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.

nite balls. xx

I am off up the wooden hill now. Need sleeeeeep zzzz nite all.

We have recently read The Wishing Chair and The Faraway Tree. My dd is 8.
My mum banned EB for the same reasons of QC.
I think it's better to read them and then form your own opinion rather than to ban them.
The sort of people who decide what are going to be stocked in libraries I would imagine...middle class.
We are prolific readers and will read anything, we can't help ourselves.
Surely just because something is written in a book you read, it will not give you that opinion unless you happen to agree with it.
In the case of racism I rather think that comes from family life rather than an early exposure to EB. I doubt many members of the BNP had anything read to them at all when they were small.
To the OP encourage your child to read anything he finds engaging, read it yourself as well and then discuss.

Well said Goodasgold.

good grief, what ever happened to loving literature for for what it is???!!!

fabbo stories

I agreed with your posts TM

Everyone has the right to read dross of course.

Now Gods stand up for dross.

And fruitshoots.

Yes agree with goodasgold. Why not use it as a basis for discussion about how things used to be and what's considered acceptable now. It's a really good way to teach history.
I recently had a conversation with a young German boy in his early 20's who quite seriously said to me without the least touch of irony that he had never met a jewish person becuase there weren't too many of them in Germany. I sort of jokingly said well that's because you killed them all and got the blankest look from him. I'm sure that he had learned all about it in the history books, but didn't seem to be able to connect the lesson to real life.

I am really uncomfortable with libraries banning books. Even school libraries. Short of Mein Kampf, of course...

I mean, choosing the best books is all very well, but who defines best and how? EB may not be the most literary writer, but she's clearly doing something that appeals to children, otherwise she wouldn't still be popular. So it's a shame and wrong IMO to deny children something that they might enjoy because adults are snobby about it. Any worrying content is up for discussion, surely?

Reading for enjoyment is A Good Thing. It doesn't have to be 'improving' in some sort of awful Victorian 'you will only do things that are good for you' Samuel Smilesian way.

When I read Blyton as a child, the only thing that struck me was that they never went to the toilet in the books. I didn't read the books for younger children like Faraway Tree or Wishing Chair though as I wasn't interested in them. I was probably already nicking my sister's Secret Seven books . I soon discovered Arthur Ransome and Malcolm Saville's 'Lone Pine Club' books none of which are hardly very pc themselves but are still good reads.

Bookwormmum - yes I too always wondered wy they never went to the toilet. ( BTW have ou noticed in American books they are always taking a shower, but never going for a c*)
I was weaned on Enid Blyton, and have always been a avid reader of everything - most of my spends are on books and I buy several a month, so i dont think is too harmful.
One of the good thinga about Enid Blyotn is the repetitio of words, so in early days of reading it is easy & builds confidence.

i loved eb when i was a child.

i remember when i was a little girl keeping all my eb books in two carrier bags at the side of the bed. the plan was that if the house caught fire and I had to get out sharpish I could take my books with me at a moments notice.

i still love books to this day. though i dont get as much time to read as i used to.

anyway when i was pregnant with my first i went and bought all the books i loved from my childhood which i did not still have. this included hungry caterpillar, tiger who came to tea, haunted house (which she does not like but i love ) and faraway tree storeis by enid blyton. love them books and have read them again since. dd is not old enough for them at the moment but i will take great pleasure reading them with her.

i figure it wont hurt and if it helps her develop a love of books then all the better. If is the mental equivalent of giving her a fruitshoot then i am not going to worry too much as shock horror i think she had a fruit shoot a while back at a birthday party and she seems to be doing ok ;)

Only read the OP so don't know what the general response is but I loved EB books as do my boys. Have read the wishing chair many times as a child and again recently to my children and have to say that it had never crossed my mind that there was anything wrong with the name chinky not sure if I should be about this or not? just never crossed my mind that it was anything other than his name. Maybe we can just read too much into these things and need to remember that children take things on face value.
Plus they are great stories and mine can never wait to the next chapter, EB has played a big part in making my son a complete bookworm

I usually agree with Quattro but have to disagree on this one. I loved EB as a child, I was truly transported into a magical world. Found a 'Faraway Tree' in the local wood and played there for hours, imagining strange and magical lands at the top of the tree. IMO the books hit the perfect note - they vividly conjure up a magic world in a language even a very small child can understand - a skill not to be dismissed. A bookish child, I also read the classics (in fact I read everything I could get my hands on) and loved many, though A A Milne left me cold (still does a bit).

Both my daughters also loved EB (caught one with a Malory Towers the other day, and she is 18 and off to Oxford in Oct.)

As for 'dross', I am now a writer myself, and would not presume to diss EB's talent for storytelling, pace, imagination and humour. Yes, I would rather aim to be a Nabokov (all time favourite book is 'Lolita', now there's a case of subject matter transcended by glorious language and profoundness of thought - the antithesis to Blyton?) but I have a hearty respect for her talent for gripping a child's imagination and keeping their eyes glued to the page.

I loved AA Milne esp. Now We Are Six. But if you read his son's account of his childhood, it's scary. His father used his real name, so he was terribly bullied at school AND AA was constantly showing him off to interviewers. Once he was an adult, CR basically didn't speak to his father. For decades.

