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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Vampire and werewolves -inappropriate for a 7yr old

40 replies

grumpalumpgrumped · 10/05/2016 22:45

My Ds(7) school has a public library that they use when closed. He took out a book this week called vampires and werewolves which seems inappropriate material. It's full of pictures like the one attached, stories of people being burnt, how babies deaths were attributed to vampires drinking their blood as they slept.
I am pretty cross, it's really not the sort of thing I would let him read.
Thoughts?

OP posts:
WonkoTheSane42 · 10/05/2016 22:47

If you don't want him to read it then take it off him, but I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill tbh.

StepAwayFromTheThesaurus · 10/05/2016 22:49

My 6 year old would love that, scary pictures and all.

It's all a bit horrible histories really. But if you're not comfortable, don't let him read it.

Original poster
grumpalumpgrumped · 10/05/2016 22:50

Have removed it, but he's had it a day or so before I saw it. I just don't think it's suitable for 7yr olds

OP posts:
Eeeek686 · 10/05/2016 22:51

I'd be cross too but don't really know how this could be monitored if it's an electronic system?

Original poster
grumpalumpgrumped · 10/05/2016 22:51

Some of the text and photos are pretty graphic, maybe I am just easily shocked. Just really surprised it's deemed suitable

OP posts:
Original poster
grumpalumpgrumped · 10/05/2016 22:52

eeek exactly, not sure what they can do, assuming they have a LSA with them?

OP posts:
WonkoTheSane42 · 10/05/2016 22:55

What is it you find so objectionable about it? It seems to be demystifying the "scary" fictional thing by giving scientific reasons why people have believed in them in the past. Is your son upset by it? If not, I think you're overreacting.

Thymeout · 10/05/2016 23:00

Ime, 7 yr old boys love this kind of thing. 'Werewolf' was one of the first words my dgs learned to spell. He wanted to google it. It doesn't seem to have done him any harm.

Original poster
grumpalumpgrumped · 10/05/2016 23:01

I think the photos are pretty scary, the text is graphic in places. I don't mind the science behind the myths type stuff but this is a bit too far.
We have behaviour issues with him, he is being assessed for ASD and mimics, repeats things he reads. I am very careful what he accesses. He has already shown his younger brother the pictures and scared him (our issue I know)

OP posts:
BestZebbie · 10/05/2016 23:19

I would think that a 7 year old was pretty much the perfect audience for it, unless the vocabulary was too complex and they needed to be closer to 11 to read it fluently.
The macabre is fascinating to children because it is all still quite hypothetical to them*, especially if it concerns fictions such as vampires and werewolves, and hard-to-identify-with 'distant' societies who believed in them - it is only as adults that you start to fill in the full horror of realistically experiencing some of the things that you described.

*all being well!

Original poster
grumpalumpgrumped · 10/05/2016 23:23

Bestzebbie that's a very good point. I just think stories of cutting out hearts of dead people who you have dug back up and burning them was not what I was expecting to read.

OP posts:
Eeeek686 · 10/05/2016 23:24

grumpalump I'm definitely with you... It's why we have movie ratings isn't it!? Not all imagery is suitable across the board, and I personally would rate pictures like this as more appropriate for secondary school (in the sand easy as a 12 movie).

If the children aren't being supervised in the library by a member of staff (with their borrowing being monitored to some degree) then there should be some kind of system set up linking pupils profile to their library card and only allowing age appropriate media to be borrowed.

Has just occurred to me I've no idea what happens in our local library in this department, as children have a special Card and I've no idea of this restricts borrowing
Will find out..!!?

WorraLiberty · 10/05/2016 23:24

I loved that sort of thing at his age and so did my 3 DC.

Who are you cross with exactly?

If you don't want your DS choosing that kind of book, you need to make it clear to him.

Original poster
grumpalumpgrumped · 10/05/2016 23:27

worra no idea who I am cross with, just cross! Guess I expected him not to be allowed to get this sort of thing out. He knows now I how I feel but as with all children they don't always not access stuff we ask them not too.

Happy to concede that I maybe over sensitive but will be asking how it's monitored, restrictions on tickets as I guess he could access worse!

