Inappropriate school books, or am I a prude?

[PalindromemordnilaP]

10yo DS (year 5) has brought home another school book today that I think is a tad 'mature' for his age group.

It's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. It has words like "shit", "piss", "bollocks", "bugger-loving arse humper" in it.

This has happened a couple of times before where the themes of a school reading book are a bit 'much' and previously I let the teacher know, but I'm now thinking, maybe I'm being a prude and this is a completely appropriate book for a child, soon to be in Y6?

I'm not going to the school this time, just reading the book quickly myself, so I can discuss it with DS. DS has to do an accelerated reader quiz, once he's finished the book.

So my questions:

1. Would you think this appropriate for the age group in question?

2. Teachers - how do you decide was is appropriate for your class?

I work in a secondary school library and also teach, I am amazed that your son wants to read it. In the five years I have been in post I don't think anyone has borrowed our copy.
Also we wouldn't have let him have it as its for older children. Our year 7s have to get parental permission for a lot of our books as they aren't 13.
On another issue has he read Percy Jackson? I love Percy Jackson myself much more suitable as well.
And I am no book censor. But I have worked with an actual school librarian for years and she is very firm on age appropriateness.

I bought this for my 15 year old dgd who loved it. I would never recommend it to anyone below Y8. I was an English teacher and AQA examiner for many years and Children’s Literature is very much my ‘specialist subject’.

I do think it’s quite easy for books to creep in at all levels so feels worth it to mention. I had to do it when my 5yo brought home a book that featured suicide quite heavily. We had another one that detailed the screams of pompei residents as they burnt in the ash which felt a bit heavy going for a child that still believed in fairies.

Another secondary librarian here.

Not appropriate, language and theme-wise.

I'd be asking when they last checked what was in the school library and, more importantly, how they compiled that "100 books to read" list for Y5 upwards!!

I think the issue is that it falls in his accelerated read range so school have assumed it is fine. When realistically, he has a good reading ability that puts him above what is appropriate for his age if that makes sense.

I'd have a word with school and see if they can direct him to more age appropriate books that are still in his range, this can be harder with better readers. You might want to look at some classic children's literature for his AR book as it will have the stretch of the vocab he needs but have something else as his read for fun that doesn't have to fit into AR.

My daughter is about to move up to Secondary School and 'The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime' is on her recommended reading list (sent by the English department of her new school) over the summer holidays...

I complained (as did other parents) when my children were at primary school as they had completely inappropriate books. It all started when Accelerated Reader came in and they had not looked at the age category just reading ability levels. There also seems to be a push towards 'edgy', 'challenging' texts in primary. Completely inappropriate in my opinion.

This is exactly why Accelerated Reader has the reading level and the interest level/age rating as two separate things. The information is right there in the AR description that the text complexity is fine but the content is not age appropriate for primary. For primary, books should be LY (lower years) or MY (middle years. MY+ and UY should only be offered to primary children if you have a thorough knowledge of the book and know exactly what the issues are and whether it’s appropriate for that particular child.

Read a few of the classics, Dickens etc. They are good at this age.

Encourage him to read it to one of the old dears they do guided reading with - that should deal with it

When I was 10 I took The Horse Whisperer and Go Ask Alice into school for set reading time... He'll be fine! Anything too mature will just go straight over his head.

Just asked dh who is a primary head and taught year 6 for years. He said they wouldn’t use this. There’s plenty of more appropriate books to choose from.

This! :)

that's actually not so suprising - I know that some schools have used it as a set novel in Year 7!! I think it's a bit old to get real understanding of the issues at that age group.

Bet that brought up some interesting results 😂

You’re not being a prude, and I’d raise it with school.

Do NOT get your son to raise it, there lies the way of a lifetime of mickey taking (yes I know it SHOULDN’T be that way but in the real world it is)