Not entirely thrilled with DS' end of year gift...

[SolidGoldBrass]

Yes it's sweet of the school to give all the Reception kids a book as a present but did it have to be one about a farking dead grandad? Cue me blubbering while trying to read it to DS, DS bravely saying 'Acutally mummy this book is too sad, let's read Horrid HEnry instead'...
FFS.

a dead grandad?

What one was it? We have a couple since my dad passed away. Can't read the bloomin' things as I cry too much.

Is he a ghost or just dead?
I was planning on giving all of mine vuvuzelas, but the rest of my team locked me in a cupboard until I'd agreed on an interesting pencil and a packet of sweets per pupil like them.

It's this.

I think I would have preferred a vuvuzela.

Does seem a bit tactless as a blanket buy for reception. I'd have gone for something more upbeat as a summer gift.

Thats a bloody awful story to give as a present

dd;s grandma died recently and even I'd baulk at that as so called sensitive gift

mine got something aboiut going to bed

Blimey, just the Amazon blurb brought a lump to my throat - 'Jakes goes off to buy ice creams and returns to find Grandad on the ground. The ambulance arrives.'

The nursery are nuts.

Had your DS been telling them his grandad had died? Maybe they were trying to be helpful , in a not very helpful way.

Good Lord

That's bloody awful.

Not the same school where the leavers sang 'Tears in Heaven', is it?

No, both DS grandads are alive and well (as are both grandmothers). It is a bit odd IMO. Though it's possible that DS has been talking about death in school again (he's nearly 6 and every now and then will have a spell of going on about why do people die, when is he going to die etc) and I suppose they might have wondered if he needed something like that.

If I weren;t the sort of wuss who blubbers over books I probably wouldn't have minded I suppose, but it was a bit awkward.

Did they all get individual presents?

I bet they bought these:

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&cata logId=10051&langId=100&productId=185668

to distribute randomly among reception children.

So not everybody got dead grandad. Maybe they gave your son that one because they know both grandads still alive?

sorry try link again.

www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langI d=100&productId=185668

Pppf!

Silly sods. The teachers that is.

Jeepers I got that set for my DD last week but I didn't look through them. It has been a year since my Dad died so I will be wheedling that one out and hiding it until I feel a bit less emotional (maybe by the time I have Grandchildren ).

Mitochondria, I bet you're right! All the DC coming out had these little wrapped parcels that were obviously books and they may not have looked through them in any detail before dishing them out.
That actually makes me feel a bit better (though now I am a bit at the publishing company for bunging that particular title in what looks like a fairly generic bundle of kids books...).

I think I might drop the publishing company a line actually and point out that it's a bit of a shock to get that book in among all the rest of the Teddy's Happy Day stuff...

How nice that the school took money out of its minimal and no doubt shrinking budget to buy each child a present, and a book at that, to encourage them to keep up with their reading over the holidays.

Stop being so bloody ungrateful. If you don't like the book, don't read it with your child.

SGB - please do, because if we;d got it I would have been beyond help. It's not appropriate for random book giving - not at all.

Sorry you were upset by it, but very pleased your DS has both his Grandads.

EvilTwins OP isn't moaning about the quality of the gift.

SGB I would have been really upset too, even though my DCs are lucky enough to have both Grandads. I'm sure the school didn't realise. Might be worth pointing it out to them so that they don't make the same mistake again.

EvilTwins: It is nice of the school to buy all the kids books. WHich is why I am contemplating complaining to the bookseller rather than the school - the more I think about it, the more I think it is a little insensitive of the bookseller to offload copies of this particular book in a mixed bag as it is definitely a bit distressing for 5-year-olds (FFS there's a fairly detailed description of the little boy going to buy icecreams, getting icecreams, seeing his grandad basically expiring by the park bench and running up the hill screaming in distress... Next chapter - Little Johnny will never eat ice cream again.)

Not what you said originally.

At first the OP thought the school had bought lots of copies of that book rather than it being one in a mixed pack so to speak

I still think it's rude to complain about a gift. Schools can barely afford it, and teachers and TAs have enough to do without choosing and wrapping presents. It was a gesture, and a very nice one. OP could always just chuck the book and and buy her DS a different one.