AIBU to let DS 7 read Agatha Christie's Poirot?

[Mysterylovingboy]

DS7 has read lots of Famous Five, Five Find-Outers, Malory Towers, Just William etc. This weekend he's been reading Poirot's casebook which contains short murder mysteries.

I'm just wondering if these are actually suitable, given his age. I remember reading them in late juniors, but he's still in the infants and they are, after all, about murders, though they're not gruesome and the baddie always gets caught and punished so hopefully they're not morally bad (occasional racism, classism and sexism - which we will discuss - aside).

AIBU to let him read them, and if so, can people suggest alternatives please?

He's not really into fantasy or magic or animal stories. IIRC he's got a reading age of 12+ and enjoys Horrible Histories, Asterix, Obelisk, Enid Blyton's mystery and school stories (not SS, which are "boring and too slow"), Just William, some Jacqueline Wilson (avoiding the scarier ones). He wants to read Biggles, but I've said that's too violent.

What about the Murder Most Unladylike books? Similar themes deducing who committed murders.

Mine has read and loved a spoonful of murder. Can’t remember who by. About two girl detectives set in the past. She has just started arsenic for tea. Yours may enjoy them and they are aimed for young teens (pretty big books about 300 pages)

I would have said a bit older, but I did start reading Harry Potter and similar at that age, and HP at least is full of murder.

Stig of the Dump?

I don't think I was much older when I was reading Agatha Christie, sounds fine to me and I was going to suggest them to my daughter's, aged 9 and 6. Don't see any issue really. What could be the issue?

I was going to say the Adventures on train series by M G Leonard and Sam Sedgman too. My ds also enjoyed The London Eye mystery by Siobhan Dowd.

The three investigators is a great next step from the Famous Five. I loved them as a kid.

Would he enjoy the Jennings books? I don't really see any problem with Agatha Christie (except that they're all about boring old people)

How about the murder most unladylike book series?

On balance, I think The Murder of Rodger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None would have disturbed me at that age, but lots of others would have been fine.

I remember watching a lot of Poirot on the TV when I came in from Brownies.

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books? Ds (9) has been reading them for a couple of years. DD is into crime fiction - there seem to be a lot with female protagonist - justice Jones, (Elly Griffiths), murder most unladylike series, clockwork crow series (Catherine woodvine) Agatha oddly (Lena Jones), the adventurers (jemma hatt), Sally lockhart (Phillip Pullman).

I'd second adventures on trains series.
For histoical books Emma Carroll is fabulous.

Suggestions with multiple books per set, in generally increasing appropriateness by age:
Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe
Catwings by Ursula LeGuin
Freddy the Pig series by Walter Brooks
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
G. A. Henty books

Forgot one more:
Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol

Watership Down by Richard Adams would be one to read to a child, maybe a little older than 7.

Lots of great ideas thanks. Jennings is a good idea, I've never read it but assume it's a bit Just William-esque and he loves those. Murder Most Unladylike could work - elder DD found it too scary, but she's a very different character.

Stig - great but I know he'll be studying it at the juniors.

Marzipan - agree I should keep him away from Rodger Ackroyd (first unreliable narrator in mystery fiction IIRC) and Then There Were None (quite creepy). There's a lot of stabbing in Murder on the Orient Express too.

I think PP was trying to avoid spoilers re unreliable narrator.

I read them young. Affected me. I think they are completely inappropriate in many ways for someone so young. There are so many better books for achild. They are all about murder, sometimes brutal. Murder, with people having affairs etc.

There are loads of Michael morpurgo books across the ages and themes. Nancy drew and Hardy Boys are good. Alex Rider might be ok now, if not in near future. We had that problem and our DS took to reading loads of non-fiction for a while

I read them, maybe not that young, and wouldn't worry too much about the murder, but I (tried to) reread one recently and was really shocked about the racist language and attitudes - it was a totally different time and whether i didn't pick up on it, or whether we've come a long way in thirty years, I don't know. That would unnerve me a bit.

Whoops sorry anyone! I thought it was one of those things everyone just knew these days, like what happened to Harry Potter!

Oh and Bear Grylls has written some kids stories too

Imagine trying to dictate what a child should and shouldn't read and not let the child form their own opinion.

It comes across as a tick box of acceptable books that will amount to nothing in the long term.

This is peak Mr's Bucket MN classist, 'I'm working class and always voted labour' comedy

I'd try the Clockwork Sparrow series by Katherine Woodfine. Also the Murder Most Unladylike series.

Murder must unladylike series by robin stevens (on Amazon, Waterstones) , my now year 7 and her classmates were reading them in year 5 and 6. Great series specifically a kids murder mystery set

They are tame in the sense there’s no sex crime, no graphic descriptions of the murders, etc. Some of the novels are far slower moving then the short stories. You might need to check in advance or at least have a discussion about some of the language used. The racial term beginning with C is used in more than one story and there are other things said which a child could easily repeat though you wouldn’t want them to.

I’m always plugging the Shedunnit podcast, because it focuses on Golden Age mysteries, but last week’s episode ‘Young Sleuths’ might give you some good suggestions:

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/shedunnit/id1439204048?i=1000525663114