Hating modern life

[ellieding]

I'm only posting to get this off my chest really, so not really asking to be told to 'lighten up', if responses from people who feel similarly.

I just went to dd's school book fair and was pretty aghast at what seems to be peddled to them as decent storytelling. Corporate junk written by morons marketing their brands; Lego, hello kitty, spongebob...vacuous princess fairy tripe about nothing or paired up with animals covered in sparkles. Utter 'non-stories', anachronistic, poorly written. All the fact books were presented in a vulgar 'look-at-this-hideous-dinosaur/shark/crazy snotty science/everything is gross' way. Jacqueline Wilson (the woman should be locked up to prevent her writing) with her dysfunctional nasty characters and soapy stories. 'troo-ta-life-innit-tho' - ugh.

I don't want to hear 'at least it gets them reading'. In all honesty I'd rather they weren't given this commercially saturated drivel. Also, if i have to see another soulless, vulgar cartoon...

I appreciate this may sound ott, but i honestly find it all genuinely jarring and horrid.

There are good modern children's books out there - Michael Morpurgo, Sally Gardner, Chris Riddell etc. You have to look for them, of course, but you always did. I read loads of absolute shite as a child (I agree it's worse now, though).

And all my girls went through an obsessive stage with Rainbow Fairy books.

Imagine if adults were told they we were only allowed to read "improving" and "classic" material and nothing "vulgar", MN would immediately shut down.

ellieding I don't think you missed much. Back in 86 when EVERY girl in my year was reading Sweet Valley HIgh book 963 of 1547 I was being a 'true rebel' and reading Christine by Stephen King.

At the time I thought I was being so sophisticated by reading 'real literature'...

I felt like that when we went to dd's first school book fair. So we never went again.

You just put it so much more eloquently than I ever could

FrancisdeSales, I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend people with the use of the word vulgar. I am not saying that the classics is all people should read, but I feel that for children their books should have substance and be well-written. I don't think authors should be fixating on unpleasant themes and dysfunctional role models. Certainly I think schools should be more discerning. I may be wrong; I try to acclimatise but it doesn't come naturally to me.

In fairness to the parents of the Disney princesses on World Book Day - are they supposed to buy / make a separate costume just for that day? That's a bit expense/effort. I'm glad our school doesn't do WBD.

Also - most little girls have a princess costume and I think it would be hard to persuade them not to wear that in favour of a home made Pippi Longstocking or whatever.

Having said that, the whole princesses thing is a bit depressing!

Yes, book day dress-up is a real joke and just shows how little the kids really are reading. DD went as the Tiger Who Came to Tea and came back feeling all left out of the princess mania.

My Modern Classic nomination for younger children goes to Some Dogs Do by Jez Alborough. It's a keeper.

Agree that there was always dross around, but there was not the same level of cynical marketing

If DS' school fair is anything to go by, it's not a good reflection of children's literature. It's more about making money for the school based on kickbacks from a very narrow (single) group of publishers (or publisher).

Our local bookshop contains a much better range of books for children.

Ellie no worries I am not offended! I have definitely done my research to introduce the kids to lots of great literature and then let them have the "vulgar" stuff too - I refused to read Rainbow Fairy books aloud as they were so deadly boring. Many books I mentioned that they love are American classics as DH is American (and so are the kids) so you may want to branch out across the pond. All of a Kind family is the first in a series, set before the First World War in New York and is about a family of five Jewish sisters (until they get a baby brother). Mrs Basil E Frankweiler is about a brother and sister who run away and hide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Once I got up to three kids and could not stay awake at night to read stories due to sleep deprivation I started buying books on CD, another great way to introduce them to many, many authors that are above their reading level but great as a read-aloud. We still listen to lots of books in the car on the school run (prevents squabbling).

I read so much wonderful rubbish as a kid. I do think it's important to let kids chose what they want to read.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid has sold millions, and I find it very funny so I can see why.

If you can get hold of the Sunday Times Culture section from last weekend, they had a list of the best modern children's literature. I've bought a couple of books from the list. My DS is currently enjoying a great Neil Gaiman book that was recommended on it.

YANBU. I give dc a limit, but I'm specific about purchases. Any books that are comic books (I might relent on 'graphic novels'...it would have to depend), or any of the things you mentioned, in addition to stickers, books you are Supposed to destroy (that was very popular at our book fair two years ago) or anything similar, I tell dc They can buy.

What frosts my cookies are the mums that work there, that tell the children, "You have a $20 limit, you can buy more things if you want". I actually send in a form once that told them not to encourage my child to buy anything they didn't pick out. I'm sure it just made me look mental, and it was never even passed down to the cashiers, but I just did it on principle when I heard one of the mums encouraging children to buy more because their parents had allotted a certain amount of money. They encouraged them to go get junk to make up the whole dollar amount their parents stipulated and I was aghast.

