to read Enid Blyton with caution?

[catandbabyequalschaos]

DD is only 11 months so this isn't an issue yet.

However, we have been given by a relative some old, beautiful sets of The Wishing Chair and The Faraway Tree, which I remember adoring as a young child.

Fast forward to now and I really have my doubts about them. It isn't just the blatant racism and sexism in them, but the way the children mercilessly bully anyone who isn't like them, the way names are chucked around carelessly and the references to spankings in so many of the books make me really uncomfortable too!

Have any of you not read Enid Blyton with DCs?

[MotherofBear]

See, none of this stuff about George ever occurred to me when I was reading them. It was a story, made up, not real. That's how life in the books was. Didn't at all affect how I saw life outside the books. Other than making an idiot of myself trying to 'properly introduce' a new girl at school to my friends. I did it ever so nicely Anne-style, and just got laughed at .

So, reading about George looking like a boy and wanting to be a boy didn't make me want to be girly like Anne any less! And what is wrong with George wanting to be a boy? There are lots of girls like that out there, and boys who want to be girls.

[moondog]

What utter tripe.
Ask a kid what they like best. FF or some worthy tome about a one legged Palestinian boy who lives with his lesbian mother in Haringey and runs a Fair Trade fruit co-operative.

[Donkeyok]

My dm read Little Black Sambo to me. I agree with Quangle I just thought he was a cool kid and loved the picture of the tiger rushing around into a circle. I had completely forgotten about it and didn't see it in the shops/library when it would have appealed to my dc. My dd enjoyed the famous 5 and M7 when she was younger 7-9ish. The emphasis was on adventure without parents presence. I regularly transpose name so my kids are the heroes.
You can always edit as you go as some of them go on a bit and I want to go downstairs and have drink .

[curlew]

"boys who want to be girls."

Not in Enid Blyton there aren't!

[MamaMary]

I read them all. My favourite series was the Five Find Outers (and Dog).

My brother read them all too. Neither of us have grown up to have racist or sexist views.

So I'll let my children read them too.

:)

[projectbabyweight]

The choice isn't between sexist/racist/snobby or ridiculous though!

I can't be the only one who's parents just left me to essentially grow up by myself, so I learned an enormous amount from books. They were all I had to guide me, in a way.

Ok, not to all children, but to some these things really matter.

[valiumredhead]

We read them and ds raised the issue of then being outdated and we discussed how old they were etc. The Adventure Series is fantastic imo for kids who are just starting to independently read.

[Handbagsonnhold]

Moondog exactly....Julian....Dick, Anne,George and Timmy the dog please and more of it....oh, and not forgetting Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin.....u gotta love em!

[DaftAda]

EB books were banned in my house when I was a child. I had one hidden and used to read it over and over in the hope of uncovering subversive messages. I never did.

OP YANBU. Your house, your rules. There are loads andloads of other books to choose from.

[valiumredhead]

Most of the classics are full of sexist shite, should we stop reading them?

[EnlightenedOwl]

I did enjoy reading Enid Blyton as a kid but as an adult - oh dear. There is a chapter in the Famous Five (Five go off to Camp) where George is described as black as a n**r. Thankfully that has been deleted in more contemporary versions.

I would read them to children but employ some editing skills if they were older versions containing these references. You wouldn't want your children repeating that in the playground.

[curlew]

"Most of the classics are full of sexist shite, should we stop reading them?"

You're not seriously calling Enid Blyton a classic author, are you?

She wrote light, easy to read marshmallow books. And they were fantastic, beause they were probably the first books like that for children. But now there are loads. Better written, better stories, funnier, and without the sexism, racism etc etc etc................

[Bowlersarm]

I would say that Enid Blyton is a classic children's author. Why wouldn't you?

[curlew]

Because to be classic, in my opinion, an author has to be able to write.

Oh, and probably not employ a team of people to write her books for her. (Sorry if anyone finds that shocking)

[LightasaBreeze]

DS read them all when he was young, many of them the older versions which he got from book fairs. He enjoyed them very much and has grown up to be perfectly normal, not at all racist or sexist. In fact it gave him a love of reading which is more than a lot of children do nowadays.

I read them all too, they are just made up adventure stories and have turned out perfectly normal.

[Bowlersarm]

curlew then that's your opinion. In my opinion, she's a classic children's author.

[MrTumblesKnickers]

I'd call her a classic author too, why wouldn't you? A lot of classics don't seem particularly well written to our modern eyes - have you ever tried to read Moby Dick?! Dracula?

[MaidOfStars]

EnlightenedOwl There is a chapter in the Famous Five (Five go off to Camp) where George is described as black as a n**r. Thankfully that has been deleted in more contemporary versions.

Should we similarly edit Mark Twain, the father of American literature?

[catandbabyequalschaos]

There are indeed some classical novels with abhorrent views.

I think that the difference is they generally have to be approached in SOME sort of context to make sense of the story. That's one reason fairy tales have been so damaging - perhaps if someone had said "well this is a story about Cinderella but don't judge her too harshly, in those days if you were poor and female, then yes, the only way out of it was to marry money" - perhaps Disney princess shite wouldn't have taken over!

Many classics indirectly challenge many of the attitudes that were ingrained at the time - Blyton certainly doesn't do that!

[curlew]

Definition of classic "

1. An artist, author, or work generally considered to be of the highest rank or excellence, especially one of enduring significance.

Do you think the description fits?

[EnlightenedOwl]

I take your point but you have to exercise some caution. Again you have to think about what a child may in innocence repeat.

[catandbabyequalschaos]

Again, it's unlikely Mark Twain would be approached without at least some, even limited, knowledge about context.

[curlew]

And Mark Twain, despite archaic language, was a man of wit, wisdom and humanity, with civilized values that pervade his work. Enid Blyton wasn't.

And he isn't usually read aloud to 3 year olds.

[Bowlersarm]

Definition of a classic book:-

'....has been very popular and had a lot of influence for a long time'.

I would say that as she wrote her first book in 1922 and her last one in the 1960's, and they are still found in shops, libraries and being read by children 50+ years later, that Enid Blyton fits that description.