Am I right to be appalled by ancient tatty reading books?

[chixinthestix]

My dd in reception brought home a reading book today that was published in 1986. All the pages have been sellotaped back in and are so old they feel like old bank notes. They are the same books my ds had 2 yrs ago (and obviously many many other kids before). The scheme is Ginn 360. Some of the pics in them are so old fashioned my dd can't work out what they are. My dd is bright and I don't doubt she'll learn to read no matter the state of the books but I can't help thinking that this is really poor. Should I talk to her teachers about this?

As long as they do the job who cares if they're a bit tatty?!

The ORT books at my DD's school were published in around 1991 and are very tatty, and often sellotaped together. So what?

The school asked the PTA for money (£1000) for new reading books - everyone seemed that the school don't have money for this... but the PTA agreed to raise money for this.

I don't mind old books as long as the content is ok.

In 1973 I was issued with my secondary school atlas- and the first name on the 'owner' sheet inside the cover was dated 1942!

Half the countries were coloured pink so not only tatty but factually wrong, too! But I managed a Geography A level in spite of that setback...

I think it's appalling and a sign of budgets not being spent properly.

There is nothing more important than books.

It breaks my heart to see kids thinking all there is to reading is some tatty dog eared excuse for a book. I can't believe Ginn is still in schools. There are soooo many amazing books that she could be reading.

Since these books have been published things have moved on a lot. We now know what books excite boys(not Rodger Redhat and friends) what helps with phonics,illustrations are more modern day kid friendly etc. To a struggling reader these things are very important.

In our school the lower end of the school have the most lovely books but the books at the upper end were dire and putting my ds off reading. I know what is available and that they're not that expensive compared to a lot of things(ex lit co-ordinator) so complained and kept complaining.

It was probably on the cards anyway but they refreshed the boxes not long after. If needs be I would have taken it to the governors.

Complain-a lot!!!!

My DD had a lot of Ginn books from the early 80's. One explained that milk was delivered by horse drawn carriage! She was convinced that's what happened when I was little, er, not quite! It was one of her favourite books, though.

If they are still readable and in fairly good condition, I don't see a problem with it. I would assume the school is keeping the best ones for the classroom or further up the reading bands.

Not quite the same but I went to the same secondary school as my Nan (who went in the 30s) and when I was there in the 90s one of my class mates got a copy of Hamlet that had been signed out by her.

Thanks everyone - quite conflicting replies! I feel the same way as you MilaMae. Whilst I know that books are expensive they are important. I'm sure that the Ginn books still have their place, and yes I have talked about what life was like when Mummy was little with dd. They still need to be readable though.