Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not like school choice of book

31 replies

Crockof · 24/02/2019 21:24

Since when has 10year old reading list been about murder, and torture (and rape but would hope that goes over their head)
Reading Viking Boy, heads have been severed and thrown on floor, lots of murder and now bodies have been tied to posts at low tide and left to drown slowly and their bodies left as a warning. Also talk about slaughtering lambs. Please tell me iabu and I'm over sensitive, I'm only a third of the way through the book.

OP posts:
GregoryPeckingDuck · 24/02/2019 21:25

Are they learning about Vikings? You can’t really have a module on vikings without rape, munder and pillaging.

showerpower · 24/02/2019 21:30

Have you read/watched Horrible Histories ?!

Original poster
Crockof · 24/02/2019 21:38

@showerpower know I haven't, will add to my list if I'm brave enough ☺. Not doubt I'm just soft.
@gregorypeekingduck no, it's just the book they are reading. If they have to learn about rape and pillage I just hoped they would be a bit older

OP posts:
showerpower · 24/02/2019 21:48

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/reviews/1406313831/ref=cmcrrarpmbbpagingbtmm_2?ie=UTF8&pageNumber=2

It's age appropriate and, if you read the reviews, seems to be used quite a lot by teachers

rainbowunicorn · 24/02/2019 21:55

What would you prefer him to be reading? He is 10 not 2 so the school are giving him an age appropriate book to further his education and learn about what life was like then. Would you like them to sugar coat it?

StopMakingAFoolOutofMe · 24/02/2019 21:56

Are you religious? There's plenty of all that in the Bible.

PhilomenaButterfly · 24/02/2019 21:58

DD's in yr6 and they're reading The Hunger Games. They're not babies.

MintyCedric · 24/02/2019 21:59

Gird your loins for secondary school...14yo DD has just read 1984 and the Handmaids Tale!

Tbf I think it's a bit unnerving when they start moving on to books that are more adult in content, but presumably the text itself is age appropriate and it's being discussed and explained as they go.

CripsSandwiches · 24/02/2019 22:03

It's aimed at that age group so don't think it's inappropriate. It's a bit scary when they move on to those more adult books though.

Catinthetwat · 24/02/2019 22:08

It's got rape in it? For 10 year olds? Sounds awful to me, but mine are must younger so I'm probably not a good judge.

pasbeaucoupdegendarme · 24/02/2019 22:12

I read some Polish fairy tales to my 6yo tonight. No rape, admittedly, but a serious quantity of blood and guts!

Catinthetwat · 24/02/2019 22:24

Op, when you say it has rape in it, but you hope that goes over their head. Why do you think it would? Could you give an example?

DrSeuss · 24/02/2019 22:24

Have him read a nice Harry Potter. No murder or other nastiness there. ;)
Or how about a bit of Roald Dahl. Such sweet stories!

rosablue · 24/02/2019 22:35

ds2 is in year 6 and he did boy in the striped pyjamas last term which I didn't think was appropriate. They did one a couple of years ago which was a fantasy that's subsequently been made into a film. We watched the film when it came on TV very conveniently timed - and it gave both dc nightmares for a while, so I wasn't impressed with that either. This term's y6 topic has been The Titanic, which again seemed an unnecessarily gruesome way to centre a topic.

Having said that, we read Animal Farm in y7 and didn't think anything of it. And I read the Handmaiden's Tale when it first came out - grabbed it at the airport in need of some light and easy mental chewing gum to read and got something very different and unexpected - and freaked me out a bit as I hadn't heard anyting about it before buying it so it all came as a big surprise - and I was travelling around the US at the time on my own, would have been much better had I read it once I got home and had people I knew around me rather than being with strangers for 6 weeks!

Original poster
Crockof · 24/02/2019 22:48

Thanks, I was expecting to be told I'm bu. Book given as half term homework so no class discussion or support, my DC asked me to read it once he had finished it. Learning curve, I don't expect sugar coating, it's just there are so many better written books which are imo more appropriate.

OP posts:
Adeste · 24/02/2019 23:06

I wouldn’t want to read that and I’m 43.

I think a lot of the books marketed to children are inappropriate and grim.

Jux · 25/02/2019 18:03

I think children have been horribly coddled heretofore. I don't know the book, so can't comment specifically, and dd is much older, but when she was bereaved in primary school, no one had seen a dead body, no one had been there when someone died, none of her class had even been to a funeral. I was quite shocked. Even when pets died parents
Iied and pretended - things like pet had gone on a holiday etc.

At some point they have to learn about these things, including rape. I would say something like "it's one of the worst things a man can do" and leave the rest until they've had the sex talk (which will happen quite soon if it hasn't already).

rosablue · 26/02/2019 00:21

If it's half term homework, I would be tempted to send a note back into school saying that you have read through the book and think that it's incredibly inappropriate matter for 10 year old children to be given to read, with or without support and as such, you do not give her permission to read it but instead will find a more appropriate story on the topic for her age group.

Thing is, although some of these topics crop up in other books as mentioned, there are different ways of approaching this - sometimes it works and your child is fine with it, other times it's seriously wrong for them. And what might be fine for one child might be bad for another while something that we perceive to be similarly bad might be fine for the other child but not for the one child - only you as a parent really knows that.

DarklyDreamingDexter · 26/02/2019 00:42

I wouldn't be happy about it either. That sort of thing would have really upset me at that age, the stuff of nightmares.

shaddzymay · 26/02/2019 06:57

How many people commenting have actually read it ? The book is completely age appropriate and used a lot in schools for years 5 and 6.

Pommes · 26/02/2019 07:00

I haven't read the book but from your description OP, I don't think YABU at all.

CostanzaG · 26/02/2019 07:10

How would you like the school to address the topic of Vikings?
The book is age appropriate and gets excellent reviews.

IceRebel · 26/02/2019 07:46

I can't imagine any book which is widely used in the classroom would have rape included in it. You say it hopefully went over your child's head, but I would be very interested to read the parts which mention it to see just what is said.

IWannaSeeHowItEnds · 26/02/2019 07:52

My DD is 11. I wouldn't want her reading about rape either. I think primary schools shouldn't be introducing kids to adult topics, since even at 11, some children are nowhere near ready to hear it.

Heyha · 26/02/2019 08:04

So you chose your DCs school on the basis that it is a standard primary school staffed by a mix of senior, middle and new teachers who presumably have quite a few years in the job between them. The school is most likely, like all others, concerned about Ofsted, SATs and to a certain extent their public perception.

Do you really think this building full of professionals would risk that by choosing an 'inappropriate' book for half term homework?

Let them get on with the job they are qualified and experienced in. They aren't going to rewrite the curriculum for a whole year group because one little poppet's parents aren't keen on the age-appropriate, and from what others have said, fairly standard text.