Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

DD in Yr 3 is bringing home reading books that are VERY inappropriate IME

59 replies

MamaHarman · 03/10/2006 20:23

She brought home Sherlock Holmes today - one para as follows:-

"There we saw the huge hungry brute, its black muzle buried in Rucastle's throat. The man writhed and screamed on the ground. Pistol in hand, I ran closer and blew out its brains. As it fell over its teeth were still locked onto the flesh of Rucastle's neck".

Bit graphic non? I think I'll send it back tomorrow wiht a note saying "NO!"

or am I being a drama queen again?

OP posts:
Original poster
MamaHarman · 03/10/2006 20:23
  • oh and DD has only been 7 for 2 months, so she's v young for it I think.
OP posts:
Gillian76 · 03/10/2006 20:24

Bit much. How old is he? 8?

Original poster
MamaHarman · 03/10/2006 20:24

See my second post Gillian (sorry, forgot to put it in the first)

He's a she too

OP posts:
Gillian76 · 03/10/2006 20:24

she

SherlockLGJ · 03/10/2006 20:25

Alas poor Rucastle, I knew him well.

KBear · 03/10/2006 20:26

I've noticed a marked change in the reading books in Yr3 but nothing that graphic - quite a few spooky books which DD wasn't keen on but she just took it back and changed it the next day. Not sure I'd want her reading that sort of book, especially at bedtime!

Original poster
MamaHarman · 03/10/2006 20:26

LOL!

OP posts:
Rhubarb · 03/10/2006 20:26

I love Sherlock Holmes! I used to belong to the Sherlock Holmes society here in the North, Northern Musgraves they were called!

(now I think I have revealed too much of myself! )

Original poster
MamaHarman · 03/10/2006 20:26

(the lol was teh sherlock btw)

so I'm not being a queen then KBear?

OP posts:
Original poster
MamaHarman · 03/10/2006 20:28

yes rhubarb, i like sherlock too - but is this a bit graphic for a 7 year old?

OP posts:
cat64 · 03/10/2006 20:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

bananaloaf · 03/10/2006 20:28

i though secondary school was bad with a reading list starting with Bumface!

singersgirl · 03/10/2006 20:28

Is that the original Sherlock Holmes or is it a shortened, "reading book" version? It's a bit graphic if it's been shortened (you'd think they'd have prettied it up a bit!), and a bit ambitious if they're handing out the original Conan-Doyle in Y3.

Mind you, one of the very good readers in DS1's Y2 class a couple of years back was always choosing things like "The Collins School Dictionary" to read because the book selection was so dire.

Original poster
MamaHarman · 03/10/2006 20:30

it is shortened - its actually a year 4 book ( & slight preen) and they let them choose their own books.

Not happy though, I do think they should check them.

OP posts:
Rhubarb · 03/10/2006 20:31

My dd is 6 and read the original Peter Pan when she was 5, well, ok, I read it to her! But that is pretty graphic in places! As is Roald Dahl at times (the child's parents always die in horrific circumstances!) so I guess it depends. I would tell my dd to stop if she didn't like it. In fact I have had to stop reading her "The Witches" by Roald Dahl as it was giving her nightmares.

KBear · 03/10/2006 20:32

I don't think you're being a drama queen at all but I don't think you need to make a big deal out of it (as I'm sure you weren't going to anyway ha ha). I would write in the reading journal that I thought it was too old for her and unsuitable so she didn't read it and read something else instead.

Is DD enjoying Yr3? My DD is exhausted with the newness of everything (Juniors here is a separate school to infants so everything is different). DS started reception too and loves it - amazing burst in appetite too - eating me out of house and home which is most unlike him.

Anyway, I digress, back to you....!

Original poster
MamaHarman · 03/10/2006 20:34

Glad DS has settled in KBear. Yes she is enjoying Y3, lots of clubs - dancing, recorder (my ears hurt) etc but it is still in teh same school so she's fine - there is only one class per year too so she's with all the same kids.

I thought a note back to school was ok - she loves Roald Dahl rhubarb and is fine with that (although she made me take my socks off to check, after readin teh witches!!)

OP posts:
Rhubarb · 03/10/2006 20:40

From "The Witches"

"..the frightful burning searing scorching feeling started spreading down into my chest...and all over my body! I screamed and screamed but once again the gloved hand was clapped over my lips....then the squeezing began...I was squeezed out like an orange into a pulpy mess with the juice running out of my sides." Now if your dd can read that without being scared then Sherlock Holmes should be a walk in the park!

Original poster
MamaHarman · 03/10/2006 20:41

hmm I guess so.

OP posts:
Rhubarb · 03/10/2006 20:44

In fact the worst bit was describing a little girl disappearing, she turned up in a painting feeding the ducks and every day she changed position, she even aged every year on her birthday until one day she disappeared from the picture. Now that is just spooky!

ScareyCaligulaCorday · 03/10/2006 20:46

Gosh. My DS, also year 3, is still being sent home with Biff and Kipper.

roisin · 03/10/2006 21:08

When my boys were promoted up to the 'senior' library and got to choose their own books, the teachers told us to keep an eye on their selections, and to return anything inappropriate; as the senior library is selected according to reading age, not chronological age. Occasionally we have done this.

I know of two people who have publicly complained to the school about the content of the books their children have been bringing home (ghosts, witches, wizards, etc.); both people were rather embarrassed to discover that the library was not full of such books, but that their children were deliberately choosing these books; either because they knew their parents would disapprove, or because they were rebelling against something that had been banned.

TooTickyTheAppleMuncher · 03/10/2006 21:24

My ds1 is in year 3 and his class is reading Stormbreaker. It seems very popular, although I wouldn't initially have recommended it for anyone below 10. Dd1 read it at the same age. I think I mourn the early loss of childish innocence.

Marina · 03/10/2006 21:31

Rhuby's got a valid point about Dahl being just as bad as Conan Doyle
We get a wide range coming home too tbh. Most of it quite anodyne but I did have to send back the volume of Horrible Histories about WW2.
Ds and I are trudging through Roger Lancelyn Green's Tales of King Arthur at the mo and both PSOL nightly at the Python/Groundhog Day recurrence of knights fighting in bushes, discovering damsels in boats and hacking off each other's limbs etc. My choice and what a bad one - he loves it of course.
I think you were right to send back the book MamaHarman.

moaningpaper · 03/10/2006 21:33

dd is 3 and loves the famous five/secret seven stories and they are pretty violent too - they seem to be locked up by robbers and threatened with guns waving in their faces in every other chapter

Swipe left for the next trending thread