Enjoyingthejourney wrote:
Hi all,
During the holidays my children visited my parents and rummaged through some of my books from when I was a child. I was an avid reader and had many books by Enid Blyton. I loved her books and spent a large chunk of my childhood with my head stuck them. However, when flicking through the collection, which is now sitting at home ready for my boys to read, I was somewhat suprised at what was deemed acceptable at the time with regard to racism and general making fun of people. Are they appropriate books for children to read today? Some of the comments made by characters are definitely not appropriate and PC. Do I allow my children to read them?
Are your children old enough and receptive enough to understand that the books reflect their time and that there wilt be things in them which they know to be unacceptable, or just plain different from today? If you are confident about that.I then I would personally say let them read them - perhaps read one with them first to highlight the post of thing which may be of concern? - a lot of the 'adventure' stuff is just good fun (and I can see some parents not allowing their little darlings to read some of the books because the chapters in them are allowed what to them is an unacceptable degree of freedom

).