School reading books now too pedestrian...?

[VolvoMo]

Is it me or do you find the content of the average school reader too mundane and common. So many dull stories about daily life from a kids point of view. And, my pet hate, plenty of vernacular and slang. It's no wonder state-educated kids often speak so poorly when the reading materials are so dire. Surely it would be better to have a high standard of English in the school reading books and interesting stories (adventures, fantasy, classics). Or do I belong in another era?

Which books are you talking about?

There are loads and loads of different reading schemes. No such thing as the 'average school reader'

Can't recall the book or reader names. My point is more general, that such material seems fairly prevalent. When DS brings a book home about 1 in 5 has some boring, pedestrian, poor-English element to it. It just strikes as very low-aspirational reading material.

They don't have special books for "state-educated kids" you know!

I don't think I agree with you.

Look at these reading scheme books aimed at 7-9 year olds:

ocean adventures
wolf fables
captain comet and the purple planet
titanic survivor

Or these ones for 6 - 7 year olds:

submarine adventure
red planet
rumpelstilskin

My rather middle class childhood included Peter and Jane books for learning to read. I don't recall THAT much excitement and adventure in them. Maybe Jane aspired to be a housewife in the kitchen?

We also had the Village with 3 corners. I liked that series but I don't recall anything ever actually happening. Maybe billy brown hat visited bobby blue hat one day. and then went home again.

Thanks Indigo I will have a look for those titles.

From an adult point of view they are mundane and dull but considering how pre-school material is often mundane (for example: Peppa Pig) then Biff and Chip is a natural progression.

My children have access to wide variety of reading schemes. My youngest goes for the non-fiction, BugClub, Project X and Biff and Chip stories. [shock horror at the last one]

Pearson's Phonic Bug book 'Sid Snaps' is burnt into my memory as a particularly awful book. It starts, 'The Year One kids were going to the big town', continues with Sid taking a 'snap' of the teacher's bottom and then... I don't know, because the language and the story line were too poor, and the illustrations too charmless, to continue any further. It was back in the book bag sharpish.

I remember the village with three corners quite fondly. I think I was easily pleased back in the early eighties.

zeberdee my dd recently had that Sid snaps! Omg it was awful. And I agree the language is awful. Nan sips pop was another awful sentence in a Sid book.

And wtf is an odd job chimp?

I passionately hate the Biff and Chip books but certainly wouldn't call them mundane, particularly the magic key ones. Badly written and bizarre, yes but not bizarre. What about the one where Biff and Chip go back to the English Civil War and helps a royalist escape by playing frisbee with a Roundhead? Or the one where a group of bad teddys kidnap Paddington and Rupert Bear? I just end up wondering what on earth these people were on when they wrote them.

Sorry "Badly written and bizarre, yes but not mundane."

theavocado I was doing the village with three corners in the early 70s . Those books are ancient (like me)

Actually, I enjoyed Biff and Chip when the kids read them. I thought the illustrations were always fun. Perhaps I have poor taste :o

No, I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised at the range of reading books which both my daughters brought home during their infant years. Adventures, information books, mysteries, stories set in different historical periods etc. Some where clearly ancient, others were brand spanking new. They came from a wide range of different schemes, so they didn't get stuck in a rut.

And very little slang.

Is my school abnormal? (Ofsted thinks it's "satisfactory" btw!)