Not to want the DDs to read any more dismal, turgid, depressing shit written by Jacqueline Wilson?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

I can't stand it any longer. Death, destruction, broken families, mum's boyfriend beating her up. Happy just doesn't exist. If parents are married, they are disfunctional, or have ishoos.

I wouldn't mind the odd one, interspersed with other stuff, but it's like fucking drugs in this house. Anything else is read perfunctorily before rushing back to worship on the altar of Saint Jacqueline of the Sorrows.

Is she that bad. My 7 year dd has been given some and wants to start them when she has finished the Rainbow Fairy series. I might try and put her off!

YANBU - JW is the shite misery lit of childhood.

Fortunately my dds recognised it for the crap it is after just two or three books each. UNfortunately my dd2 is now refusing to read anything.

So overall, my view is that if they wouldn't read anything else, then they might as well read JW but otherwise, keep shoving good stuff at her in the hope that she will get the hint.

How old is she?

Please read them first. DD1 was inconsolable at around the age of your DD when she read the book about the dead cat. DD2 was in floods at the child's friend who gets run over and killed by a car.

They are 9 and 12. The 9 year old is better - she will read more and different stuff. DD1 has the whole raft of teenage shit lit churned out by JW ahead of her too.

When I was a young 20 something I used to baby sit a little girl who was from a very wealthy family. She wanted for nothing and had the best of everything money could buy.

Wilson's books really opened her eyes when she was little as she could never have imagined or expereinced a life less fortunate than her own. She said they "gave her inspiration" and she genuinely enjoyed reading and talking about them. She couldn't understnad why one of the characters had a mummy who's daddy hit her but she went back to him. We talked about it and i said that it isn't that easy and that maybe they didn't have anywhere else to go, etc.

If your kids like them and they gain something from them, why not.

I remember reading one about a girl with eating disorders at 10/11...It led me to try it out myself. I would advise reading first!

Yes, def skim read them first. Sme of them are not really very suitable until late primary TBH. One DD got one birthday started off all about mum's boyfriend being violent and leaving, and just didn't improve TBH.

And yes, I know some of it is real life and nitty gritty stuff happens to some children in RL, but at primary school do most children really need this?

Some of the ones aimed at younger children are not supposed to be too bad. However, fortunately DD isn;t interested in them. And I personally prefer it that way - a lot much nicer and betterbooks out there.

Having said that the little girl i babysat also loved A Series of unfortunate Events. i tired reading those and they were dull and boring.

perhaps she has a morbid streak in her!

Bloody nora, I thought some of the books I read are heavy! At her age I would hope that she reads for a bit of relaxation and escapism, not a jolt into the problems of real life. I mean she is still on Biff and Chip at school so it would be a fair jump! I think I will take them off her shelf until I have had a chance to look through them.

Thanks.

YANBU.

The fucking awful Tracy beaker tv series glamorises care homes too.

The Series Of Unfortunate Events books are brilliant - fantastic at expanding a child's vocab in a fun way.

YANBU. I suppose she fills a (miserable) gap in the market, but jeez, it's all so right on it makes my teeth ache.

Maisie - exactly. She's like the misery factory.

BG - DD1 galloped through the Series of Unfortunate Events, which I agree are excellent. But she has now gone back to the Misery Moneyspinner.

I'd be tempted to get a pile of stuff from the library and leave them by the side of her bed to tempt her. Try:

Eva Ibotson
The Edge World Chronicles
The Mortal Engines series
The 12 year old could try Twilight but they are just a different kind of crap tbh.
The Windsinger series
Frank something something - Framed and Millions
David Almond - Skellig/Heaven Eyes/Fire something/

it doesn't seem as though you have instilled an addiction for Terry Pratchett. So YABU,clearly.

I work in a library so see whats popular...for the DD just finishing the daisy meadows books I would say Lucy Daniels 'puppy in the parlour' etc etc...Eoin Colfer (spell?) has written some good stuff too and their books always look really good, its where the film 'how to train your dragon' comes from for the lemony snicket series of unfortunate events type readers.

I couldnt say what they are like as I've not read any but Cathy Hopkins and someone McKain? are popular too

My 9 YO DD1 has read loads of them, and it really has been an eye opener for her, sparking her imagination.

She had no idea about how difficult some childrens lives can be, that some children are abused and alone, that their families are not the safe place that she is fortunate to have.

I have wondered about the suitibility of the books, but I would much rather a child that has her eyes open to the reality and depth of experience some children have to live through, than for her to think the world always ends up with a happy ending.

very true zigzags...hmmm i cant decide on camp JW

Would say proof read and then of course parents discretion? I would imagine some of the books are worse than others...

I would go as far as to say she's a better person for reading them.

I don't like the subject matter, I mean, who would? I would far rather shelter her from the brutal, cold world, but I would be doing her a disservice if I did.

It was Judy Blume for me, anybody remember "Ralph"? Now that was an eye opener!

I don't want to shelter her from the brutal. I am happy for her to read this stuff, as long as she reads something else. And she doesn't. She lives and breathes JW. She has a long school reading list, which she is working her way through, but it is really just getting the tedium of thes other books out of the way before she can head back to the Misery Queen.

Judy Blume is on the school reading list (tis an American school).

See Im in the same camp about adults reading those 'Mummy left me' and 'Daddy no' books, often true life and about child abuse, a lot of the people that borrow them have children and I just cant get my head around why people want to be made miserable!

can't stand her books either, don't let dd read any of them

I think they go through phases of reading different genres, I used to immerse myself in one type of subject then something else would grab my attention.

I haven't seen anything in DD that says she's ready to move on from it, which is unusal as she's normally got the attention span of a gnat which is another plus for JW.

I'm just glad something has grabbed her imagination and is giving her a good shaking before spitting her out, there's nowt like a good book.