Was not keen on Jacqueline Wilson books for my dcs, however dd would read absolutely everything and anything, some of which was definitely not suitable for her age range , but she was reading so I turned a blind eye.

I like Spongebob. A lot. It's relentlessly verbally inventive.

An awful lot of the 'classics' from my childhood have been incredibly poor when I've attempted to read them with ds.

Mrspremise, ds did want to dress up as a genuine character from a genuinely classic book for World Book Day (Shasta from The Horse and His Boy) and it was complicated to do and nobody recognised it. The concept of dressing up as a random character from a book (or anyway an illustration) is daft and not surprisingly most parents go for something recognisable that they've already got in the cupboard.

Try the Weirdstone of Brisinghamen by Alan Garner (not sure if spelling is right!) And I remember my mum ordering me a book called the Sea is a Singing from a school book fair when I was 8 or 9 - loved it.

I ended up refusing to send in book fair money, ours were utter rubbish.

It depends though.

Every child's book is nonsensical and dumb when you think about it.

Who the fuck cares what Brown Bear sees? Why are we saying good night to every object in the room in Good Night moon?

The point of children's books is to get them excited about reading and to encourage them to practice it. If Disney crap is what gets DD excited about reading, you can bet her room will be peppered with Disney books.

Reading boring classical literature doesn't make a person smarter or more interesting. There's plenty racist, small minded idiots that had to read "To Kill a Mockingbird" in high school.

By all means encourage kids to read the classics if they like them, but forcing a child to read a classic for the sake of it is a sure fire way to kill their love of reading.

if you don't read crap, how do you know what is "good"?

Agree that some modern kids books are poorly written marketing dross. I don't agree that in the past all kids books were great, there were plenty of crappily written shallow toss around then too. And as other posters have said plenty of great books are being written for kids nowadays. Mine read anything they like although I do tell them when I think something is rubbish and why ( and similarly when something is good). I think it's more important to teach children to critique and self-select than introduce blanket bans and censorship. As they get older they will naturally make better choices. Mine moved on from Rainbow Fairies and Disney pretty quickly and choose Roald Dahl, The Percy Jackson books, David Walliams, Lauren Child...

The thread title should have read 'Hating school book fairs' not 'Hating modern life' . Sorry but it's one of my pet hates all this 'everything today is shite wasn't it wonderful in the olden days'. Pervades everything you ever read whether people are talking about food, entertainment, relationships, health. For one thing it's not bloody true and involves incredibly selective rose-tinted thinking about the past. And for another what kind of miserable depressing message is it giving to children growing up now? Your life now is shit it was so much better in the past? Great- welcome to the world, have a nice life. Sorry but it gets my back up.

Rant over

I've still got the Sunday Times thing! Hang on and I'll type it out...

Joan, my ds dressed up as Shasta for last world book day too! Dd wanted to go as one of the three little pigs, everyone thought she was Peppa.

Having said that, I don't think world book day is necessarily a reflection of what kids are reading. Probably far more a reflection of what costumes they already have in the dressing up box that tenuously relate to a book!

The Sunday Times 100 Best Children’s Books of the Last 10 Years

0 – 3
Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett
Peck Peck Peck by Lucy Cousins
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
Wriggle and Roar! Rhymes to Join in With by Julia Donaldson
Babies, Babies, Babies! by Catherine and Laurence Anholt
Pip and Posy: the Super Scooter by Axel Scheffler
A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton
Elmer and the Hippos by David McKee
Millie’s Marvelous Hat by Satoshi Kitamura
The Artist who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle
There Are Cats in This Book by Viviane Schwarz
Norris: The Bear Who Shared by Catherine Rayner
Max the Brave by Ed Vere
Penguin by Polly Dunbar
Otto the Book Bear by Katie Cleminson
The Great Granny Gang by Judith Kerr
This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
Open Very Carefully by Nick Bromley
Pandemonium at Peek Zoo by Kevin Waldron
The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson

i write my own

The Sunday Times 100 Best Children’s Books of the Last 10 Years

4 – 6
Edwardo: The Horriblest Boy in the Whole Wide World by John Burningham
Addis Berner Bear Forgets by Joel Stewart
A House in the Woods by Inga Moore
Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French
Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates
Meet the Parents by Peter Bently
The Other Ark by Lynley Dodd
Traction Man Is Here by Mini Grey
Croc and Bird by Alexis Deacon
The Big Ugly Monster and the Little Stone Rabbit by Chris Wormell
My Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown
The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers
Horrid Henry and the Mega-Mean Time Machine by Francesca Simon
Zeraffa Giraffa by Dianne Hofmeyr
Mia’s Story: A Sketchbook of Hopes & Dreams by Michael Foreman
A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies
Belonging by Jeannie Baker
Into the Forest by Anthony Browne
There Is a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems
Dixie O’Day: In the Fast Lane by Shirley Hughes

Any branch of Waterstone's has plenty of excellent children's books and all the classic board games on sale.