I have an Offspring who is of the age where a reading book is brought home from school and a chapter or two read out loud for homework.
Usually I love every little thing about sharing books with my kids. I may not always agree with their choice of favourites, but I cherish the fact that they’re expressing a preference.
But this is not a book chosen by one of my children. It’s been chosen by a teacher, and I ‘m struggling with it. It’s not that I disapprove of it. It’s reasonably well-written technically and appropriately illustrated. But it grosses me out to the point that I’m asking FatherSoup to do the reading for a week or two. I know that if I was pregnant (I’m not and have no plans to go there again!) it would actually make me retch.
I suppose it’s the sort of thing that kids revel in. My Offspring doesn’t seem to mind it. Maybe I’m just a prude. Wonder what we’ll get next?
So go on - what book is it? You can’t expect to write a post like that and get away with it!
Absolutely GPMum! Mothersoup, we must know what clever author has created a text that can induce such an extreme reaction!
As a parent, the only thing that made me react like this was having to use books that were literally dirty, or sometimes stinking of cigarette smoke from someone else’s house.
As a teacher I must say I work hard to conceal my instinctive recoil reflex when children take cigarette smoke-contaminated jotters, books and letters from their bags.
A
Hi there!
Naming names - even authors - is getting just a little too close to risking my cherished anonymity, so you’ll have to keep guessing, I’m afraid
Not obscure though - well-known and popular. Must just be me…
I can sympathise with what you say: I’ve had Offspring bring home items reeking from the smokey home of their previous borrower. And yes, I’ve taken a baby-wipe to many a crusty plastic book-jacket. Which makes me sound like a complete fuss-budget, except that like GPM, I’m not one of those mothers who manages to keep even the house clean.
Books should be something you can curl up in bed with.
One of the books I struggle to see why they give them are the Horrid Henry series. One of mine ‘left home’ after reading the one in which Henry does this. Personally I think this series should be a parental decision.