Thread of assistance for people who find it tricky remaining breezy about the books their dc choose in the library.

[Slubberdegullion]

I want to be breezy.

Reading is great right? Any sort of reading yes? Even books about puppies and unicorns and princess unicorns and boarding schools for unicorn princesses? And RAINBOW FAIRIES. may curses rain down upon you you tiny little winged bastards

I want the benign smiling face of library joy, not the Argh! Nooo! Really? Face, with the hopeful fingering and glances at the Michael Morpogos.

Tips gratefully received.

My DD chooses wildly advanced books based on the cover, that go largely unread.

She then goes to the other extreme and chooses picture books.

And I give up, and just go to Waterstones in my lunch hour to get her 'gifts'.

Ds is 8 and he loves those fairy books. They're rubbish! Dd loves Jacqueline Wilson but is now drifting towards more 'teenager' type books (she's 11). They frighten me slightly! I was reading Enid Blyton and the Brontes at her age.

Might need to start a thread about this, but as a teenager I read a series from the library about four girls at high school I. America and then they went on to college together, there was a book for freshman, sophomore, etc, I think it was class of 1990 etc? Anyone remember?

I loved SVH! And the books about when they went to uni. I even had one about the Wakefields through the eras, e.g. 18th century France! Also loved Babysitters Club, Point Horror, Goosebumps, Mallory Towers... I'm now a teacher and still love reading :)

DS loves reading :) has worked through most of the Beast Quest books, Horrid Henry and Roald Dahl stuff :) he's 8. Actually he's currently sitting reading a Weight Watchers cookbook!

I let them choose what they like from the library, or from book stalls or charity shops. But then I stuff the house with worthy literature of my choosing, and my latest tactic is to load the kindle with freebie classics, and they love technology so much they'll read anything if it comes with a button to click.

Impressed that your DC choose books at the library, frankly. Our library has three computers loaded with educational games, which means my 3yo spends the entire visit making building block shapes with Pingu.

My own childhood reading habits were a mix of stories about animals (brave rescue dogs, My Friend Flicka etc.) and 'true' ghost stories that I would read obsessively by day and then fuel my insomnia with by night. Moving on to my tweens, it was all Stephen King, Dragonlance books, Titus Groan and - bizarrely - a surreptitious burst of obsession with girly trash like SVH and Mallory Towers. Supplemented by my mum's Anais Nin books, which were quite eye-opening.

My 12 year old reads about 3 books a year.
My 15 year old about twice that.
I read 3 books a week......

We too have endured rainbow magic mania, they were very tedious so was glad when she read them herself. We are thankfully coming out the other end and DD1 continues to read prolifically and huge sigh, a more varied selection. Famous Five, Magic Faraway Tree, andSophie and Magic wood, Mr Gum, Beast Quest and Harry Potter. Hang in there... if it wets their appetite for reading, then job done. Also libraries do stock a wide range of other fiction, well our local libraries do, as I work there. I often help children and parents source a range of books.

Each to their own just be glad they're reading. I can say this now my DD of nearly 10 is reading the free classics on her kindle having spent a small fortune since Xmas, 1 click purchases = bloody expensive

I really did read crap as a child.
actually, i would read anything and everything.
when i went to the library, i would spend all my time reading the beano and jacky magazines, then chose 6 books and read them all at home.
Most of the books i read weren't even in my age range - i just picked what i hadn't already read!
and such crap! sweet valley (which i ended up buying anyway when i got enough pocket money every week to buy a book!#) - twins as well as high.
oh, i could write tomes on the crap books i read!

Have you noticed praying this is not just me now that if you're reading Les Miserables on the Kindle, nobody cares, but the instant you open the Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica or something equally ah, literary and worthy at least six random complete strangers will say "ooo is that an ipad?" and "ooo what are you doing?" and they all try and look at the screen as they say it...

I remember my Mum sighing at my library choices, she was wise enough to let me grow bored in my own time, I was a voracious reader & would get through 6 books a week, At 12/13 I was completely dedicated to working my way through Agatha Christie's complete works.

