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.

Actually I would think that you are being unreasonable to not allow your children to read them. Sorry it's late.

I think I am teaching my children to discriminate between trash and good writing when in fact I am probably teaching them to be snobbish about sunreaders.

But why not introduce them to some really lovely and well written books? Your school probably has a list of suitable ones (and I would bet money that Enid won't feature on it)

no it wouldnt pointdog.. ds is 7 therefore has some social graces.

but the enid blyton books i have hardly show racism more morals.

im not saying that some off her stuff cant be portrayed as racism im saying equally they do have good morals to them. in one book of short stories i have it shows what happens if you are selfish, greedy, mean etc with no reference to race.

in regards to a bed time story i definatly wouldnt want my son to be scared before falling asleep.

i do sometimes think the world has gone mad when you cant even read a story to your child. enid blyton also calls some of her characters fanny and dick is this now seen as sexualising children?

also golliwogs were very popular toys back in her day so no i dont think she is being racist when it comes to writing a story about them.

i have read one book of enid blytons which specifically showed a 'black man' however in her day it was common to have 'black' servants/handymen so of course it is incorporated in her stories.

i think what passes for racism now probably didnt when she wrote her books.

I'm slow.

Nothing to do with better behaved.

You're all so confident it would never happen but at least you';ve said you wouldn't like it

Do we really HAVE to project all this PC crap onto our kids? If my DS pointed to a kid in the street with slitty eyes and said "Chinky" he would be saying it because the child looked like the elf from the book which he liked. It would be my attitude and those of others that turned that into a racist remark. And I'm sure it would reflect badly on me if someone were stupid enough to take it seriously, but that is no reason to stop my child from reading the book.

Normally I hate applying today's values to yesterday's world. For example I think any decent person would appreciate that slavery, for example, was wrong and wicked, without feeling the need to apologise for somethig over which they had no possible influence or control. I similarly would not expect today's Germany to apologise for the Holocaust. However I would expect societies to learn from the past and not repeat behaviour which may have been deemed OK at the time but not now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if EB had been around today writing the famous five and secret seven, I guess she's have done it differently. The fact that she was actually around about 70 years ago means that golliwogs, chinky, Dick and Fanny pupulated her books.

However, my DSs both loved Noddy and to be honest I've managed to read Noddy stories to them without a Golliwog in sight. Most of the 'new' versions seem to have successfully filtered them out.

We all love reading Roald Dahl but the "messages" therein are horrendous when you examine them. Doesn't mean the books aren't fab,though.

I wouldn't go out of my way to encourgae my boys to read Enid B, but wouldn't stop them doig so at all.

I read blyton, my kids have, I don'; ban it. I do think Chinky the lsitted eye elf goes too far.

I think you're all hell bent on your sneering anti-PC approach though

You read Blyton but don't use the word Chinkiy

'nuff said

What does 'all this PC crap' actua;lly mean?

I am talking about one opinion and you throw over-used generalised terms at it

You know what, I let my ds browse the kids book section at the library himself - therefore I wouldnt ban him from children books.

Current list of ds books out of the library (not listing home ones as he literally has hundreds incl micheal morpurgo.. is that to be slated too?)

Big Cat & Wild Dogs - information book
Horrible Histories - The Woeful Second World War
I'm bored - Bel Moony
Avoid BEing a Mammoth Hunter - information book
Islands - information book
Inside the Whale - infomration book (where he learnt the word anus
The Wolf's Footprint - Susan Price (fab book)
The Usborne Big Book of Fantasy Quests - Andy Dixon
Harry and the Robots - Ian Whybrow
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble - William Steig
Animals in Danger - Information book

Am proud of the wide choice he makes and do not intend to stop it.

I never read chinky.

Ouch. I enjoyed EB as a child although my mother did point out that the Famous Five and Secret Seven were very sexist given the way the girls had to wash up while the boys had adventures. Don't think I read the stuff with gollies, was that Noddy? And don't remember 'chinky' either although I do recall Moonface.

If I came across a word like that in a book I was reading with ds, we'd have a little digression about why it was Not A Nice Word.

TBH, it's not worth arguing about.

But there really are some good books out there. Not PC books necessarily but really really good books. As a book worm, I hate to see children's minds fed with rubbish when you could be feeding them with good stuff.

And it really isn't a subjective issue, you know. Enid Blyton's books really are the equivalent of fruit shoots.

I don't let my kids browse libraries.

I ban lots of books and comics and tv programmes.

I slate morpurgo

There you go awen. Fits all your PC boxes. Carry on with your sneering you are so justified

Rubbish

Most of you wouldn't let them eat crap, so why let them read it? It's not about censorship its about helping them to choose wisely.

surely though, if you bring your children up to have values as in everyone is equal however different they may look. You can't go wrong.

Theyr'e not Shakespeare, but Fruitshoots?

Actually I do remember a character called Fatty - the Five Find Outers? - and thinking 'that's not very nice' but continuing with the story because it was interesting. Would never have called anyone 'Fatty' IRL because I knew better.

It probably helped that she was clearly talking about a different time, when people had cooks and gardeners.

By all this PC crap I mean people getting hung up on:
whether the girls or the boys make the picnic
old fashioned names
Noddy and Big Ears sleeping in the same bed (they're toys fgs!)
etc. etc.

What I mean is that we should allow children to be children. Why can they not enjoy innocent story books without having to contend with our hang ups? It is adults that are in the wrong for creating the climate where certain words are derogatory, or certain actions are given a sexual interpretation. Children should be allowed to spend their first few years in blissful ignorance of these things if you ask me. There's plenty of time to burden them with political history and the like when they're older. Left to their own devices children wouldn't dream of the kind of prejudices that we display as adults, so leave them be.

Pointdog - get over yourself. I was responding to a thread and a discussion but if you want to feel that I was victimising you or fitting you into a box then I am sorry for that.

i will let my son read what I deem appropriate. i believe enid blyton books can be very lovely to read. to me some of her stories have moral value to them and that is what i want my son to learn. they are magical books which i have no intent on banning.

Isnt Dudley in Harry Potter portrayed as a horrible fat snob ? isnt that exactly the same ??

Quattrocentro - why is it a bad thing for children's imaginations to be filled with fairies, goblins, witches, wizards, exciting adventures, faraway lands, giants, I could go on?