to feel uneasy about my son reading Enid Blyton books

[frances5]

My son wants me to read him a book called the "Wishing Chair", I have read two chapters of it and it has a pixie in it called "Chinky". To make it worst the drawing of "Chinky" shows an elf like creature with slitted eyes. However I think my son is totally and utter oblivous to this.

Admitally Enid Blyton lived 50 years ago when people didn't know better. But do you think I am making a mistake letting my son enjoy this book? He is even trying to read it himself that he is so desperate to know what happens next.

When my son chose this book I had no idea that it had a pixie in it called "Chinky" other wise I would have diverted him towards something like Ronald Dahl.

i think fairytales can be much worse.

take hansel and gretel for example they get ditched in the woods by their father they knock on a strangers door and get locked up. they are almost boiled but instead the witch is.

the old version of that actually scared me.

Q, EB herself once said that she didnt listen to criticism from anyone ovr 10 years old. Of course, she didnt know about being PC - I guess she was referring to the quality of the writing. Now that I read them as an adult, they are pretty trashy, and I am surprised that I loved them so much as a child.

We read the wishing chair, it had illustrations as far as I remember, but I didnt get the elf as being chinese at all - would not have gone on with it if I had. They are classist and sexist of course, but I hope that my children will get from me, that these things are not relevant to modern life.
There is one EB book I dont want my children to read, which has a rare depiction of a black African in it. I remember not liking this part as a child, as the character was so unbelievable, and of course, it is a completely racist portrayal.

"Chinky" shows an elf like creature with slitted eyes"

SO the scenario where your child sees a child in the street with 'slitted eyes' and laughingly calls him 'chinky' doesn't worry you at all?

blimy, Tolkein books say Orks are nasty should i stop reading them too ? They are just stories and even the youngest child would realise they are old fashioned, they were out of date when i read them but that made me love them more.. and i'm not a facist racist homophobe, i managed to grow up quite balenced despite reading my friend flika a million times..

I'm not so much bothered with children being scared, golden, as learning racist comments without them realising they are racist.

I am getting quite worried now. In our copy, the elf really did not look chinese.

not talking about nasty orks. Don't see the connection

Well I remember Enid Blyton books so well from my childhood. I loved them and they really fired my imagination. I'll reread certain ones even now to relive those moments. One of my absolute favourites was The Children of Cherry Tree Farm. I also loved the Famous Five, The Enchanted Wood, etc. etc. I can't think of another author that I read at the same age that made such an impression on me.

And all you ultra PC people need to get a life - really.

A vote here for Enid Blyton - perhaps you could explain why some people wouldn't like Chinky and come up with a new name.

Paddy?

seriously though, I don't think he'll be damaged and some of her stuff is magical. It would be a shame to "ban" it. There is plenty of time to read other books

a racist comment is only racist if you mean it in a racist way, there is no such thing as racist words.

My kids ahve read some Enid Blytons. I have organised a secret seven party (was very good).

No, because I cant see that actually happening. I read those book and I didnt develop the attitude as I never saw an Elf!

I think that sometimes common sense should prevail. For example ds tried to do a scottish accent today (promotion/quiz on radio was doing it) it didnt sound scottish and actually sounded indian. Ds thought it was cool that he could do an indian accent. I explained to him that he shouldnt because although I know he wouldnt mean it in a nasty way some people may be offended. He naturally asked why, I explained that in the past indian people were treated badly by white english people just because of the colour of their skin. Ds thought it was sad people would be mean to someone for something like that. So no I do not think ds would point his finger at someone and call them 'chinky'. Nor do I think he would point his finger and call someone fat/ugly etc. Why, because he knows that is rude and unkind and not how we behave.

"Of course Enid Blyton is popular. But why forcefeed your children the children's literary equivalent of the Sun newspaper? You don't have to do it.

Thankfully many school libraries (including ours) do not stock her books."

Banning something is the best way of making kids read it.

can only speak personally, pointydog, but that would never ever occur to either of my ds' and i am completely sure any racist connotations went well over their heads. mind you, my kids tend not to point at strangers in the street and call them big ears either so maybe I am blessed with polite children

You are so right Worszel. That's kind of what I meant when I said that it is the modern corruption of words that is wrong, not the words themselves.

Yes but the racism etc is totally insidious in those books. When my DS reads horrid henry, he knows henry is horrid. Were my DS ever to read the Enid Blyton book about gollywogs, chinkies, sneering at the "rough" children in the village blah blah, he might think these sort of attitudes are acceptable.

Besides which the writing just sucks. It really does.

"Chinky" shows an elf like creature with slitted eyes"

SO the scenario where your child sees a child in the street with 'slitted eyes' and laughingly calls him 'chinky' doesn't worry you at all?"

I don;t like chinky because I would not like to be part of the above scenario. None of you have said if that would bother you or not.

twinklemegan - I agree

Pointydog - read my post.. I think I addressed your point! It would bother me if ds pointed at anyone in the street and said anything. the fact is he doesnt becasue he is better behaved than that.

It's only an issue if you make it an issue though isn't it? I mean I don't remember any racism at all - if it was there I didn't notice it. People are projecting modern attitudes onto books from a different age. But children born today aren't inherently more likely to pick up on these things, we make them so if we make an issue of it.

if a child knew of a lovable little slitted eyed elf called chinky he would point it out in an excited way, not in a 'i'm laughing at him way'.

SO you wouldn't like that to happen but you don't believe it ever would happen. ok

ditto morocco

I am sure that if you have a varied and level home life, your child will not be logging on to the BNP website. So no I do not think you are unreasonable.

As long as you are giving out the right signals yourself and answering any questions that your child has honestly.

I read Enid Blyton books to death but knew that you simply didn't call people names because of something that was different to you. I didn't ever call anyone ginger or fat although I might have called someone thick. Certainly not ever racist names. Our primary school went to great lengths to stop it. The fact that my best friend, even now, was one of the only two black girls in our school possibly went some way to helping this . Their was one chinese boy, and to my knowledge no on ever called him chinky. He is on Friends Reunited and is very happy with his school days. Well at least he was the last time I spoke to him.

i loved EB as a child. And it didn't turn me into a raving racist quite the reverse.