OP posts:
Original poster
grumpalumpgrumped · 10/05/2016 23:31

Guessing also if he wrote anything like this (then they cut his heart out and burnt it) in his literacy work I would be asked to explain what he was watching?

OP posts:
Monkendrunky · 10/05/2016 23:44

I teach 7 (and 6) year old boys with ASD and some of their reading scheme books are bordering on this, although perhaps not quite so graphic! They do have a fascination with gore, as did I when I was younger, loved a ghost story! I don't think it's too bad, the problem is books aren't certified to my knowledge so it's incredibly subjective as to what is or is not deemed suitable! Also I wouldn't worry about what they write, I've seen a lot worse!

Sukebind · 10/05/2016 23:49

I agree that this isn't a book that he should be allowed to read without your say so. Yes, some children might read it and love it but it might well have a disturbing effect on others in one way or another. I would not like my dc to read that at 7 or even older tbh.

My elder dc loves history and I borrowed the Tony Robinson Worst Kids in History book (or something like that) from the library for them. Big mistake. The dc only read a couple of pages and got completely fixated with a passage about scary bogeymen characters that parents used to scare their children into behaving. For about a year it haunted dc's thoughts at bed time (already as stressful time as dc1 had lots of trouble getting to sleep at the best of times). Dc2 is 7 now and despite being confident and sensible she worries about vampires and zombies that her boy friends have told her about. I can empathise: when I was little I saw something about spontaneous human combustion on a kids' tv programme and spent months properly afraid that this would happen to me at night.

I think as a parent you have every right to protect your child from something they might find scary or upsetting or that you deem unsuitable, whether that's a book, a film, a tv programme, a computer game, or anything else. I don't think there is much you can do about it at this point though as you have removed the book and he can't unseen it. I would probably have a word with his teacher about it to raise your concerns.

Summerblaze100 · 10/05/2016 23:50

DS1 has just covered 'The Mayans' during their school topic which was about killing and human sacrifice. Not sure this book is any worse. He has learning difficulties and has a short attention span but this he loved learning about.

StarkyTheDirewolf · 11/05/2016 00:06

Depends on if he's sensitive (not the word I'm looking for.) Active imagination? Is it likely to sit in his mind and cause bad dreams etc?

I found my dm's pregnancy, birth and childcare book when I was about 7 and read it cover to cover absolutely facinated (I remember asking "Mum, what's vernix?" and had a list of words I'd written down which I didn't understand, including episiotomy). The blood and gore didn't phase me at all.

But Roald Dahls 'The Witches' scared the living bejeesus out of me.

StarkyTheDirewolf · 11/05/2016 00:08

And just to add, I've never liked the TV series 'goosebumps', it creeps me out and im nearly 30. My 6 year old nephew thinks it's the best thing ever.

FirstWeTakeManhattan · 11/05/2016 00:32

I totally accept that kids like a certain amount of macabre. I think the Horrible Histories book seem somewhat different to this though.

I read loads as a kid, I had an advanced reading age, and loved all kinds of books. Knowing what I was like as a 7yr old though, I would have found some of what you describe really troubling.

I would have been old enough to understand the true suggested horror of some of it, rather than just a 'wow! Gory stuff!' reaction.

You know your DC the best. I wouldn't be cross with anyone though. Some kids do like things more graphic than others.

sashh · 11/05/2016 06:33

It can be argued that little red riding hood is a werewolf story. I was going to say YABU until your second post. The book may be suitable for some 7 year olds, but maybe not yours.

FutureGadgetsLab · 11/05/2016 06:39

This is exactly the sort of thing most kids that age like. Kids with ASD don't need wrapping in cotton wool, we are just normal people you know. Chill.

Gowgirl · 11/05/2016 06:45

I don't see a problem with it, its not like its Anita Blake!

gamerwidow · 11/05/2016 06:46

I don't think it's unsuitable for all children that age my 5 year old loves zombies and vampires and would not be phased by this book. I'm not even sure where she picked them up from because she definitely isn't allowed to watch age inappropriate stuff. Some children like a bit of gore I was always the opposite and this book would have upset me. I think like anything it's up to parents to use their discretion as to what is suitable for their child.