Fed up with the rubbish reading books your kids bring home?

[rubbishschoolbooks]

Hello, me and my kids have a blog about the rubbish primary school books they bring home - rubbishschoolbooks.blogspot.com - and have just joined the network.

We'd love to hear from you if you have any corkers. We want to run a competition to find the worst offenders out there - most decrepit, smelliest, oldest, most rubbish illustrations etc. Thanks!

Love this theme. My son has just started reception so we are just entering the world of dreadful books so I will read with interest and add any corkers that we come across :) www.pressiesbypebbles.com

Thanks so much. We started this just to vent our frustration with our school but it looks like there's an awful lot of rubbish books out there at other schools. I think a lot of schools are complacent about their books - especially if you live in a poorer part of the country. They blame the state of the books on the kids. Fair enough if they're only a couple of years old...but a lot of ours are from the 80s and 90s. Look forward to reading/seeing it!

Michelle, I think I love you! The only way ds and I got through the reception level books was by me being honest about how awful they were and a lot of reading in silly voices. Even now, it only takes one or other of us to intone "... And suddenly, the magic key began to glow.." .. and we are in hysterics. Luckily now ds is in y3 they can choose their books from a reasonable selection and can bring books from home if they want.

I have to say - I know a lot of people who would be happy to donate books to schools once their children grow out of them, so maybe you could encourage schools to write in and ask for donations?

Hello! Thanks for your reply...oh yes, the magic key! Sadly, they're far better than a lot of the turgid rubbish we get at our school. In terms of donating books, it's a great idea though it's a big step change to get the schools to even admit that their books are outdated and rubbish. Every time I mention whether the school can buy new books, they are most surprised, saying they have recently bought new books though we've never seen any evidence! And also that they grow shabby quickly. However, their meaning of 'quickly' is clearly not the same as mine or anyone else's - many of the books are over 20 years old.

I'm also not sure if they have to buy them in from certain named suppliers - I'll find out how it works! Thanks again for taking a look. Michele

Oh yes, that bloody magic key - where does it come from?

My DD1 is a pretty precocious reader, she will read anything, so she tends not to complain. I think part of that is because her reading ability outstrips her ability to actually understand what is going on.

I've been reading her the Faraway Tree books recently, which I remember so fondly. But upon rereading I am discovering just how horrid and rude all the characters are that Blyton writes. They are devoid of all sympathy!

I home educate my children - in large part due to the reading curiculum of the local schools. As a former youht worker - I did not know one boy who had ever read a book for pleasure. After seeing teh rubbish they were forced to read - I don't blame them.

We actually did like Oxfod reading tree - but the read at home titles are far better than the school ones - and once my son made the jump from early readers to young adult books at graphic novels he wasn't forced to go back and read every level - althugh he does sometimes read the easier books to his brother.

I tried to comment on and follow your blog but couldnt figure out how.

Hi DillyDante, I know exactly what you mean about the Blyton books...most of the characters are pretty difficult to care about, so if you or your kids ever fancy leaving a review of one, please do! Thanks for having a look.

Broxi3781 - Your comments about boys never having read for pleasure really strikes a chord...I wonder if anyone has done any research into how the choice of reading materials for early readers affects their long term ability and interest? I've heard that the Oxford Tree is meant to be far better than the ones we have and teachers would prefer to use them but we don't have the resources apparently...and they wouldn't let the parents raise funds for school books.

In terms of leaving a comment, you need to click on the comment bit and it should come up with a box for you to write in. I'm pretty new to all this but I did try earlier and it worked okay. Be great to get a comment! Big thanks!