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Were you ever banned from reading certain books/authors as a child?

I was sorting through all my books, especially the ones I read when I was 7-9, and I noticed that actually many of the books I read at that age, were really written for adults or teenagers. Eg several holocaust memoirs with a lot of nasty details and so on. I must have been about 11 when I took 'Belle du Jour' off mum's shelf and read that (it was glossy new and looked interesting! Can't say my 11 year old self was that impressed by it though). From about that time, I was allowed to use Mum's library card to get books when she wasn't around

So my reading material was never censored. I was allowed to read anything I wanted, whenever I wanted. But my friends weren't. And I notice quite a few parents ban certain books, or authors (eg. someone banned their 8 yo from reading Jacqueline Wilson. By that age I had read much grittier things in adults books) altogether. Mostly they say 'kids need a childhood' as the reason for banning them

I don't think reading lots of adult books affected me that much. Certainly by the time I was 12 nothing I read would have shocked me any more, but I wasn't traumatised too much by reading those books (well, a few nightmares after reading about Auschwitz as a 7 yo, but nothing too bad). I also read classics and Harry Potter and all that, but if I saw an interesting adult book, I read it as well.

My questions to you guys - How much reading freedom did you have, and what was the most adult book you read as a child? Would you ban your kids from certain books? And is banning children from reading certain books/authors a good thing or a bad thing?

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I don't particularly remember what the most adult book was but my parents always let me read whatever I wanted, and I think I'd be the same as a parent. I don't agree with banning books since it's a good education for children, but I do have some friends who were banned from the oddest things because their parents thought it would give then bad ideas, such as horrid henry.
Then again my parents never really censored anything my brother and I wanted to read or watch, they just thought it'd be a good education for us :P
My aunt gave me a huge stack of Jackie Collins when I was around 10 (bear in mind I only read Jacqueline Wilson books up to that point) and my mind has been tainted ever since.
I was allowed to read most things, my parents encouraged reading and my Dad read to us at bedtime long past the stage most parents stop doing that. He often chose darker fairy tales (Grimm brothers) or original (grittier than the watered down re-written ones, of Treasure Island, Arabian Nights, etc). I have very fond memories of my younger brother and I listening to him read to us and think, if anything, the choice of material made it all the better.

I remember when I was around 8 I was reading something (I don't remember what) that had a character who said "****" at one point in the book and I ran downstairs to tell my Mum. She just said something along the lines of "that's okay, you'll find words like that in books sometimes, usually the author has a reason to use them." and we talked a little about why it was used in the book. My parents were very anti-swearing, I never swore in front of them, even as a teenagers, and still wouldn't now but my Mum wasn't concerned about me knowing such words existed and how/when they were used.

I also remember my Year 6 teacher bringing her own copies of The Hobbit and Roald Dahl's autobiographies to school for me to read because I'd made it through the entire school library by half way through the year (very small, rural school). Neither she nor my parents seemed to think they were inappropriate reading for a 10 year old. I loved all of them and am still a voracious reader to this day.
Reply 4
I remember when I was six and really into reading and took my mum's book because it was glossy and new (mostly she has old, dusty books). It had lots of murder and sex scenes in it. I still remember one where she was pregnant and he bit her nipple to get some of the milk during sex. I don't remember my mum ever saying I shouldn't read it; in fact, I kept I think she even gave it to me for a little while.
Reply 5
In a word, No :smile:, i just read whatever i got my hands on!
Reply 6
Primary school banned us from reading 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time', but that didn't stop us :P
My mum took The Lovely Bones away from me when i was a chapter in. I haven't tried to read it since.
Reply 8
My parent's are baffled by the fact I read, the rest of my family joke I'm not their biological child because of my interest in books and going to Uni for English Lit. My Dad only goes as far as reading the newspaper, never cover to cover though, and my mum confided in me that she hasn't read an entire novel in over 15 years.

They wouldn't know what authors wrote what or what was right for me to be reading. Beyond the colour coded children's books in primary school indicating what level I should have been at, my parents took little interest in what material I read from then on. :colone:
Reply 9
When I was about nine, so years ago, a girl in our class got hold of the Judy Blume book Forever and lent it out for sweets, with the select pages turned over. It would be so tame now, but at nine years old reading about losing your virginity on a rug and then pursuing a ski instructor was the most taboo thing ever. One of the girls who borrowed it got busted by her mum, who apparently went orbital.

