Oxford Reading Tree Classics - just a bit wrong or very, very wrong?

[piprabbit]

My 8yo DD is currently ploughing her way through a selection of ORT Classics, including Jane Eyre, Macbeth and Wuthering Heights.

Given the adult emotional themes in these works of literature I was a bit about whether they are suitable for DD.

It turns out that the stories are heavily edited to remove almost all the difficult emotional content, and abbreviated to the point of removing all the literary merit.

The plus side of this is that I no longer worry about DD finding the stories disturbing.

The downside is that she finds them boring and I worry that it will turn her off the real version when she comes across them later in life in an "I read that when I was 8 and it was a bit pants so I'm not reading it again" sort of way.

Anyhow - at the moment I can only see the 'cons' to letting primary school children read these ORT books, please help me find some 'pros'.

I think they are a cynical ploy by the publishers to extend the use of ORT schemes. I am strongly against using heavily edited versions of classics. There is a wealth of literature for children of this age without resorting bastardising classic English literature! Is your child being given these books by her school? If so, she is in the realms of being a 'free reader' and should be able to choose books SHE wishes to read from the school library.

Yes - she's getting them from the school. She's really enjoying some of the original ORT story books (War Monkey for one) on the same level, but the Classics are leaving her cold. I wish they would just let her take the plunge into free-reading. We're making up for it with visits to the library and raiding my collection of children's books that I loved as a child.

I agree with your post 100%.

Agree with PP, leave the stories for later. I loved Anne of Green Gables, the Narnia books and Black Beauty at that age (plus all boarding school stories obviously, what is it with boarding school) if you want to avoid the dreaded Rainbow Fairies etc.

malory towers! I was around your daughter's age when i read them and devoured them! I'm sure she'll love them!

I loved Malory Towers so I'd second Sydenham sets recommendation!