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?

@aodirjjd @Blarn After Junk, did you read Melvin Burgess' teen mash up of Norse myths and London gang warfare: Bloodsong?

I think I read that at 12ish and bloody hell It sticks in my mind as my introduction to what being hamstrung was 😱 Pretty sure there was some shape shifting incest in there too…

The Illustrated Mum seemed very tame after that!

Ah, Christopher Pike, loved those books too! 😄

What educational books were you hoping she would read over the summer holidays?! She’s 12 and at that age I’d just be happy that she’s reading and not spending all her time on tiktok.

I loved the JW books at that age and it hasn’t scarred me. I am still a bookworm now.

I was despairing of my 11yo DD who will only read Lottie Brooks and graphic novels the other day. My mum told me she’d similarly despaired of me at the same age as I’d only read the Chalet School, Trebizon etc, but my English teacher’s view was to just keep me reading whatever I chose- better than not reading (and the English teacher’s own child who was on the year above was obsessed with Jilly Cooper, so she thought Chalet School sounded a bit more appropriate 😂).

Like one of the PPs, I got an A at English A level and did a lit based degree, so it clearly didn’t do me any harm! I wouldn’t worry OP, just be glad she reads!

I think it’s partly the cartoony covers that suggest they are lighter weight than they are. Many have some quite heavy themes or they’re set in historical periods which they then learn about. I’d take them over Percy Jackson any day, they are incredibly repetitive. But they did create a real love of history and myths in my son so I won’t complain about them either. I read constantly but at that age was working my way through all the babysitters club books and all the sweet valley high books. Hardly educational! But they’re all nurturing a love of reading.

My DD (reluctant reader) LOVES the Lottie Brookes books

Inappropriate how?

Genuinely interested as loved them as a kid and can't think how they would be but perhaps I've blanked out plot details in my mind!

My understanding is they were written with a desire to depict kids in challenging situations grappling with challenging issues - to ensure that kids with all sorts of circumstances get representation and to encourage kids to be more empathetic about what others might be going through.

Had some of it dated really badly?

Not saying there isn't a reason? Wondered which, if any, of those reasons was the one OP had in mind. Then people can answer with relevant points... No point arguing or agreeing about how "appropriate" it is, if the OP thinks their daughter should be brushing up on her GCSE physics. I'm getting the feeling there are a lot of things you have an interest in not being a fan of??

And fwiw, I am pretty clever 😊Unsure how much it was helped or hindered by reading JW as a girl.

I read them when I was a teenager. Looking back, I can't believe how inappropriate they are.

I was a Stephen King reader, probably why I ended up so fascinated with the supernatural, demonic entities and the mind of psychotic humans. I'd recommend! 🤣

I became a teenager in 1989 and they were YA books - maybe not as many as there were now, but they were out there! Jean Ure, for example, was a popular British YA author who wrote some books for younger kids but also some that were very much not.

My favourite Jean Ure was The Other Side Of The Fence, about a middle-class teenager who has been thrown out by his parents and meets a homeless girl his own age who is escaping from an abusive relationship. They go to London and live in a scuzzy bedsit together (platonically, though, because as it's revealed later on, the reason the boy has been thrown out by his parents is because he's told them he's gay).

Think yourself lucky- I was reading James Herbert by 12 years old!!

God I remember my mum having a moan at me over what I was reading, it takes me back
Think it was point horror
Her suggestion for me was flowers in the attic
All I did was stop reading for a bit as she nagged at me constantly. Eventually I just explored the library a bit and read whatever I wanted as they gave me an adult card at 13

I'm getting the feeling there are a lot of things you have an interest in not being a fan of??

I’m really not trying to be pedantic but whatever point you were trying to make in the above badly written sentence has been lost. It doesn’t make any sense.

At that age I was reading Fraser's Golden Bough and similar....now there is an innapropriate book!

yes I got an adult card (well it was tickets then) at 12.

its absolutely does make sense to me and I think its quite cleverly written.

God you sound like a shit parent sorry.

I was reading JW books from age 8-13… I adored them. Thought they were brilliant. They teach you that not everyone comes from the same place you do in a really gentle way.

My daughter loved Jacqueline Wilson at that age, she now studies English literature at a top university.

I've read all of Virginia Andrews books as a teenager and beyond. Never left me scarred. Cant see the issue with Jacqueline Wilson either. My girls loved Tracy Beaker. What's wrong with it?

I read Flowers in the Attic at that age too...

Well there's a useful contribution to the discussion. Would you like to get MN to delete that for you?

My ten year old DD has been reading them for around a year. I just make sure that she doesn’t read the ones for older readers. On the back of the book it will tell you if it’s for older readers x

My 12yo likes Dork Diaries! She has actually started to read some other things this summer. I remember reading Sweet Valley High! I think it's fine. By all means suggest other books but it's great they are reading.

Do you still read at bedtime? We do and I get lots of classics in there! Not exclusively classics but usually that and books I loved as a child.

At school DD always has to have a reading book and I let her have whatever she likes as they also read a 'more worthy' book once a week in form time.