to be cross with teacher giving my 8 yr old a book on domestic violence?

[Jix]

The teacher gave my daughter a book to "challenge" her, and we settled down to read chapter 3 tonight. She'd done the first chapter at school and second last night on her own. I found it very very upsetting, and my daughter was certainly having difficulty following it and needed lots of things explaining.

I read the book tonight ("Indigo Blue" by Cathy Cassidy in case anyone is interested). The story is basically about a girl's mother being beaten up by the step dad. The mum leaves him, goes to live in a damp basement flat, has a nervous breakdown, can't look after the girl or her baby step-sister. Step dad is lurking and following the girl out of school and is scary. Eventually mother goes out for meal with step-dad. Girl left on her own in dark with the toddler. Police come in middle of night to break news that her mother's in hospital, having been severly beaten up the step dad.

Fantastic reading for an 8 year old don't you think?

Or AIBU??

Whatever happened to Famous Five or the Secret Garden??

Tbh I'm fuming and a little confused. Am I just being over-protective and out of touch?

Thanks for your opinions.

That's awful I'd also feel the same as you.

I wouldn't be happy, 8 is too young. DD has read 2 CC books in school but I don't know which ones She's 10.

blimey... definately not suitable for an 8yo, no matter how advanced their reading skills are....

What is wrong with Mallory Towers or something like that...

I would be furious.
DS as a gifted reader (or some such title) was given a book in which, among various world-wide disasters, a teenage girl is stalked and raped by a 'rescuer'

I'd say too young for it as well. DD raced through them at 10, then started in on the grimmer Jacqueline Wilsons and then decided actually she'd like to read something happy for a change.

Both DSs, meanwhile, are on a joyous diet of mild adventure and sci-fi, in which only baddies get hurt. Hmm.

Far too many primary school teachers don't know enough about children's fiction. Yanbu.

I would not have been happy about this either, and both my DDs were very very able readers at 8. There are so many brilliant books for children out there - they don't need to be confronted with all this grim stuff at an early age. My DDs read Angie Sage, the Lily Quench series, Diana Wynne Jones and the like. Challenging fiction in terms of the language used, complexity of the stories and character development, brilliant vocabulary - but no grim modern realism. Your DD's teacher is being very unimaginative.

I had this problem all the time with DD

school was rightly giving her books to challenge but they often weren't age appropriate

we ended up by moving on to alot of reference books rather than fiction from school and she really enjoyed them

take the book back into school and have a conversation with the teacher -quite often it's the TAs that sort out the reading books and they may not be aware f the book's content

I definitely wouldn't be happy about that

Jesus

I'd have a word with the teacher. I'm not suggesting you go in all guns blazing or anything but perhaps it would help to hear their reasons for why that particular book is on the syllabus (sp?!) and what's being taught about it in class.

I don't think YABU though. I'd feel the same.

I think this book is recommended for children of 10 years and up. I understand it's quite well regarded, but perhaps the content is a little raw.

Would you consider mentioning it to the teacher? She may not be aware - I'm sure they can't read every book in the school.

I'd be pretty cross.

Thanks everyone. I'll have a word with the teacher and see if she knows about the book's contents. I don't think the teacher will mind changing the book. The problem will be my daughter who will hate me for "interfering" and will be embarrassed at the book being changed. How do I do this tactfully, so that she doesn't feel singled out as being the only child in the class not allowed to read it?? (This is how she will see it I promise!)

Also thanks for the other suggestions on good books! Any others gratefully received!

I suspect the teacher won't be giving it to other children once you make her aware of the contents, so I wouldn't worry about all the others getting to read it. In the meantime, I suppose your daughter simply has to accept that it's not suitable for her at the moment but she can read it when she's older.

Cathy Cassidy. Only one step lower on the evolutionary ladder than former "childrens' laureate Jacqueline Wilson

Who I beleieve to be the cause of my DD's upset that if mommy and dady divorce (amicably separated for 5 years, both settled with new partners) she will be separated from her sister as one of us will move to Australia and split them up.

Formulaic crap imho

I would be very unhappy for a book like that to be given to my dd if she were 8 - or older actually - I think a parent should be deciding on whether a graphic theme/ story like that is appropriate for their child, not a teacher.

I would guess that the teacher probably doesn't know what the book is about -it's impossible to read every book in the library. I bet she'd be horrified to find out what was in it. I would say to your dd that you'll just mention the story isn't a very nice one and that the teacher will probably want to know that because it might upset other children in the class.

k

not suitable for an 8 year old. there are challenging books out there that are more appropriate... you can use different books for different things.

a lot of books can be used forr predicting what they think might happen, or talking about the characters feelings, to looking at the language the author uses to make things sound spooky/happy/scary.

try looking on the g and t board for book suggestions.

I got some fantastic work on inferences/predictions and descrriptive language from an ort tree tops book, a goalie from nowhere...it is a little sad at the end when they find out that he is a ghost, but at 8 it should be ok.

flat stanley books have an inteesting selecction of challengiing words to incease vocabulary and talk about books from a different culture/era.

harrry and the dinosaurs chapterr books have an interesting collection of wods that are used instead of said to tie in with written work. they can be used to talk about how a character is feeling.

the switch books are good. for inferrence... but you may have to wait a while to find out the answers as the series is not complete yet.

thanks so much everyone... spoke to the teacher and she was a bit embarrassed. DD has come home tonight with Winnie the Pooh! Talk about a contrast! Thanks also for the suggestions - I will look into them. :)

Definitely think teachers should at least consult parents before handing out grim or scary material at this age - especially since they don't know everything about a child's background and could be dragging up trauma or upset from the past! I'd be pretty miffed, too. I know that as a kid I was reading some fairly grim stuff by age 10 or so (was onto Wild Swans at 11, with lots of horrifying details of torture under the Communist regime in China...) but there's a massive difference between 8 and 10, and I was quite the little ghoul besides.

IN the library where I work, we class Cathy Cassidy as mostly a 'teen' authour and wouldn't really reccomend her work to anyone in primary school... she has written some books for younger readers, but the majority are for an older audience.

LOL at Winnie the Pooh! Have to admit (as a teacher) I do know that from time to time unsuitable books do go home in schools. In an ideal world we would read everything before we send it home, but there's just no time to do that. A good teacher will always listen to you though, and remove the book from class if it's an unsuitable one that's slipped through the net!
Michael Morpurgo is another good author.

Yes have a word with the teacher.
I do think though it is quite refreshing to read gritty reality books, for older children, not your dds age.
I remember well the total crap that was Janet and bloody John when I was at school. Even at early primary I thought why does Janet never leave the bloody house and do something more exciting than helping her mother dust?!?

I have spent most of my adult life opposing censorship and the right of people (including DC) to read what they want, but I would be having a word with the school about this as well. It's one thing if DC pick something a bit too old for them by themselves; they might abandon it if they don't like it, give themselves a nightmare and rush straight back to The Cat in The Hat, or read it and not really understand it. If the school gives them books that are just too bleak or too sophisticated for them, they might persist with reading and believe that whatever happens in the book is real and an immediate threat, and be very unhappy.
A lot of the time it's teachers not thinking it through and at least confusing 'ability to read long words and complex sentences' with 'being able to cope with morally complex challenging fiction or stuff that's really frightening and upsetting'. My DS is a good reader (he's 7) and I have had to Have Words with the school from time to time about sending home stuff that he just can't process. For instance, though I love the Harry Potter books and look forward to sharing them with DS, he has nowhere near the emotional maturity to enjoy them yet, so we're waiting.

Buy her a copy of Anne of Green Gables and a copy of Little Women. She'll love them.