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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Hunger Games at 13!

125 replies

LesleyA · 17/10/2020 05:39

My friend’s daughter is reading Hunger Games at school for this years set work/prescribed reading. I’m shocked. I understand the storyline but haven’t read it. My daughter gets creeped out reading Nancy Drew. Please tell me your opinions. Is it gruesome, appropriate, of benefit? I’m also wondering whether if it is fine whether I’m doing my daughter a disservice by not introducing her to those types of books if that’s what her peers are reading (advised by the school). Opinions please (on the book not my parenting).

OP posts:
reefedsail · 17/10/2020 08:14

I read it to my Y6s at the end of lockdown. They absolutely hung on every word. It was one of those books that you could hear a pin drop while I was reading and when I closed it they howled for me to carry on. Magic.

SmileEachDay · 17/10/2020 08:14

Thingsdogetbetter

OMG those books!

Tlollj · 17/10/2020 08:14

I was going to say it seems a bit off, but then I was reading Harold Robbins, Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann. So don’t listen to me.

BetterEatCheese · 17/10/2020 08:15

My 10 year old absolutely loves the films (1st one in particular) and we have the books to get started on soon.

Tlollj · 17/10/2020 08:17

@ChasedByFox
Oh z for Zacharia loved that book

DaphneFanshaw · 17/10/2020 08:19

Oh gosh I clenched when I read the op because my 10 year old is reading them atm and loves them.
Yes, there’s been a few scenes that have made him sad but proportionately so.
He has said that it’s made him think about the world around him so it’s been a positive experience all round.

CousinLucy · 17/10/2020 08:20

That's a great age read it. It's a fab book with tension and suspense. Reading it any younger and you risk not being able to understand the big ideas in it. Read it any older and you've likely seen the film. I've been teaching English for 20 years and it's been in our curriculum in Y9 decreasing to Y7 in the summer term - who completely and totally relish it. Unlike Of Mice and Men, as someone's said above, I don't have reservations teaching it at KS3. With OMAM there's Curly with his Vaselined hand in a leather glove for his wife. Makes me shudder every time and we teach that in Y8 summer term. With regard to The Hunger Games, frankly most children have seen worst violence on video games. It seems to me, anyway.

middleager · 17/10/2020 08:21

YABU my DC (now 14) read them a few years ago and watched the films too.

At 13 I was reading The Stand, IT, Flowers in the Attic etc.

SueEllenMishke · 17/10/2020 08:25

@sirfredfredgeorge

"I haven't read it........" maybe do then?

But pre-teen fiction is really dull!

You're missing out. There are some excellent YA books out there. Broaden your horizons!!
Time2change2 · 17/10/2020 08:26

I let my DD at almost 11 as she kept asking. She scares easily and I had to have a chat about putting it down and coming to talk to me if she doesn’t like it.
She absolutely loved it and read all 3 books really quickly. She hardly ever reads anything!
How does your DC feel about it? Is she scared or enjoying it?

TheGirlWithAPrince · 17/10/2020 08:26

at 11 i was watching Halloween and nightmare on elm street and okay i wouldnt suggest my own kids watch it but i did turn out okay :D

hunger games Is nothing

joystir59 · 17/10/2020 08:27

I was reading Denis Wheatley horror books about the devil at that age. Grin

whenwillthemadnessend · 17/10/2020 08:29

It's fine. It's a teen book and isn't that graphic. It's not game of thrones

OwlBeThere · 17/10/2020 08:31

My 13 year old is working her way through A song of ice and fire without a problem . She’s still horribly creeped out by Coraline though. I think whet scares us is very personal.

CandyLeBonBon · 17/10/2020 08:33

Brilliant series. Eminently suitable and no pearl clutching required. She's 13, not 3!

kowari · 17/10/2020 08:37

DS read them at 10, he'd read all the older kids' books he was interested in (like Percy Jackson) that they had at the library.

CakeRequired · 17/10/2020 08:45

If your daughter is getting creeped out by Nancy drew books that are aimed at children younger than your daughter, I really don't think you should be commenting on other people's parenting. Especially when you also haven't read said book. Hmm

I read the Harry Potter books maybe a year or do after the first one was released, so about 8/9 ish. If I can handle someone having a second head attached to the back of their own, a basilisk killing people and dementors making you relive your worst fears over and over again, I think your daughter at 13 should be able to handle people dying by now.

middleager · 17/10/2020 08:46

I read lots of horror and fantasy as a teen. I watched lots of horror fims too.

I was more impacted by some of the real life stories to be honest. I remember watching The Marathon Man and then learning more about The Holocaust and the real life horrors.

I remember reading In Cold Blood as a young adult and to this day think about the character of the murdered mother.

Scarlettpixie · 17/10/2020 08:47

It’s fine. DS Watched and loved the films At 10 and went on to listen to the audio books. He went to world book day dressed as Katnis. I read them before him and loved them too.

I think it is a great choice for schools as it will engage the kids and there is much to discuss.

He is now just 14 and has been doing of mice and men at school. The ending made him cry and he was a bit taken aback that a book could make him feel that way as he hasn't been much od a book reader past diary of a wimpy kid and captain underpants. I am hoping it might have sparked something :)

EmilySpinach · 17/10/2020 08:48

This does at least make a bit of a change from having to call parents and suggest that the copy of It by Stephen King that a year 7 child has brought in from home is perhaps not quite the thing for period 2 on a Tuesday. The book contains a LOT which was a bit much for the films.

Otherwise I'm afraid that OP is very typical, clutching her pearls in outrage over something which she has never read. We deal with all sorts of tough subjects in YA and done properly the teaching of these books should be an important vaccine against the challenges of life which are to come. Maybe read a book today, OP.

dementedpixie · 17/10/2020 08:49

My kids read the trilogy before 13 and also watched the films. I'm sure i read Dean Koontz, Stephen King, etc from that age. Its plenty old enough

dementedpixie · 17/10/2020 08:50

I've read the books too and enjoyed them. Divergent series is also a good read

WankPuffins · 17/10/2020 08:51

My ds watched the films when they first came out, he was 11/12 I think.

Absolutely fine - I don’t get the molly coddling around diction. They have to learn it’s not real.

Mynameidontremember · 17/10/2020 09:02

Ds is 11 and is hooked. He loved the Darren shan vampire books, then Charlie higson zombie ones (which I found quite harrowing- but from an 'oh those poor orphaned children ' perspective i wouldn't have had at 11). He's waiting to read Stephen King, but I've warned him they can be quite slow and he needs to have more awareness of the actual world first. I was end of yr7 when I started all that stuff. Kids now don't have to jump so quickly so adult stuff cos there are so many more kids' books.

I was reading flowers in the attic in about yr7/8. Read Clan of the Cave bear when I was about 11 or 12. Don't think my gran remembered the rape scenes in it when she gave it to me!

MrsKJones · 17/10/2020 09:10

I never read 'Of Mice and Men', 'Animal Farm' or 'To kill a Mockingbird' at school. The only book I remember reading was at GCSE which was 'Daz 4 Zoe'
My English teacher got fed up of me reading Nancy Drew and Point Horror and made me read Tenant of Wildfell Hall - I gave up after one chapter. When I went to 6th form the librarian introduced me to Harry Potter - 4 of the books had come out by then and I read them all in about 6 weeks. Since then I have read the entire series, Twilight saga and Septimus Heap series. I watched Hunger games at cinema and was disturbed by it - maybe I should give the books a go?