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.

bog off with your patronising 'get over yourse;lf' and eye rolling

ginger beer anybody?

I think people force Enid Blyton on their children because they read them themselves.

The fact that they are fruitshoots is overlooked in a haze of sentimentality.

If you want to give them books from when you were little, how about Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Swallows & Amazons, all of E Nesbit blah blah. They are all beautifully written.

The equivalent of freshly squeezed orange juice versus a fruit shoot.

just all remember in future check quatros allowed book list

worzsel harry potter probably doesnt count cos its modern or something.

PD - don't you want your children to enjoy some childhood innocence before they realise all the nasty stuff that we adults think and say?

no I ban childhood innocence in my house

If EB are fruitshoots what are the godforsaken Harry Potter tomes? Pints of coca cola?

how about you let parents decide for themselves what books their child should/shouldnt read without making them sound like bad parents just because they dont agree with you.

Forcefeeding your children mental fruitshoots probably ought to be grounds for calling social services actually.

can you highlight exactly where I have apparantly patronised you pointydog?

lol @ 2shoes - waved at you on other thread x

Yes to most of those (except Alice in Wonderland which I found plodding and fairly dull). But I remember EB the most out of all of them.

pmsl.

you really should get over yourself. noone is forcefeeding their child anything. granted im building up a book case for my son but if he doesnt want to read or have the story read to him then he wont.

or is being proud of my ds deemed as patronising to you cos that makes absolutely no sense. Oh and I will not bog off ta

No ginger beer for me (am a red head so might get offended ) - lemonade please

"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?"

It's not a bad thing to feed their imagination at all. Childhood innocence is good too. When did I say these things were bad?

goldenwings - have found charity shops fab places for building up the bookshelves here

I'm with Quattrocento. Enid Blyton books are just trashy. Now there is room in everyone's life for a bit of light entertainment, but there are so many much much better books out there, why chose something that is way way past it's sell by date? Of course children will pick up values from what they read, especially if you are reading it to them, because they will assume that you are endorsing it, as indeed you are. And the idea that if you say something with a racist connotation but you don't really mean it in an unpleasant way then it's not hurtful is utter crap. My kids have in the past said of someone sitting on the train - "that man's fat" - they meant it as an observation (they were talking to me not the person) but if the person overheard I bet he didn't think "oh, they didn't mean to be unpleasant, so that's OK", no I bet he felt humiliated, and I felt bad that I had probably passed on my own predudices to the children. Enid Blyton was incredibly dated when I read it twenty odd years ago - I would be very careful about books from a generation or two ago because I think the messages about girls and boys are pretty iffy, let alone race and class issues. And people did know better 50 years ago - looking down on other people because they are not like you is not ethical and never has been, it's just that it isn't tolerated in the same way now as it used to be.

'get over yourself' is patronising.

Well EB does all those things and you compared her to fruit shoots. Now I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing those, but I understand that the received MN opinion is that they are very bad indeed.

goldenwings says it too surprisingly

Not in response to you post it isnt IMO:

By pointydog on Fri 22-Jun-07 23:12:53
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

I have to say I agree with Pointydog in this (except about the banning childhood )

There is too much insidious racism in this society as it is. I don't want my child to pick up more.

EB's books treat anyone who isn't white and middle class appallingly (and that's before you get onto the way women/girls are treated).

I never want to show or teach my child even in the smallest way that that is ok. These things go against a lot of what I believe in. By getting him to read/enjoy them I am condoning these attitudes.

Why is it ok to be offended by something if it is against your religion but not if it is against any other moral standings you may have.

These books are often very offensive. They go against a lot of what I believe in. I don't want my child exposed to these by me until I can explain why they are wrong in a way he understands. Even then I still won't be getting him to 'enjoy' a book that gives out all this messages. It would be wrong.

it may well be patronising but i find saying that social services should be called for mentally forcefeeding children fruitshoots an insult frankly.

alice in wonferling is crapola imo

Must be a hampshire thing then. Just clicked on your profile Goldwings - what part of hampshire?