I have to say I’m a little concerned. In an Ofsted report dated November 2010, it was discovered that childrens reading and writing abilities falling beyond what is expected, and what is acceptable.
Personally, I believe it is because of the garbage children are being given to read at each age. The Horrid Henry stories are aimed at children aged 6- NINE, according to one website. No child at nine years of age should still be reading Horrid Henry. I would suggest that would be for any age UP TO six. Not after.
I decided that for my childrens story I am going to adapt an old Greek Mythology story into a modern day tale. At this age children need to realise that books can teach them new and exciting things about the world - Children of such an age are so impressionable so surely it is better to provide them with material that will fuel an interest in something outside of throwing worms at their siblings.
Also, if I want to use longer and more complex words, I will. “Why? The children might not understand it!” I hear you cry. And to you I repeat the same words my english teacher, and my parents actually, said to me - if you don’t understand a word, look it up. Surely they still teach children to use a dictionary in school.
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Look, I have an issue here.
I have been set an assignment for my ‘Writing for Children’ university module, to write the first 500 words of a book for ages six to eight. Sounds pretty simple, right? Wrong. I have no idea what an average child of age six to eight would read, and what issues they would be able to cope with.
By the time I was eight, I had read the first three Harry Potter books (because that was all that was published by then). I was reading Point Horror books (probably highly inappropriate for that age group). At age six, I was reading Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton when other kids my age were still on Biff and Chip. I had read Little Women and The Railway Children… and personally I had felt insulted when suggested reading was things like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Dr Seuss*.
I have made a start on my assignment, however, and it’s a little Jaqueline Wilson inspired. But for what ages were these books intended? They deal with a lot of adult issues for example in The Illustrated Mum, the mother goes a bit kooky and covers herself in white paint and has to be ‘taken away’. ‘Secrets’ begins with a girl being struck with a belt, and ‘The Suitcase Kid’ deals with money problems and nearly all of these books relate to children who just don’t ‘fit in’ at school. Do six to eight year olds need to be reading about this? Doesn’t it scare them about ‘big’ school and make them suspicious of their families? And indeed, the ‘Girls In…’ series deals constantly with the character Ellie’s eating disorder. Surely these topics are too ‘old’ for a young age group? I just don’t know where to begin in terms of what I can and cannot write about for this age. I wasn’t your average child reader… and while I felt advantaged at the time, right now I am feeling very out of the loop.
Hopefully I will find a solution to this before tuesday. If you’re reading this…please feel free to comment with what you read as a kid of that age?
* I actually would like to add here that Dr Seuss is actually a genius. The rhythm of works such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas! grow an interest in poetry. “But I think that the most likely reason of all…may have been that his heart was two sizes too small”. It’s just beauty.
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I don’t think anything is particularly useless. When thinking about this prompt I thought at first of my badger and wizard, both of the ‘blue nose friends’ collection - the wizard is infact one of those little me to you bears, as a little statue. But these things in themselves are not useless, though they have no physical use.
The little wizard was given to me as a present on leaving for university from my mum.
The badger was my 20th birthday present from my gorgeous friend Steph, prompted by the fact that on Pottermore I was sorted, much to my dismay, in hufflepuff.
So they are of sentimental purpose, I suppose.
Of course, there is also the Golden Snitch and Horcrux Locket, both of which I purchased from Waterstones. But again these things are not useless - the snitch sits above my fireplace as decoration and the locket I can wear if I like.
I suppose the most useless things I own are acrylic liquid and powder, for applying false nails. I lost the rest of the set and so it’s pretty impossible for me to actually use them. Perhaps I should throw them out.
I’m also considering a PROPER clear out at some point in the next few weeks. Perhaps then I will come across some actually useless possessions. However it is clear that all of these things have come into my posession from the exchange of money, perhaps my biggest vice. That’s something to think on, I suppose.
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I must have been about six or seven years old when it happened. At this age I loved all those kids tv shows like The Snorks and The Smurfs, but like all young kids, Disney movies were the ultimate thing. Imagine my confusion, then, when 102 Dalmatians was released. What the hell! I think maybe this memory is what causes me to have an inexplicable dislike for ALL sequels. Pirates of the Carribbean 2 - shocking. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? I preferred Prisoner of Azkaban. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers? Boring awful.
So back the Dalmatians.
Imagine my joy when Kinder Egg started giving away a dalmation inside each egg. My sister and I both had one each, hers had a red collar and mine blue. Now this is a psychological thing but I always saw her things as better than mine, probably because she was older, and always saw her stuff as ‘blue’ and mine as ‘red’. So I was pretty happy to have a ‘blue’ thing for once.
I was in the school playground one day, at the back of the field section which, behind a hedge, backed on to a busy road. My childhood friend and I, for some reason, thought it would be a good idea to throw our mini toys in the air and catch the other persons. Like catch with two things instead of one, I suppose. The previous day her toy had gone over the hedge but a kindly old lady had found it and brought it back to the school.
I bet you can guess what’s coming next. On this one day, we were playing the same game, but MY toy, my little Whizzer, went soaring over the hedge never to be seen again. We searched in vain through the gaps in the hedge, but to no result. Every time my parents drove me past there in the car I would strain my eyes to see if he was there. Of course, time moves on.
I used to still look, but the school has been knocked down now and joined sites with the Junior School. In it’s place is a housing estate…I like to think Whizzer has been put to rest in the foundations of one of the buildings. In reality, he probably got obliterated by a passing lorry.
Such is life.