DD1 (5) was given a rainbow fairy book for christmas & now picks the drivel them out at every library visit. I have had to introduce a rule where she can only have one book per author (complete hypocrite given my above Christie addiction)

I just looked at the reviews of Olga Da Polga and note that she has a friend called Fangio the hedgehog.

Wait until she's older and all she wants to read is Jacqueline bloody Wilson and Cathy bloody Cassidy. Can either of them write a book that doesn't involve broken homes/teenagers running wild and falling for boys from the wrong side of the tracks/people falling out/kids getting baby brothers and sisters they don't want/parents dying? It's so bloody depressing!

I know it's 'real life' but once in a while I'd like DD to read something a bit more lighthearted and to be frank, age appropriate. I'd even settle for the sodding Rainbow Fairies even though every book seems to be exactly the same!

Think she may becoming round to my way of thinking though, after the last CC book had her in tears in the middle of the night due to a chapter involving a terrifying stepfather and a police visit - me and the woman in the library saying it might not be suitable wouldn't stop her reading it, nightmares and being unable to sleep might just get through to her .

We had lots of fun deriding reading Enid Blyton books (Famous Five, Naughtiest Girl in the School in particular) when dd was 9-10, she derived great mirth from the archaic turns of phrase and we still remember '...with a friendly PUNCH' which had her in fits of giggles at the time.

Sympathies re: the Fairies stage and the Jacqueline Wilson stage, but at least they are reading. (And not on bloody YouTube on their Blackberry AGAIN!)

The DDs get to choose 8 books each and then I get to choose another 8 for each of them. The glittery, mermaid, hamster rescue faeries get read pretty quickly then through sheer boredom the others get read.

So, tolerate a certain level of boredom within the house so that literature becomes an entertaining prospect.

Insist on reading the first chapter of every magical fairy book. Do not feel obliged to stick to the correct names or plot as written by committee Daisy Meadows. The poor fashion faries in the first chapter always suffer from terrible bloating and flatulence, the rest of the book is never as entertaining.

No one mentioned "Animal Ark" yet? The author, "Lucy Daniels" isn't even a real person! The books are written by a team of writers, but it looks better to have an author's name. Still, DD1 read loads of that tripe and she still enjoys reading now, she's just moved onto adult trash on her Kindle (Martina Cole, Stephen King etc)

I adored the Anastasia Krupnik books when I was younger. They are very funny and aimed at 8-12 year olds I believe. I bought second hand copies of all of them, and the Sam (her little brother) books a few years ago.

rhondajean - I remember those books - will get back to you if I can find the name of the series.

I also read just about anything I could at my hands on. Mostly my mums books, as my dad had weird science fiction crap I would get into. Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins were certainly educational

I also remember being told off by a librarian for trying to take a Virginia Andrews out on a childs ticket, when I was 13. My aunt (who I lived with at the time) went in and complained that it was up to her and my mum what I read, and made them change me onto adult tickets. Which meant I could get even more books out

It's not just the DC, I try and read worthy novels - currently reading Dickens (oo topical!) but every so often I have an overwhelming urge to read the worst kind of chick lit, curly writing, fancy shoe and handbag on the cover with a hero called Bruce / Brad / Chad

So, don't kids read Judy Blume anymore (not seen her mentioned at all). I learned about sex from Forever! But you had to prove you were 16 to take it out of the library.

PMSL at this thread (as I have a dd who has safely outgrown the Rainbow Sodding Fairies).

However I would warn you to tread very carefully with Michael Morpurgo.

At least the Rainbow Fairy authors don't write a nice heartwarming story and then have Kirsty's dad come out and shoot the fairies down with a machine gun as an 'endnote' which is no doubt what MM would do if he wrote them. (Yes, YOU Mr M, I have been there with that sleepless crying child who was happily reading her school book before bed.)

Today in the Guardian:

adults secretly reading pulp on their e-readers shock