Old-fashioned school books

[Ginmummy1]

I've just posted This thread in the Children's Books board, but it's perhaps a general primary school question.

Does your school use some very old books? Have your children ever brought home any that you consider to be so old-fashioned that they are inappropriate?

A couple of weeks ago my daughter brought home the Hans Christian Andersen story of The Little Match Girl, which I felt was inappropriate for a Reception-aged child. However, I overlooked it as she chooses from the year 3 selection and this story content is probably ok for an 8-year-old - I recognise that the teacher may not always have time to consider the content of each book.

However, this weekend she brought home a book which is 30 years old, and I wouldn't let her read three of the stories as they were either gruesome (animals ripping another animal to shreds, or a dragon eating four children) or offensive (they way it described simple Simon, and the highly questionable moral message at the end).

I don't want to cause trouble, but I've not let her read these three stories, and feel I ought to explain why in the reading record. Am I being over-sensitive?

Before Disney sanitised fairy tales they were much more gruesome.
Simple Simon and Lazy Jack are traditional characters, dating back to the 16th,who succeed in life despite not being very clever.

DD's current book from school mentions smacking. A girl is worried about being smacked by her mum, and then she worries "she will really get smacked", and then "she will really get smacked, and hard".

DD and I then talked about smacking, and she understands that the book is 28 years old and people tend to treat children a bit differently now.

However, once again I am left feeling uncomfortable about some of the school reading material. How do others feel about this?

smacking - completely fine, it just brings up the opportunities to discuss smacking and how it's not okay! How times change, how morals are not static etc. etc.

I think avoiding it, and not having challenging topics to discuss is the exact opposite of why reading with your child is useful. It's not the technical skill that's important (unless the child has severe difficulty with the technical aspect) it's the discussion and understanding.

In one of the Enid blyton Amelia Jane books " she was spanked until she cried a puddle on the floor" mine loved that!

School books are either insipid rainbow fairies type books or random rubbish, my daughter brought back a very inappropriate j Wilson which I returned in horror.

I buy lots of books are schools are crap and I discourage school books totally. Thankful mine noticed that pricess/fairly books at crap early on. It's very upsetting as there are some fabulous books out there ( just not in the school library).

Dick king smith books are lovely I would have a look at those OP.

Ratty, she does love Dick King Smith books - interesting old-fashioned language which prompts lots of discussions, without any 'shocks'! She has read one Amelia Jane book and loved it, so maybe I'm worrying more about her than I should.

We did discuss times changing and how smacking was much more common a few decades ago. To be honest, DD was ok with this: it was me that was bothered!

I've always used books as discussion points with my daughter. She's an able reader but we have gone through some interesting conversations. 'Five Children and It' for example, great book but lots of comments about girls crying and 'how like a girl', the racism in Secret Garden and The Little Princess, the religious nature of Heidi, etc... books are a conversation. I'm an historian by nature so we talk a lot about how people used to think and why that has changed. My daughter is currently 7 and has been a fluent reader for around 2 years. I let her read anything - if she has questions she'll come and ask and I still read to her every night, generally something more challenging.

I think children can get quite a lot from books being outside their own realm of experience. It allows them to explore themes that they would not otherwise come across.

Someone gave me Struwwelpeter when I was about six and that was awful. It's beyond gruesome and I hated it. I read it once but never again. I read all the Hans Christian Andersen and Grimm's Fairy Tales and some were sad, like The Little Match Girl, but I didn't find them disturbing. I would never give a child Struwwelpeter.

if your child chooses the books themselves then I think perhaps you could try to teach them how to choose them. My daughters know that I don't like Jacqueline Wilson books (well it isn't I don't like them but I have explained to them that from the cover and the back you can't always tell what topics they are covering and that I would prefer them not to read them yet) and will generally stick to authors they know they like.

We have the original Enid Blyton books which are still sexist and racist (my mum was also a teacher and a book hoarder like a PP) and my children know it is just the way the world was in those days, like has been said it is an opportunity to discuss things like that. We read a lot of old books with them as there were some fantastic stories and the older language and sentence structure is helpful for their own story writing.

If she is happy then I wouldn't worry too much but perhaps the purchase of some new books could be raised with your PTA if you have one. Have a look at the authors you would like to see more of included so you can make some suggestions or as she is young ask if you could help her choose a book after school or at least look at the books with her one afternoon to suggest the ones you think she might like the most and why you think that so she might have more idea when choosing her own literature.

Both mine were advanced young readers, one is ok with tougher themes and the other is extremely oversensitive. they take their own books into school rather than read the school ones as our school seems happy for people to do that once they are off the reading schemes if the books are appropriate.

just reading my comment probably sounds bad about me not liking JW books. My girls are still very young and I just don't want them having to deal with certain themes yet and as I am not familiar with the books myself I am wary until they are a bit older. I know a few children who have read some of the younger JW ones and then thought the other ones were the same and they weren't. I don't choose all my children's books for them, they still choose them I just occasionally steer them away from some.

Good point about encouraging her to choose more carefully! She chooses two each time, and they are often quite different from each other (eg one is a fictional story and the other is non-fiction or poetry or a play). It's not the same adult that goes with her, so I don't think there's any consistency on whether/how she is helped with her choice.

I justified the smacking references in her recent book to her by looking at the publication info at the front and pointing out that it was 28 years old. I think the teachers would really label me a troublesome mum if my 5-y-o DD was checking the publication year of books, so I don't want to say too much to her!!

ha - well it is one way of choosing a book!

I have replied on your other thread