Jacqueline Wilson, how can you tell how age appropriate they are?

[lexcat]

DD soon to be 8 has just read the Suit Case Kid which she's loved, the only problem is some of the language. DD for example asked me what "slut" meant. I don't know if that was the only bad language used but was a little shocked as the book was from the school library.

She's keen to read more JW which I don't mind but hope to be able to help her choose what is suitable for her age. This made harder by the fact she has a reading level of a 10.5 year old, therefore can read book beyond what may be suitable. But having gone from bookworm to hardly reading last year, she's now reading again but not as avidly as she was so don't like to discourage her in any way.

[MumOnBus]

Oh i wish i came to the forum before I played the CD that came with the Guardian to my 6 yo. She's fond of audio books at bed time so I didn't even think twice before playing this particular CD after saying my goodbyes and closing the door. About an hour later I hear her crying in bed (the cd had finished long before) and it took me another half an hour to calm her down and talked through the things that upset her from the story. THEN I came to check what you guys thought of Jacquline Wilson's The Cat Mummy! (really wish I came here first!!).

[KatharineClifton]

They are age rated on the website (but stupidly not in the books) www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk/the-books/ - on the left of the page.

[nostalgicmum]

'Wilson is one of the 750 authors to have put her name to a petition against age guidance, a publisher initiative to include the ages at which a children's book is aimed on its back cover.'

Just read the above, dated 21.8.08 in an online Guardian article. What a surprise! Jacqueline Wilson would potentially lose a lot of sales if the content were rated for age appropriateness. Not sure what the outcome was - will have to look into it.

[Reaa]

I read dustbin baby and cried and am about to start reading more of my DD books that way I know exactly what she is reading.

[Leeds2]

There is also a Werepuppy On Holiday book. Haven't read it, but presume it is as age appropriate as the Werepuppy.

[booksteensandmagazines]

A lot of teachers despair with JW - she has such a huge fan base and fan club that girls sometimes get hooked on her books and then its hard to get them to look at other authors. Good readers are not just children who read, but children who read a variety of styles of writing.
Equally she is an author who writes about 'issues' and these 'issues' are only relevant to some children. Its a bit of a judgement call with your child - but as a teacher and librarian my advice would be to encourage a variety of authors early on and steer her away from JW.
if you are stuck about reading ages look at the //www.lovereading4kids.co.uk website which tries to age band books. My website //www.booksteensandmagazines.com has age recommendations but its for teen books only and I don't include JW at the moment as I'm concentrating on less well known titles.

[OmgATalkingOnion]

My dd has read a lot of JW. I must admit I've only dipped in and out of them and I don't like them much. They seem so depressing and tbh sail a bit close to the mark imho regarding subject and language.

But dd is a bookworm and thankfully reads other things too. I've had the same problem with dd reading at an advanced age. She'll read everything going and is fast too so she's gobbled up nearly everything available in school.

She had a Kindle for Christmas and typed in 'free books for girls'. I should have checked what she'd got but she did it without telling me and ended up with something very er..adult shall we say which I deleted. She's onto Black Beauty atm which is safer ground for now.