Topics & reading books

[squidgesquodge]

I'm trying to work out if I'm being too precious & protective of DD here. She is coming to end of Y3 and recently
moved onto book band 18. Since moving onto this level ten days or so ago she's had a version of Macbeth, a version of 39 Steps and has now come home with a 60 odd page book on the Battle of Passchendaele which is quite detailed about the effects of gas, life in the trenches, how the wounded were treated etc.
Not only is she finding these really heavy going but she just isn't enjoying them. For pleasure, she reads the Treehouse books and Mallory Towers and these are quite dark in comparison. She's aware that there have been wars, that countless people have died and had life changing injuries but not the real nitty gritty which this most recent book has introduced her too.
Am I being too special snowflake about this and just need to tell her to get on with it or am I right to think there should be something less heavy?
They are expected to read their school books at least three times a week at home and have at least two in class reading sessions so it's not as if we can just ignore them.

What are the school like about bringing books from home? I don't see any benefit of reading a book you're not enjoying. I'm a TA in Year 6 and 95% of the class are reading books from home.
As a school we have a really good selection up to Lime Band but after that it's really limited. Children can read a book of their choice from the library or home, they can read magazines or newspapers or their bug club book. I'd speak to the teacher.

I don't think you are being 'special snowflake' about this. My DS is still 7 (also Y3) and finding some of his school books pretty tough, content wise (though 'only' band 15/16). E.g. horror story style books or non-fiction and historical fiction on dark periods of history (currently 'Black Death'); but also teenage romance style stuff for which he has no appreciation whatsoever.

I do think kids should be getting fairly challenging reading material at school, at least occasionally, however it should be not just matching their ability, but also be age appropriate.

Hi-Lo and Lo-Hi books designed particularly to be interesting to older children who can't read very well yet, or to younger children who read particularly well, do exist. Also schools might provide non-banded books particularly for young, able readers; many 'classics' in children's literature are challenging, language wise, but suitable for younger children, content wise. Simply moving an able reader up the book bands is rather lazy, IMO.

Also I do think it can create problems. Children get confronted with issues they do not have any context for, leading to misunderstandings and half-knowledge, which can be worse than knowing nothing.
And we've had issues with nightmares, and not being able to go to sleep due to being scared.
Furthermore, some books are simply terribly boring (e.g. teenage romances) to a 7-yo but having to read the whole book nevertheless, is frustrating and a real chore, and has at times turned DS off from reading altogether.

Can you start a conversation with the teacher about this? Would they be happy for your DD to bring her own books in?

When my DD moved up a level, her teacher made a point of saying that should come and see her if there were any problems with DD's choice of books.

I really don't think you would be a "special snowflake" to bring it up with the teacher.

I had some with more mature content and ds is only in year one. Had one about a real life mining disaster where people died and also one on hurricanes and the after effects the week of the ones in the Caribbean. I tend to send them bk with a note and ask for a different book and read something else that night. Ds is only book band 11/12 atm though.

My ds is quite sensitive, he won't read books which upsets him. Now he reads mainly home/library books except for bug club books, but in the past, teacher had no problem me telling them he didn't want to read the particular book.

We had this in YR and Y1. Particular highlights were discussing Hans Anderson’s The Little Match Girl (she starves to death) in YR, and us spending a great deal of time on scientific concepts at home to enable her to comprehend a book covering states of matter that she brought home in Y1. She’s quite interested in war and global warming, so we’ve been lucky with those.

Unfortunately, teachers really don’t have time to be super-careful with choosing books for outliers, so I learned to check the books she brings home, before allowing her to read them. If the content wasn’t suitable, I’d just make a note in the reading record to explain what we’d done with the book and why, and what else we’d read instead. It seemed a reasonable compromise: I’d prefer to get the occasional ‘unsuitable’ book than have my DD held back on reading levels to ensure ‘safety’ of material.

It’s definitely worth a chat with the teacher, if only to get ‘permission’ to provide alternative material yourselves, if that week’s book is unsuitable.

Now in Y2, DD is considered a ‘free reader’, which in her school seems to mean they don’t take any interest at all. She chooses all sorts of random books from school, and we take her to the local library every week, and note what she’s read in her reading record. No formal progression or monitoring at all, from what I can tell.

I agree with Brilliotic that ‘classics’ are generally a good option: safe content and enriching vocabulary.

I would speak to the teacher and ask if she can have a break and a more light hearted book to read.

my dd is in yr1, and is sometimes given "plays" and poems to read, she find these hard but we understand that she needs to read and understand other types of text, so we asked if alongside these she can bring a storybook so she can pick and choose which she wants. Instead of the books been changed twice a week she gets it changed once a week and works through both books.. so we will have a night of reading the trickier one, and then spend the next night on the easier story one. Instead of forcing the poems on her every night. (which she doesnt enjoy)

I always find the idea that the "classics" are a good option weird. They still have elements of sadness due to death and hazard like modern books, but they also have lots and lots of sexism, racism, even if much of it is a simple casual reflection on the times, it's still not the sort of language and ideas to encourage.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, great book, but one you can't read without a recognition an understanding of the context of the story.

All of the ensemble kid stories (Enid Blyton, 5 children and it etc.) all have the girls looking after the boys and the boys being "brave".

To me, the Passchendaele book sounds a good one, it's likely not a book that a child would choose by themselves so a good choice for a reading scheme, and full of information, there's no reason not to be aware about the nitty gritty. Macbeth/39 steps I couldn't really say, generally I think such things not really worth reading (just read the real books when you want to).

I do agree that teenage romance and post-puberty angst is a subject that doesn't work well pre-puberty, but that's because it's not relateable as a theme rather than some way inappropriate (so equally things like Peter & Wendy or Alice in Wonderland might be questionable from the classics as the theme there is about the tensions of puberty)

But yes, it's mostly the casual sexism and racism in the "classics" which is why I'd prefer more modern literature.

Thanks for your thoughts. It reassuring to know that I wouldn't be seen as "that" parent if I raised it. I haven't had a chance to speak to her teacher yet. They had one of the in class reading sessions today and she got through the first 30 odd pages of the Passchendaele book and, to my surprise, is really enjoying it. Came home full of questions about the geography of Europe, causes of WWI etc and other things which forced me to dredge up information I haven't had to think about since my GCSE history exam a couple of decades ago. I suppose an advantage of being only 8 is that you really can't begin to comprehend quite a few of the topics being discussed.
We'll see how it goes.