Billionaire boy etc David Walliams

[russetbella1000]

Does anyone else think his books are rubbish but more than that really quite misogynistic? A child in yr 4 was reading from Billionaire today and a reference to pg 3 of the Sun and models being thick etc...
I seem to remember the 'granny' book-can't remember the title- was similar. Definitely a dim view of women-really uncomfortable listening to a 9 year old reading it.

It really annoys me that such drivel is considered ok!?

I stumbled on this thread and felt compelled to join Mumsnet just to reply! While I agree that Walliams' books are overrated and have occasional questionable cultural undertones, just like Little Britain on both countt, I think he deserves credit for getting reluctant readers reading. I think that this is more important than the quality of writing and any misogynistic characters.

I also think that if you're a parent or teacher and you hate Walliams' books but your kids/pupils love it, I think you should just leave them to enjoy the books and don't impose your own views on them. At the end of the day, these books are written for them, not for you.

Finally, Roald Dahl was a genius whose books completely blew me away as a kid. I'm glad to see that he's still on school curriculums across the UK and I'm glad my six-year-old son loves them as much as I did!

Oh no, I've just bought two on CD for DD (who's just on the reluctant reader hump). I was trying to move her on from the Tom Gates books before she runs out of them!

Thanks @anotherdayanothersquabble for the couple of recommendations. Piers Torday looks great (I've ordered the kindle version with accompanying audio for DD as it looks a bit of a stretch for her) and I've bookmarked Lauren St John (also looks a bit too hard but I can't find any with accompanying audio on Amazon). Hopefully she'll enjoy listening to them being read while also following along.

He is not a good writer. His books use lazy stereotypes to make fun of characters that aren’t even funny. Ratburger is awful with the portrayal of the working class mum character. The page 3 stuff as you said and the constant references to characters being fat are disgusting.
He is compared to Roald Dahl by his promoters, but he has none of his genius, none of his inventive way with language. He can write a sentence and put them together in paragraphs, but there’s nothing exciting about his writing, nothing clever. Actually, they are right in a way, because Dahl was sexist (in the same way that Dickens was, I think - women are either angels or hags - nothing in between), so his writing is like his in that way. But Dahl was a genius with language so he gets a pass from me for that! And Walliams writing suggests he hates women full stop.

The thing is children love him. But the only reason they love him is because they aren’t exposed to other authors. His books are everywhere. In Waterstones, there’s a massive display of his books and all the decent authors are shoved on the shelves. Children are told to like it so they do - they are more vulnerable to marketing than adults.
I’m trying to look into other authors for my DS. He does read David Walliams and likes it. Ugh. David Almond is good. A comparable kind of book to his is the Mr Gumm series. Similar level for reading. They are clever, inventive and well written. DS recently read the newish Cressida Cowell ‘The Wizards of Once’. He loved it. I read a few pages myself and it’s brilliant.
God, that was a rant. I needed to get that off my chest. Thanks OP. Mediocre celebrity authors piss me off. Children’s writers, proper ones, are struggling because of them. It’s not right!

Lots of people saying he actually does write them. I agree he probably does.
But.
If a non-celebrity author wrote them they would never get published. They aren’t good enough.

I can't bear them. Both DSs love them and to Walliam's credit, they have got them both reading.

However, apart from the lazy stereotypes, I just can't bear how overwritten they are. I read them aloud to DS2 and every joke is hammered home. I found myself gritting my teeth and thinking 'just get to the sodding point'. Dahl is much better to read aloud. And the Mr Gumm books are genuinely hilarious...

I like them! My DS loved to read them and we have been to the theatre to watch them, and all sat sown as a family to watcht he TV adaptations. Some of the books have nice values (Grandpa's Great Escape , for example) and the wicked stepmother etc is just a well worn comedy/ fairytale trope. I actually think Dahl is nastier (and he was nasty man, too.) and duller This is like how everyone expects pop stars to be squeaky clean these days. Everything is 'sanitised'. There are some great children's books , but not many that boys like that aren't production line fantasies or about football with ishoos thrown in.

fwiw, my DS also read Tom Gates and Wimpy Kid and is a lovely, kind hearted child!

Pullman mentioned up thread is really for older readers and I found his latets book quite nasty in places.

The best written funny books for that age group I'd say are the How To Train Your Dragon books which are a delight. Jacqueline Wilson is fab, but boys don't really get provided for in her books : although Five Children and It, a modern reworking of the classic, is fantastic.

If anyone has DCs who like cricket, Bob Cattell wrote and an enchanting series of books about a children's cricket team : Glory Gardens.

Mr Gumm is brilliant.

Walliams’ stuff is not. It’s easy, cheap and stacked high in every supermarket. Nowt wrong with that but it sells well because of that and the name.

I’d hope it weren’t ghost written as if it were it should be better.

Dahl is nastier, funnier and infinitely better written and knocks all the Walliams stuff into a cocked hat.

And as for Horrid Henry vs. Just William... don’t get me started!

I think it's very clear he writes them as they are as unpleasant and misogynistic as he is.

If you want unpleasant and misogynistic, then Dahl is your man. I've never understood the generation of him. Some of his short stories for adults are repulsive, and he only turned to female lead characters in his later books because he thought accusations of being anti-female were preventing his getting a knighthood. The BFG's speech was based on his wife, Patricia Neal, learning to talk again after a stroke. Read a very interesting biography of Dahl some years ago, as you may gather.

Veneration, not generation. Autocorrect.