To be really quite shocked by the content of "Horrid Henry" books?

[shimmerysilverglitter]

A thread on here just reminded me of this, have been meaning to start it for ages.

My ds has recently threatened to "kill" his 3 year old sister, told he he hates her, called her a pipsqueak (ok not so bad) and laughs at kids stealing other kids packed lunches, among other things, he has never said these kind of things before and I was like this upon hearing them. Turns out they are all things he has read in Horrid Henry books.

He read them at school I might add.

I just find them quite shocking really. AIBU or just a bit uptight?

I do laugh at them sometimes in a shocked way but find them a bit much.

If one is lucky enough to own thousands of great books, one feels no remorse in binning a piece of crap that should have never seen daylight. Loopy - perhaps, discerning, most definitely.
We are all entiteled to our opinions, no?

Totally agree with what milamae said- Henry nearly always loses as a result of his behaviour, even my ds aged 4 can tell that Henry is not cool and that's why he loves him I think.

Also the books have loads of other positives around gender etc and they are loads of fun to read aloud. Also agree they are very Dennis the Menace like, and with caricature style characters, what's wrong with that? They are larger than life. I guess if you never liked or read comics they wouldn't appeal much to you as an adult OP but they remind me of the kind of thing that was in The Beano or Dandy and, far from being worrying or threatening in any way, actually seem very sweet and inncoent to me in the way they perfectly capture elements of childhood from classroom and family politics to nits and funny smells.

The books reflect back in a caricatured and larger than life way things that the readers already do and know so rather than influencing behaviour they just reflect it.

Ds is motivated to read these books and they are more fun than the Oxford Reading Tree.

It certainly was annoying when ds went through his Beefy Bert stage and answered 'I dunno' to everything though!

Gladly share, donate and buy books for the lass fortunate, however, just because something is published and looks like a book, doesn't mean its contents are worth the paper wasted to print them. It's quality of a book that is of the utmost importance; why hand out 'doorstops' if there are so so many fabulous books out there that cost just as much?
Much of the utter drivel printed and disguised as books would be much better used as loo paper. Recycle!

With views as needlessly extreme as that, I am surprised you ended up owning a horrid henry book in teh first place.

But I don't you see, it has goooone... sadly darling elderly relatives sometimes bring junk that, although a lovely thought, is completely undesired

I hated the HH books that DS was given, because I find the writing so pedestrian and boring to read aloud, but he loved them - for a time. I used it as a chance to talk to him about the whole issue - we spoke about lots of things as a result. Why I didn't like them, what I didn't like about them, why this or that book was nicer to read aloud, What it is about the choice of words in some books that makes them nicer to read aloud...as well as why I thought other books were better written.

Was a really good learning experience for DS I think, a chance for early discussion on the quality of writing; how we can not only get told a story, but we can have an opinion on the story and the way it's written.

I hope by taking this approach I have helped him in terms of thinking for himself about things rather than just 'i'm not allowed that because mum doesn't like it'...

Very interesting approach, sleepingsowell, might employ a similar tactic when presented with yet another pointless printed piece once DC are old enough to read. However, DTs are only 2.6 and madly love their books, which they have a roomful.
My belief is that if one is exposed to great writing from early age one would be easily able to differentiate between good and bad writing, to put it very simply.

We haven't got to the HH stage and having seen the cartoon, I have to say I won't be advocating it for my smallest.My older DC's missed HH as it wasn't in vogue but have read plenty of Enid Blyton!Bad writing does create opinion which is really positive but a person does have to experience it all to see the difference so bring it all on,eh?