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?

Not only are you allowed to read for pleasure, doing so is a strong marker for success academically. OP is being snobbish - also a lot of other people on this board. JW writes about working-class life without being supercilious about it. Good thing.

JW writes about unconventional families and mothers - she's great. My daughter devoured them all and then moved on to Judy Blume, S.E Hinton and now is on Jane Austin, and George Orwell.

Maybe read some of them before dismissing them? I enjoyed reading some of my daughter's JW novels and JW herself is a talented and prolific writer - a lovely woman who really cares about children. www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2020/12/jacqueline-wilson-interview-2020-childhood-fiction-books-sexuality

'A Wrinkle in Time' is one of my favourite books ever. One of those books that changed my life (along with Dr Syn, which got me interested in history, which I later studied at uni) by showing me that sci-fi was not all about teenage boys having adventures in space. W in T is also a good intro to dystopias like Brave New World and 1984. Wonderful. Why is it banned in US?

@Grammarnut 💯

I think this is a bit of snobbery by OP. Sometimes wannabe writers are like this about female authors in particular.

@rosyAndMoo as several have pointed out J W has been Children's Laureate and also won major children's book prizes. She is not trashy. The Rainbow and Ark series are - but they are written by syndicate (like Sexton Blake).

My 12 yo is obsessed with rick Riordan's books. She has all of them has gone through tje fables and non fiction and now wants to go to Greece...

For undermining Christianity by showing the occult apparently!

Maybe Wrinkle in Time is banned in some ultra-conservative states, but it certainly isn't in mine.

It's one of the most frequently challenged and banned books in America.

It wasn't a personal attack on you 😕

I read a mills and boon a day from my great aunt when I was 13 or so - I now have have several professional qualifications and a law degree, and just took War and Peace on holiday 😂
Reading is reading - it’s amazing whatever it is (in my view)!

you sound really fun.

Omg are we talking about A Wrinkle In Time?? It’s one of the best books ever

I wouldn't say she's trashy but I wouldn't say her books are well written either. Unless you like one basic sentence after another..

Possibly the OP is thinking of all the beautifully written children's books out there.?

But then I was an avid fan of The Famous Five and Mallory Towers at that age.
DH was a fan of James Herbert (still is) . His parents were blissfully ignorant of the subject matter. JH himself refused to allow his own teenaged kids to read his books!

She's reading, which is a great start! I feel so sad when I ask my students what they are reading and they respond, 'I'm not - I don't like reading.' They're missing out on so much.

She'll get through the JW phase and hopefully, will continue to read - there's a lot of YA literature out there that is very graphic so you may find yourself looking back on the JW years with fond nostalgia!

I borrowed my mum's copy of Haunted by James Herbert aged 11 (without her knowledge) and gave myself nightmares 😅
Oops, I meant to quote the post above!

Nothing wrong with her, but she was considered contentious when I was a teen.

Anything American was suspect to start off with...

But reading JW now doesn't mean she won't ever read any other "beautifully written children's book" will it?

Books are springboards to other books and depressingly you're never likely to read all the books you want in a lifetime. I've got books on my shelf that I've had since I was 26 and still not read and I'm 43.

I'd never stop a child from reading what they've chose. Offer alternatives but never stop them.

I never disrespect others by criticising their choice of reading material either. Book snobs are horrible people!

I'm interested to see some posters say they read Stephen King as a child but don't now. I read them as a teen (Gerald's game was an interesting one as a 14 year old) and I still read them now. I always get his new ones for Chriatmas- bloody love them.

Currently reading a series by Rebecca Shaw about a handsome vicar. Not gritty, very easy to read. Nice escapism (and helping me ignore the book about Trauma informed care that I actually need to read).

I love mills and boon books love the old ones.
Better than having my face in a phone.
I like a book as in paper book that i can open page by page not downloaded on some device.

I didn't take it as a personal attack. Just trying to explain that the book is not banned by any whole state but by individual schools and libraries, usually in ultra-conservative areas. According to the American Library Association it was number 23 in the list of frequently-banned books.

This list has also included such dangerous and scary books as Charlotte's Web ( talking animals are “unnatural and blasphemous as humans are the highest level of God’s creation”), Brown Bear What Do You See (the Texas Board of Education accidentally mistook Bill Martin Jr., the author of over 300 innocent children’s books, for Bill Martin, the author of Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation), and the American Heritage Dictionary (because it contained inappropriate entries. One of these included the word bed, “due to its use as a verb in slang.”)

Yes, some Americans are nuts. Not all of us though.

There are the most extraordinary number of books banned in the US, including one called The Cupcake Bible which, I can only presume, got banned for the use of the word 'bible'. However, the word 'bible' came from Ancient Greek (βιβλίον) and simply means scroll or book.

It's a strange world.

Really?! As I remember there are three weird sisters but it's main drift seems to be scientific - mitochondria - and interested in looking at how society controls people. The US is just weird.

Isn’t 12 a little old for JW?

When I was at school she was more of a primary school year author.

@LovelyBitOfHam not really.
Some are for younger readers but most are perfectly fine for 12. Many of the characters are secondary school age.

I'm surprised you find them inappropriate when I'd say they are more likely to be read by younger children. Perhaps she would like to read more age-appropriate books but is self-censoring as she fears your disapproval?

I'm perfectly capable of reading complex literature but sometimes nothing quite beats relaxing with Julia Quinn or Katie Fforde despite neither being particularly skilled writers.

And JW is vastly better than JK R...

I would recommend the Maze Runner series and Miss Peregrine series. They are a more appropriate reading level whilst not actually having inappropriate themes. Also Sachar -the person who wrote Holes. Also a Town called Perfect and One of us is Lying series.