The Boy in the Dress is not appropriate class reading for 8 or olds.

[Brightlightsbigcity]

Haven't read this myself, so am willing to accept that this may just be my dcs perception of it, but the feedback from kids talking to me about reading this in class appear to be:

1. The mum and dad fight a lot. Mum leaves.
2. The boy wears a dress. (I have no issue with this. Neither do DC. ) )
3. The dad hides rude, naked picture magazines under the kids bed/s.

I do have an issue with 3. Is it really appropriate for 7, 8 and 9 year olds to learn about naked pic magazines, which are rude, therefore dad hides them? (In the kids room, of all places. ) I'm not clutching pearls, but I don't think this is an appropriate subject matter for this age group, do you?

(I'm almost hoping it's a story from a friend, which got tangled up in the plot somehow... )

'Nothing wrong with letting children be children for as long as possible and protecting them from this shite. OP, I'd be the same as you.'

There is though, these issues will be thrust upon our children earlier than we would like and they'll know better now to deal with them if they have already explored them safely in books.

Oh and of course you need to read it, a short summary by an eight year old days after reading it isn’t the most reliable of sources.

Isn't that the most reliable source, since he's the target market? It doesn't matter a shiny shit what adults think the message is, what matters is the message he's received.

As for Roald Dahl... never appealed to me. People are allowed to have preferences, and choose the books they want their children to read.

I agree with the PPs who find DW creepy. And I object to the sly drip feeding of porn culture and misogyny into children’s books to normalise it. It smacks to me of paedophile grooming.
There are thousands of wonderful, exciting , fascinating, amusing books for children, that will stimulate their love of literature and give their imagination wings. Why waste precious reading time on dodgy crap?

The point about conversation starters is great, but DW's books aren't meant be educational tools for these topics, they are supposed to be an enjoyable story for children and nothing more. Now parents are having to work around the subjects raised just so they can counteract porn culture/misogyny and not all of them will.

Oh and there's a great deal of fattism in his books.

Well I'm assuming they're picked out by children and parents as they're supposed to be an enjoyable read and nothing more, anyway.

Conversation starters can be anything, a trip to the supermarket has been a catalyst for all kinds of conversation. I’d rather the notion of porn being raised in a classroom rather than the secondhand misinformed morsels from Dan’s older brother.

Oh, you think porn would be tackled in the classroom thanks to the book, at this age? I can't think of any teacher who would take that on.
It's down to the parents and the communication each child has with theirs. There will be many parents who don't read to their children, don't read this particular book, don't happen to be told about the specific part where porn is mentioned. In all these cases where the opportunity is missed, as no parent expects a child that young to hear about porn within a learning environment, the message is simply internalised and accepted as normal.

I suspect living in continental Europe has made me a little less ’shhh, no sex please we’re British’.

you can see the mags in the shops and in the 80's every kid had seen one floating about the park. there was a time it wasn't unusual. I don't think you need to explain to an 8 year old what it is unless they question it. I can't comment on the book itself as I haven't read it.

I suspect living in continental Europe has made me a little less ’shhh, no sex please we’re British’

Am I alone in finding it really funny that someone would discover a whole new liberated sexual identity because they went to live in "continental Europe"