But should children should concentrate in reading everything that apeals to them?

I think that at 9 years old I would have been probably more interested in reading the trash news in a tabloid (that never got to my home) than reading Oliver Twist. But I think my understanding of books and culture is a bit better thanks to my parents making a real effort to introduce books that were apropiate for our age or better said, the way we perceived things at that age.

I don't think parents/libraries being selective about what the children read can be classed as censorhip. It's just matrying to make the best choices out of the budget they have for that.

Quatt and I normally agree too, but we've started not to now haven't we a bit? lol.

EB isn't a great writer, but she WORKS. They like the formula, the short sentences and the feeling of safety. She's the Francesca Simon of her day.
Childhood reading isn't about reading improving works, it's about developing a life skill based on enjoyment. So in this house anything goes, EB, Francesca Simon, The Beano, the back of the Shreddies packet, the toothpaste tube as well as Morpurgo and Horowitz the newspaper etc. Is a real mistake to legistlate what your child reads. BUT you can legistlate what you're prepared to read out loud, now that's totally different.

sorry, this keyboard is a mess... matrying=trying!

Do you not think that the EB books appeal so much to children because they are so formulaic?

Young children find repitition comforting....think of them watching the same films over and over again, or asking for the same book.

It is all part of normal development isn't it?

Still going then? Goodasgold, missed your post as went to bed. Good points, especially about it being a basis for discussion.

Relax.

Let your son read Enid Blyton, let him enjoy it, and then explain to him that it was written in an era when people were much less sensitive to discriminatory behaviour than today - that the world has moved on and that we have learnt better than to discriminate racially, sexually etc, although it is still unfortunately to be found. This is a much better learning experience for your son than outright censorship.

I have only read the op so forgive me if i missed something but i wouldn't feel uneasy i would let my kids read enid Blyton, i read all her books as a child am am not in any way discriminitave or racistand she tells some fantastic stories.

this reminds me last time we went to London. My boys also love this book and I read it to them uncensored, but last time we went to UK were were on a London-bound train with the usual wonderful racial mix, and I got out the book to read them and just couldn't say the name, so I had to whisper to them in German I was changing it & I'd explain why later, so Chinky has now become Minxy, our cat's name. I nearly died tho. No way could I utter the word 'chinky' without worrying of a. mortally offending someone, b. looking like an ignorat racist or c. getting beaten up.

but these stories, Wishing chair and magic faraway tree are really wonderful, and as others have said, a learning experience if you want on how we should behave towards others.

I also loved the Island/Castle/River etc of adventure series, but obv. these are for older ones.

Does anyone remember the story where I think the boy was called Jack and his parents were missing presumed dead & went to live with wicked aunt & uncle & he ran away to an island with some misc. kids and a cow? I loved that one & read many many times

LOL, my nickname at primary school was "Chink-eyed-goofy-git", but when reading the wishing chair to my children it never occurred to me that Chinky the pixie was a slur on the Chinese. I think that's hogwash personally - it's just the kind of word EB was keen on - her books are full of pixies and brownies called Jinks and Binky and Winky. I disagree with Quattrocento about the writing being poor - they are formulaic and simple because that is what young children can understand and enjoy. Of course it's a bit irksome reading them as an adult, but really, the stories are amazing and full of magic and wonder, and they can be just a little bit frightening too, which thrills my children, they LOVE the wishing chair and the faraway tree. I edit out the more glaring gender stereotyping and the child-beating bits, and anything else I consider inappropriate. When ds1 starts reading them for himself - which he will pretty shortly - I will just explain to him that some people have attitudes which were more acceptable in the past (although even then not to everyone) and are quite rightly frowned upon now. He already understands that some parents smack their children, but that his parents think that is wrong, and that some people believe in god/heaven and others believe in reincarnation etc. I don't think the average child would have any trouble taking the more non-PC elements of these stories with a large pinch of salt while still enjoying the magic and the huge imaginative journey that something like the wishing chair represents.

I think it's very easy but a bit pointless to be snobbish about children's fiction and the 'quality of the writing'. I prefer Charles kingsley personally, I can't wait for mine to be old enough to appreciate it, but at the moment EB is exactly on their level and has really helped to make them love books and stories. Which is good enough for me.

I started a thread a while back about the name changes in The Enchanted Wood, Fanny is now Franny, Bessie is Beth etc.

The new ones are rewritten, I would imagine Chinky is no longer in The Wishing Chair. Did he really have slitty eyes? I don't remember.

I started to read it to DD, almost desperate for her to be 'transported' in the way that I was but, although she quite likes it, she's not that bothered, and I have to admit I find reading them a bit like watching paint dry and got very irritable. Hardly a pleasant shared experience.

I don't think there's anything wrong with parents getting nostalgic and wanting their children to experience what they did. I don't think the odd book is likely to give a child a skewed view of the world, you can always put them right after all.

Actually there was a book called The Put Em Rights.

I won't be reading them any, but I wouldn't say they can't. I will just encourage them to read wonderful books too.