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.

Hulababy

I also loved Judy Blume as a child

YA most definitely NBU.

I had a semi-shit childhood. Alcoholic father who was miserable and abusive, broken home, mother going off the rails.

I used to scour the shelves for stories about kids "like me" but what I really wanted was stories that would tell me everything would be fine. Resilience vs risk stories.

These books are nonsense. They don't reflect the real world and they put words in the mouths of kids who are experiencing issues. Why does JW speak for every kid with an issue? The sad side of life should not be sexed up and glamourised so that chidlren who have not experienced this side of life are crying and those who have think they should be experiencing and reacting to it like some two dimensional characters in a book.

The TV programme would make a lot of kids experiencing hardship at home want to live in a care home. Care homes are not like they are portrayed in Tracy Beaker-land.

I hate JW books. I also have no problem with real issues being discussed. However, JW does not do it well. Many of her books are actually quite soppy. The one that is her life story is very very dull indeed. Her own life was bland.

I loved Tracy Beaker when I was ten. It was FUNNY. More so than Judy Blume. I read it alongside the first Adrian Mole diary and Hitchhiker's Guide, so it didn't turn me into an adult misery-lit fan.

I have a lot of time for JW as one of her teen books (which is probably out of print now as she's best known for her tween lit these days) was very similar to my home environment and it really made me feel less alone.

Also: if I had kids I'd rather they read JW than Sweet Valley High, which gave the message that you just had to be wealthy, thin and pretty to get on in life.

also (sorry for the triple post) you could always stretch her with something like I Am David, which is a story about misery but really uplifting too.

Yes, YABU.

I'm laughing reading a lot of these comments. Sorry. How would y'all think if your child read Dickens? Or are his books a bit too full of 'woe' as well?

It's wonderful that JW writes books that aren't populated my middle class kids and activities. If you do want a really good series about a middle class kid though my children would heartily recommend Richmal Crompton's Just William series.

JW's books have always been popular with the children I teach (Y5/6). She may not be the author of choice for many adults but if her tales of woe help children to consider reading as being a relevant and useful pastime then so be it.

One of my classes comprised a child who'd witnessed the murder of his mother, one whose sister had died of cancer aged 7, another had a parent who'd committed suicide, numerous children were regularly hit with belts/sticks, a couple of families where all the children shared the bed whilst mum slept on the sofa, a couple of children whose only meals each day were those we provided at school and so the list goes on.

My own DDs haven't experienced any of the hardships that JW writes about but when they're a bit older I will have no problem with them reading them. I also know that my DDs are growing up in a home full of books. Many of the children I've taught have homes where the only literature available are mobile phone instructions and pizza leaflets... I'd always say JW's preferable to that!

JW really gets my goat. DD adores and idolises her. I was really shocked by the Illustrated Mum that DD read. Stupidly DH bought it for her because it had a yellow hardbacked cover and he thought it would be age appropriate.
DD has now moved on to Chris Evans' autobiography. She is a child of varied tastes.

That's funny, I loved the Illustrated Mum and felt fine about DD reading it. My nieces grew up having to deal with a very unstable bipolar mother.
Whereas I found Little Darlings rather hard work, such self-centred and selfish parents, and not many kids have Sleb parents anyway!

I don't think her writing is always bad (certainly better than a lot of what is out there), though it is admittedly repetitive: she is a stuck in her niche. Still, I think some of her later writing (The Kiss, for instance) is surprisingly good.

I agree about Judy Blume books being less 'in your face.' A lot of them just washed over me when I read them. There was one book (the one where the girl had the back brace IIRC), where she talked about having a 'special place' that she would touch until she felt better. I remember rubbing my arm once when I was upset to see if that would help .

ragged does make a good point in that most of JWs stories do actually end on a positive note: not a magic waving of wands which leaves all problems solved, but with children learning to cope.

What dd and I found annoying was the total unreality of all adults being either abusive or clueless whereas all children (or at least the female heroines) are feisty and resourceful: made us wonder what exactly happens to JW heroines at puberty.

I think they're great - they are about a side of life that fortunate kids never see. An awful lot of children have the sorts of experiences JW describes. I always think it's interesting to see which children don't like them, invariably they are shrouded tightly in cotton wool and due a big shock later on.

I stopped laughing quite so much when I looked up the JW website to see what the age ranges of the books were (I didn't know they were aimed at different ages before reading this thread) and noticed that my 8 year olds have read some of the 12+ ones.

Cheers for the info and I will print out the list for future library trips.

And I would say they make a good springboard for discussion. Dd has often handed me one of them as she finished it and asked me to read it. They we have a lovely old chat about it.

They're ghastly imo. DD hates them, won't read them. She prefers Stephanie Lawrence, Erin Hunter, Grace Cavendish, or Rick Riordan. She hates Michael Morpurgo too; the one of his I read I quite liked mind you.

I think Morpurgo is over rated.

My DD isn't old enough for JW but I have already banned Oxford Reading Tree as too dismal and depressing .

I've never banned anything

I just wish they were better labelled. They all have exactly the same happy Nick Sharrett covers so you can't tell whether they're for 6 year olds or 12 year olds. DD and I enjoyed the younger age group ones, but haven't ventured beyond that.

MrsVincentPrice It would be common sense wouldn't it, but recently when publishers wanted to put age guides on the back of books there was a huge outcry.

My DD is just 11 and is motoring through the JW books - I am just pleased that she has develeoped a reading habit. I am also pleased that the books open her eyes to a world very different to her own - just as the Mallory Towers books did for me . I have however bought her Jill's Gymkhana as the fabulous Ruby Ferguson books are now being reprinted and I am hoping she will prefer those.

My dd (10.5) has read all of them, even the teen ones, which I would have preferred her not to, but I caught on a bit late, but on the whole I am happy with her learning about children with different lives to her own. We did ban Tracy Beaker on telly for a while when she was younger as she seemed to be mimicking that type of behaviour, basically challenging authority and being sullen and stroppy. I think reading is better than telly any day and at last, having read 'The Longest Whale Song' (in a day) she says 'I think after this i might be growing out of JW'. She reads loads of other stuff, so do not despair, OP, it is just a phase or craze and they will move on.

I absolutely loved stories like these when I was a child. Anything with a bit of misery and drama - stories about young servant girls who'd been beaten, Victorian orphans, you name it. I'd have devoured JW in no time. Just like I devoured my Nan's Catherine Cooksons when I was far too young

Shame ds (10) refuses to read any fiction at all.