I moved schools but I reckon that girl must be an entrepeneur or something now, young adult porn in exchange for sweets, she knew how to make something of nothing.
I wasn't allowed to read Goosebumps or similar kiddies horror stuff because it was 'Occult'.

Other than that, I'm surprised that there were no other restrictions. My parents bought me a book on Guinivere when I was 10, that had sex scene after sex scene in.
Reply 11
Unfortunately, I did not read when I was a kid. Not really. The few books I did read, though, were my choice and my parents did not interfere... wasn't the same with movies or TV-shows, though. There, I was not allowed to watch anything too violent or sex-related.
Reply 12
Stephen King was my favorite author when I was eight, so nope, not really. :tongue:
Reply 13
My mum let me run wild with reading material.

But for my brother she used to censor books with a black pen. Things she didn't want him to read she'd just delete. Like sex and drugs.

Bless her.
I don't remember anything being banned - occasionally if I wanted to read something my Mum was unsure about, she'd read it or skim it first, or when I was in primary school we read one or two together, but I was never censored.
Reply 15
I remember being 12 years old and trying to loan out one of the Star Wars novels from a library, the lady behind the counter said 'I'm afraid you need to be over 13 to loan this.' It was Star Wars, ffs. :sigh: :colonhash:
I've never been banned from reading certain books or authors, but I've been reading newspapers since I was about 7 and my parents used to take out the articles about really horrible stories (like Guantanamo Bay, for instance), although I always used to wait until they'd left the room and then find the articles they'd taken out and read them anyway :P
Original post by JustRollingAlong
I was allowed to read most things, my parents encouraged reading and my Dad read to us at bedtime long past the stage most parents stop doing that. He often chose darker fairy tales (Grimm brothers) or original (grittier than the watered down re-written ones, of Treasure Island, Arabian Nights, etc). I have very fond memories of my younger brother and I listening to him read to us and think, if anything, the choice of material made it all the better.

I remember when I was around 8 I was reading something (I don't remember what) that had a character who said "****" at one point in the book and I ran downstairs to tell my Mum. She just said something along the lines of "that's okay, you'll find words like that in books sometimes, usually the author has a reason to use them." and we talked a little about why it was used in the book. My parents were very anti-swearing, I never swore in front of them, even as a teenagers, and still wouldn't now but my Mum wasn't concerned about me knowing such words existed and how/when they were used.

I also remember my Year 6 teacher bringing her own copies of The Hobbit and Roald Dahl's autobiographies to school for me to read because I'd made it through the entire school library by half way through the year (very small, rural school). Neither she nor my parents seemed to think they were inappropriate reading for a 10 year old. I loved all of them and am still a voracious reader to this day.


This is awesome. I hope to be the kind of parents who talks to my children about stuff like that in books.

My reading material was never censored *cue shows off about how awesome I am at reading* I finished Oxford Reading Tree (ya know, the magic key, Biff, Chip and Floppy etc) when I was about 5/6 and got into proper books quite early on. I didn't start reading adult books until I was maybe 14 but I'd read the Jaqueline Wilson books aimed at older kids, Harry Potter, I remember attempting To Kill a Mockingbird when I was maybe 10 or 11 but I couldn't finish it :wink:

I know a girl who's parents are quite strongly Christian about stuff like books and films so she was never allowed to read Harry Potter. The sadness :'(

OH I do remember going on holiday when I was around 12 and I finished all my books quite quickly. My mum had just finished The Time Traveller's Wife but she didn't let me read it cos of the *whispers* sexy bits. though tbh YA fiction can be pretty bad about stuff like that so I'd probably got the gist of all that kinda stuff alreadt :s-smilie:
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 18
I am going to read American Psycho to my children at a young age. It is important that they delve into intellectual literature to understand the ideas of identity in modern society.
The Qur'an :teehee:

No joke. My mum is a strict Roman Catholic and she forbid me reading any other holy books. For RE, we were given a little Qur'an book (I think it was written by Oxford), and she pretty much 'confiscated' it. She's so silly, considering I read the Verdas at school.

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