repetitive, she could jyst work on her decoding withput losing the plotline. We had dozens of them.

But ideally yes, schools SHOULD have the funding for well stocked libraries of quality books. But they dont currently.

My dc hated classic books and read rainbow fairies and the like.

you can lead a horse to water

Exactly. Alternate universe where they could pick them. Not in the state and private schools I worked in. They came in a job lot

I agree with you OP. It wasn't a problem for us as our house was always heaving with books, but for some of the DCs in my son's reception class these were the only books they would see, and that's what is significant.

I know funding is cut to the bone but I can't believe that these rubbishy books are cheaper to buy than long-standing, classic favourites.

Anyway OP, my eight-year-old and her friend love this terrible series which is apparently written by a group of authors under one name (and I suspect AI), about a girl who goes to a magical school and has a pet unicorn who is always farting and pooing on people’s shoes. But at least she’s reading.

As a TEACHER I think the caps are really unnecessary. I don’t see anything wrong with those books. They will have been donated by kids over the years.
Schools are so tight on funding they can’t carefully curate books - where would they get them from? They can’t ask parents to donate books but specify “only inspiring ones”.

Do primary schools tend to catalogue their books and keep track of what they have? I’m only asking because I have a few brand new books to donate, but want them to go to schools which don’t already have a copy.

Surely it’s what your Dc chose? My dd comes home with any book that has a fairy or princess on regardless of the story.