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.

I love Dorothy L Sayers too, but I'm definitely leaving these until he's very much older. They are much much deeper than the simple puzzles in the Agatha Christie books. I like to do a Sayers re-read most years and I always spot something new in the subtext.

If he likes whodunnits, OP, Isaac Asimov wrote some great short stories that were science fiction whodunnits, published under the title “Asimov’s mysteries”, and it might get him into Sci Fi as a genre. There are loads of classic kids SF novels, eg by Robert Heinlein, and absolute rakes of Star Trek spin off novels, many suitable for kids.

K.M. Grant's historical novels are excellent! Agreed, Rosemary Sutcliff, too.

@Snoopsnoggysnog

Agree that there are much better books for children of that age now, many of them on this thread. My DC have recently enjoyed the Voyage of the sparrow hawk.

Voyage of the Sparrowhawk is an absolutely cracking book. I loved it.

How about Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events?

What about R L Stevenson ?

Treasure Island

Actually, they are a lot stronger meat than many.

I learned to read quite early (elder sister with a vocation for teaching) abs was given the run of the library and read quite widely.

Many of those books which didn't strike me as anything very at the time, I have since discovered that I read them in an age appropriate way, missing out on a lot. I think anything that keeps his attention would be fine.

The advantage of the golden age murder mysteries is that everything thing is the may everything is tidied up by the end with no loose ends.

So unlike real life.

The real point I think though is to talk through each one that he has read to gauge understanding and also the impact they make on him. Good luck.

@Medianoche I read it too, cracking read!

I would recommend the Percy Jackson series (it's based on Greek mythology).

@Mysterylovingboy

Yes absolutely agree about reading too young also risks missing all the nuances, and not falling in love with them - I read the Brontes at a too young an age and it really put me off them, especially Wuthering Heights.

Bromeliad etc sounds good!

Many years ago when I did some Primary school supply there was a series of abridged classics, Dickens, Austen etc, can't recall the publisher but it may be worth looking out for them, they keep the story and a lot of the dialogue but omit the long pages pf prose which can be very off-putting even to adults!