DD(8) scared of school book

[purplespink]

DD (8) got a new school book and part of her homework tonight was reading some of it. She was sobbing as she was upset at the content. It is a little sad but she found it ‘scary’ and sad. I was surprised as she usually likes things like Coraline/Corpse Bride/anything Halloween-y etc. The sad/scary part was a boy’s parents being killed by a rhino. Should I tell the teacher that she is struggling with it emotionally? She did read tonight’s work but really didn’t like it. I imagine that it’ll be relevant to some of their classwork this week so I’m not sure what the teacher can/will do.

FWIW, the film terrified me when I was her age 😅

What book?

James and the Giant Peach?

Is it James and the Giant Peach? I think it will be hard to avoid as it is often a set text in Y3/Y4.
The point of the Dahl books is often that the child character is terribly abused but triumphs in the end.

That was my first thought. To my knowledge it's a pretty common key text in KS2 so I'm not sure what the teacher could do about it?

Schools should not be promoting the works of the misogynist and antisemite Dahl.

Yes it is JATGP. I did find the film very scary as a child but never read the book. She didn’t like how the aunts treated him either.

Did you try to talk it through with her? By that I mean, talk through the issues the character is facing, talk through (and reassure her about) her fears (likely something happening to you), talk about that books are often meant to make you think about things and develop empathy and understanding of others, let her know it’s ok to be sad about sad things and find scary things scary, discuss ways to process that sadness including using it to motivate you to support and help others etc etc.

Shutting down things that generate negative emotions, or not teaching children how to self-soothe and self-regulate is how people end up with mental health issues.

Yes tell the school, because the teacher should know if your dd is feeling emotional about the content of her work, but also make her persevere with the story and take the good parts from it. If it’s going to be unavoidable because it’s talked about in class, you may as well use this as an opportunity to build some resilience and teach her that she can cope with feeling sad or scared about some things.

'Then, one day, James's mother and father went to London to do some shopping, and there a terrible thing happened. Both of them suddenly got eaten up (in full daylight, mind you, and on a crowded street) by an enormous angry rhinoceros which had escaped from the London Zoo'

Could you not point out to her that a Rhinoceros is a herbivore and isn't it funny how silly it is, but it's how you can tell it's a story/magical/make believe from the very first page, even before the giant peach of the title appears?