12 year old obsessed with Jacqueline Wilson books.. Aibu to think there is better out there?

[Breakdancing]

My 12 year old has come back from the library with another stack of Jacqueline Wilson books. I've flicked through some & they are mildly inappropriate but are in the young readers section.. I love that she is a bookworm but aibu to be annoyed with her obsession with Jacqueline Wilson?

Anne Fine is also a very good writer about different people's situations, but in don't know if she's a bit out of fashion these days? I remember studying The Tulip Touch in English in Year 7 or 8.

Don’t knock it. Anything they read at that age is good. She’ll grow out of JW eventually and move on to higher things. Maybe get her interested in the classics by watching TV adaptations with her.

I grew up ready JW. She was my favourite author. I don’t remember being traumatised by the story lines - except for Vicky Angel, that haunted me.

However I seem to have a stronger reaction from reading JW as an adult - I’m almost shocked at how real she is - now that my daughter has started reading her books. When we are older we put things into perspective and forget that children can be exposed to so much worse.

It also makes a good debate if you want to encourage your child to have different life views.

If you're looking for recommendations she might like:

Hillary McKay (Saffy's Angel and others)
Katherine Rundell (Rooftoppers, The Explorer)
Kate Saunders (The Land of Neverending)
Eve Ainsworth (Lost, Magpie)
Elle McNicoll
Sophie Green (Potkin and Stubbs)
Annabelle Sami (Agent Zaiba Investigates)
Jessica Townsend (Neverwhere series)

JW is dark. My girls loved her. It passes though once they read them all. Its only when you read other books you learn about other styles.

Dont forget though their preferences arent your own so you might not always 'get them'. I rarely understand my eldest lol

I only need to read the thread title to know YABU.

My daughter (11) obsesses over one series of books at a time and will read them all over and over again. It's so hard to get her to move onto anything new. It used to be all very girlie series (culminating in the awful Dork Diaries) then thankfully Harry Potter.

I spoke to her teacher about how we might get her into something different and he lobbed the first Percy Jackson book her way. I thought there's no WAY she'll read that (not full of girlie angst), but we asked her to start it at bedtime that night, expecting it to get hidden away somewhere. Turns out she absolutely LOVES Percy Jackson and will also take a copy around with her in case of a spare couple of minutes. It might be a good one to try OP!

Be happy she's reading. I am not sure what in a Jacqueline Wilson novel might be mildly inappropriate for a 12-year-old but she writes about non-standard family set-ups etc. which widens some DC horizons. Books are very often funny and also well-written.
Let DD read what she likes out of the juvenile section. She will move on to other things at her own pace. She will not read books you suggest to her as 'better', however. FWIW my DD - many, many years ago - enjoyed Cynthia Voight (homeless kids travelling across the US etc. e.g. Dicey's Song) and my son read (and still has one volume) the Dalemark quartet by Diana Wynne-Jones. Both enjoyed Wynne-Jones (good writer - wide-range of fantasy novels including alternative worlds) as well as sci-fi. DD liked E Nesbit (and requested copies as an adult). I gave books for Christmas and birthdays (based on known preferences), but their library choices were entirely their own; when visiting bookshops I (and relatives) bought DC choices. Both DC still read now as adults and encourage DGC to read.
You could go to the library with her and choose books YOU would like to read from the juvenile section, of course. And YOU read them - do not read them to her, but leave them around. If she is intrigued she will have a look. Avoid anything didactic btw, children hate to be preached at. Fantasy is usually fun.

Youngest DD must be very sheltered! I have read some JW's and afaik they were not inappropriate - not very middle-class, though. Don't like her historical ones, which can be a bit anachronistic.

What's wrong with Judy Blume? DD read her and enjoyed them.

If she likes JW she will find Lemony Snicket a bit twee, I suspect.

These are good storylines - have read the B&B one. I did not like it as I grew up living in one-room accommodation and grotty flats, very similar life to some of those JW depicts - I am not nostalgic for that way of life! However, they are well-written and the stories depict life for many children and open the eyes of children who have no experience of such lives.
Anyway, reading is for fun, not to 'teach' something. Any book that sets out to instruct its readers rather than tell a good story (where lessons are learned by the way) is going to be awful, anyway.

Agree! @Leafygreen84! I suspect OP is a book snob and wants her DD reading classics. She will put DD off reading if she tries - stuff like 'Wuthering Heights' (own DD did this for A level and said it was the worst written book she had ever read with too many characters have the same name! Only one worse was 'Hard Times' which is didactic) etc are not for 12 year olds; nor is Dickens (Victorian families read them aloud but we are not Victorians).

Does DD still read after you stopped her reading something she actually enjoyed?

Well I read Judy Blume, not sure that’s any better! But I turned out ok. It actually helped educated me in some things I would have been too embarrassed to talk to my mum about.

To be fair, I was obsessed with reading and would read almost anything.

Yes. (She probably read them anyway!)

No-one should tell your DS off for reading Warrior Cats - his teacher is doing him a disservice! If DS wants to read Warrior Cats let him. Leave some sci-fi and fantasy around that he might like. Reading is for pleasure and those who read for pleasure (rather than because they are told it's good for them or that they must read classics) do well in later life. Indeed, reading for pleasure is one of the indicators of future success - and it does not matter what DS reads (but check he's not discovered porn!).
I think this obsession that all DC reading should be improving is a left-over from Blair's national curriculum which taught children that reading was for information etc but that reading for pleasure was a waste of time (truly, I found children who had absorbed that notion!).

I agree with your DD about Wuthering Heights. I love reading and read widely ACR all genres. Wuthering Heights is one of the worst books I've ever read. It took me 3 attempts to get through it! I actually liked Hard Times though. But I detested They Catcher in the Rye, which everyone else seems to love.

My DD who is now 25, read all the JW and Judy Blume she could read when younger and went on to get a first in Classics from a top university.

Why are you so down on JW? And suggesting that fiction is not real life in connection with JW is molly-coddling - the situations she rights on are real life for a lot of children. By all means go to a second hand bookshop and give £20 - to buy what she likes, including JW. Telling a child not to read what she enjoys is the best way ever of putting her off reading for pleasure, or for any other reason.

No more than oldest, I only wish she would read jw , she's less into reading and follows a tiktok where they review them . She's 13 oldest is a lot older and had quite the collection of jw . I'm just glad they have no interest in v.c. Andrews

My friends and I were reading Judy Blume books at that age. Anyone remember Forever? And Ralph? 😆

TBF at that age, I was reading a combination of real life murder books, Jean Plaidy and Jilly Cooper 😂

I think you are lucky to have a bookworm. My children all were and it was great - I used to read along with them so we had things to talk about at dinner. Another good series that she might miss are the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer. They are great fun.

I think The Tenant of Wildfell Hall underated - Anne was the best of the Brontes.