What about 100 books you really don't want your children to read!?

[bigdeludedswainstrikesagain]

Let me start you off with two I should not have read as a fairly young child.

My Dad used to leave his books in downstairs loo so I read Cujo - which gave me horrendous nightmares for months and a Roman era sex and slaves romp (no idea what it was called - a toga ripper!) which was very graphic and rather inappropriate to be left in the reach of children! There were also countless cold war era spy novels but they were quite exciting and educational (rubbish covers though guns and blood stains and shapely legs + high heels!).

So no Stephen King till they are over at least 12. No literary porn. And I will add no Jordan Bios!

what else?

Twopence to cross the Mersey - hideous description of first period which I read aged about 10 and terrified me for years!

Anything by Harold Robins

Go Ask Alice made drug taking sound quite appealing when I was 13, so I wouldn't want DD to read it (have found out she has though).

Also, Pet Semetary disturbed me terribly.

I read Animal Farm when I was 6 and had nightmares for years over Boxer's death and the whole not being able to trust authority thing.
You'd think I'd have learnt to check the author after that, but no, at 8 I read 1984.
Ditto effect. And had the word 'cynical' on every English report ever after...

So I'd keep those away until A is beyond primary school age. And the Nancy Friday collections of sexual fantasies...

Any sleb "autobiography". Jordan, Rooney, you name it.

can' think of any books we wouldn't want our children to read...

only that some might not be appropriate for their age.

read James Herbert 'the Magic Cottage' when I was 13/14 and thought it was amazing. still reading HP and Tolkein now. don't understand Iain Banks. but, would encourage all sci-fi like I, Robot and The Day of the Triffids...

all great stories.

think the thing is we don't have many romances/raunchy stuff to read, to leave lying around.

shame really!

Thomas the Tank Engine. And friends.

Charlie and Lola

Cant You Sleep, Little Bear?
("Big Bear is the Big Bear and Little Bear is the Little Bear." WTF??)

I picked up one of my old Ladybird books last night and read it to DS2 and 3 (5yrs and 22 months). It was Hansel and Gretel - which DS2 had chosen as he had it read at school and enjoyed it...........

Except they had the watered down version read to them at school - so last night (just before bed) we had the full and gory version of it (DS2 slept fine so I don't think I scarred him for life )

I absolutely banned the Jordan/Katie Price pony books. I don't want my DDs to see her in any way as someone to look up to. I've also limited the Jacqueline Wilson books my 8 year old can read. I think some of them are not suitable for her, yet.

My mother's tropical diseases and parasitology nursing text books which I sneaked and read in horror behind the sofa. Aged 6ish... Still dream of the picture of the old man with green moss growing over his eyes.

Jilly Cooper's WICKED!
Too many bright ideas.

Can't believe anyone would ban a child from reading any age appropriate book! If my dc's want to read rubbish it's up to them.

I've only ever really regretted reading two books (so far), both for really graphic torture type scenes, that years later still come to mind. So no Bret Easton Ellis or Iain Banks in my house.

For the children I would worry more about authors who write for both children an adults (or younger and older children). For example I love Anne Fine, and have all her books including her adult novels. They would NOT be suitable for my 8 and 9 year old. I remember my mother being very annoyed that When the Wind Blows was next to the Snowman and Father Christmas (Raymond Briggs) in most bookshops.

My mother was a doctor of STD's. In our teens, I and my friends used to cluster over her textbooks. Was a highly erm.."educational" experience...Don't think it did me any harm, and certainly put me off early exploratory shenanigans. There are some things you never need to see in colour...

I was very interested in a copy of Fear of Flying I found on my mum's shelves when I was about 12 or so.

I can't think of anything people shouldn't read, really, with the possible exception of grief-porn.

I let my children read anything (within reason!), in these modern times it is good that they have the patience to read a book.

Harry Potter
tacky celeb biogs
TV tie ins

I shall go to bed now inspired to think of more.....

Hmm... books like 'The Railway Children' or 'A Little Princess' that went on (and on, and on) about how innately superior the middle class, refined children were to the plebs their "ruined" mama and papa had condemned them to live with - until a middle class, refined adult turns up and returns them to their rightful place on earth.
Maybe I'm just bitter and they were lovely fantasies .
I loved 'A Little Princess'. She was a dreadful snob, though.

If I could keep my future daughters away from Twilight until they're of an age where they are realistic enough to read into the subtext I'd be happy! Then again given that the running theme through the books is Abstinance maybe I should read it to them from an early age!

I read loads of books when I was little that upset me or frightened me and they never left me with any lasting damage. I had such nightmares after reading The Witches by Roald Dahl, but I'll definately hope my kids want to read Dahls books because they're awesome.

Strewel Peter! Nightmarish Victorian fairy tale that still haunts me!

A few years ago I told my son not to read "We Need To Talk About Kevin" so he read it. Last year I said 'Don't read "High Rise"' so he read it.

Now I've cottoned on, and when there is a book I want him to read I say to him (where that would be plausible) that it is "inappropriate." That is how I got him to read "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha"

Ha Ha Ha.

Pushchair your DC are hard. I still sob my heart out every time Laura's dog dies

Bigdeluded I had a similar experience to you - not enough books in the house so I read my dad's Confessions of a Window Cleaner I also read that book - Carrie? - where the girls throw sanitary towels at the menstruating girl so she butchers them all with her freaky mind. At 8. Under the blankets in bed by the light of a 'Maths Marvel' (electronic maths toy thingy brought back from Hong Kong by indulgent uncle). So I blame my parents for making me a nervous sleeper and for my bad eyesight too.

When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs.

It's a cartoon book about an elderly couple in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. I read it aged nine, and I haven't got words for the extent to which it fucked me up. I never expected to reach adulthood.

I can't even watch The Snowman, because Brigg's illustration style reminds me of this book, and makes me feel sick.

I remember "Jaws" being banned at my school when I was about 12. We then all rushed out and bought it - I recall it being quite rude.

I think kids are quite discerning about what they read - either that or a lot of it just goes over their heads. I've re-read books as an adult and only then understood them properly.

I do wish DD2 would stop re-reading Jacqueline Wilson though and expand her horizons a bit.

I was given Oscar Wilde's "fairytales for childern" when I was 6 or so (I learnt to read at 5). Why on earth anyone thought that stories such as The Nightingale and the Rose were appropriate for children is beyond me - there's no reason to introduce small children to heartlessness.

I read 1984 at the age of about 9 and remember distinctly spending several hours trying not to throw up after reading about the Ministry of Love. I was profoundly disturbed by the torture scenes for years afterwards.I also skipped all the 'freedom is slavery' stuff in the middle and as such totally missed the point of the entire novel.

I also recall my mother firmly removing 'A Cock and Bull Story' from my hands at the age of around 10 much to my fury but definately to her credit.