26 Books That Parents Read Back In School That They Feel Their Own Children Should Never Read
Interview With Author
If you’re anything like us, dear Pandas, then you’re simply obsessed with reading. We devour books one after the other, speed-read chapters during our coffee breaks, and may or may not literally be reading 8 books at the same time. Physical, digital, imaginary—we don’t care about the format.
Even though we personally enjoy experimenting with various weird works of writing, things are a bit different when you’re a parent. Case in point, some grownups spilled the tea in a r/AskReddit thread about what books they read back in school that they’d never, ever want their own children to read. Scroll down to see their opinions and the reasons behind them.
Bored Panda reached out to redditor u/masterbuildera, the author of the viral thread, and they were kind enough to share their thoughts with us.
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Dianetics, or anything else by L. Ron Hubbard.
Edited to explain why "Dianetics" was read in school: I was a junior in high school. Our AP world history teacher assigned us a project to research a "world religion" outside of the "big 3". Half of the students chose Buddhism, a few chose Hinduism, a few Taoism, a few LDS, etc. But this was '05-'06, and the "Trapped in the Closet" episode of South Park had just come out. Having never before heard of Scientology, I *had* to know if the episode was accurate.
Shakespeare. Not because it is bad but because it's not really meant to be read. It's a performance your supposed to watch it.
You need a good teacher for it too. I had one English teacher who though just reading it to us was an effective teaching strategy, we all failed. We all know the story and main points but he never explained any of the lines but tested us on the lines. Later, I had another teacher who went over Caesar and she was so good, she basically translated line by line and went over everything. She made it really interesting, all while knitting at her desk. I miss her!
I don't have or want kids but Flowers In The Attic by V.C. Andrews. I was maybe 11 or 12 when I saw it in my school library and remember my mum mentioned she'd read it in school. Holy hell that was not a book that should have been in a primary school library, the fact it was required reading in my mum's school when she was 14 is even more messed up.
Disturbs me to this day and I read it 45 ish years ago as a 13 year old
We got in touch with redditor u/masterbuildera, who started up the viral r/AskReddit thread, and asked them to share a few thoughts. We were curious how they had decided to ask such an unusual and interesting question in the first place.
"I started the thread because I read a book that was not suitable for my age," they opened up to Bored Panda.
They said that they were "traumatized because of it." However, they were unsure if their experience was unique. "So I decided to ask people on Reddit to see if they had read a book like that," u/masterbuildera shared that they were curious how widespread this phenomenon really was.
According to the OP, whether or not banning books makes them more likely to be read by people will depend a lot on the context. The redditor noted that "if the book has strong content," then it wouldn't necessarily be something that others might be very curious about.
My 5th grade teacher read the Stephen King short story Survival Type to the class. For those who haven’t read: the narrator / mc is a drug smuggler who crash lands his plane on a deserted island. He ends up doing all the heroin he recovered from the crash and cannibalizes himself. We didn’t know at the time our teacher had early onset dementia..
Go Ask Alice or Jay’s Journal. The “anonymous” person who wrote it was not a young girl or a guy it was a woman named Beatrice Sparks (and probably other who collaborated). She was a conservative and wrote the books based on those ideals in order to “save the children”. Absolute s**t writing and s**t person.
If you want the real deal, try We, children from Bahnhof Zoo by Christiane F.
Bored Panda wanted to get the thread author's opinion on where the line between censorship and protection lies. We were curious where they think the line is between being too strict and wanting to protect children from being traumatized by books, just like they were in their youth.
"From my perspective, schools need to ban books that are meant for adults," the redditor said that books that are clearly marked mature, meant for 18 and over, shouldn't find themselves in the hands of school kids.
Meanwhile, they added that parents should also observe what books their kids read and what reading lists schools have.
However, it's not all doom and gloom. The redditor noted that even though they were traumatized by a book in their past, they've also found some books that had some tips that directly improved their life.
Maybe this isn’t the question, but I read A Child Called ‘It’ as an elementary aged child. I bought it at the school’s Scholastic Book Fair, and was maybe 9 years old. Why on earth they thought that was an appropriate book for small children to be purchasing and reading, I will never know. The 90’s were a trip.
If you don't know what this book is about, it is a true first person account by someone who suffered prolonged and extreme physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his mother as a child. Not for the squeamish.
Hear me out, this is a weird take:
**Cyrano de Bergerac**
Not because it isn't a good story, it is. But because I think high school boys get the wrong message from it and it fuels this incel, neckbeard fantasy of "*I am truly special, and I will pursue this woman until she realizes how special I am. She only likes that other guy because he's cute, it definitely isn't that I'm an a*****e.*" I don't think that's healthy for them, I think a lot of them don't get that it's satire because it's in middle english.
I'm not saying they *can't* read it, but it shouldn't be required as part of the curriculum either (it was for me at least).
I think educators need to frame these works correctly for them to be effective.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison was rough.
As a victim of childhood SA I wish I didn’t have to quietly relive that trauma in a freshman English classroom full of strangers.
We had to read a handful of books like that (not really but same topics) like Speak and there was a discreet opt-out option, you had to pick a book from the teacher’s shelf and write an essay on it instead
Being a parent is tough. When it comes to reading, you have to find the right balance between protecting your kids from extremely unsettling ideas while also allowing them to grow and develop their thinking. You can’t expect them to ever think outside the box if they’re kept firmly within it.
When it comes to visual media like movies and TV shows, things are slightly simpler: there are age ratings that help guide parents. However, while some books do have recommendations for age groups, it’s not like you can declare that George Orwell’s ‘1984’ is only ‘meant’ for those 18 years old or over. Imagine the outrage!
The desire to limit people’s access to reading material, in order to protect them (or society at large), can quickly devolve into censorship. However, we all know that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You have to trust that people will be able to deal with the uncomfortable things they read on a page.
I was in a gifted class and we read 1984...in the fourth grade. Great piece of literature, but maybe a titch intense for nine-year-olds, y'know?
Where the Red Fern Grows- I wept like a baby when I read that book. I don’t want to subject my little one (who loves dogs) to that heartbreak.
I read this when i was young and loved it so much. Its such a magical story about a boy and the strong bond he has with his two hunting dogs. The ending is upsetting but it's 100% worth reading, even for younger children in my opinion. I dont really see why people feel the need to shelter kids from a book like this one. (obviously some books on this list yes, they sound awful). But this book is great!
Lord of the Flies. I hate that s**t.
This isn’t about censorship, if my kid wants to read that dogshit book, of course they can. But I’d never recommend it to anybody, or encourage anyone to read it if they were on the fence.
I tried to read it as a kid. Hated it. Tried to read it as an adult. Loved it. One of my favorite genres is something I like to call 'sunny horror', and so few things qualify.
Meanwhile, if we’re talking about kids, parents can either help contextualize these ideas or simply explain that the themes are slightly too mature for them at this moment. There’s nothing wrong with putting a book off for a couple of years. Though, naturally, you might make your children even more curious to read them if you ban those novels outright! If it’s forbidden, we can’t help but be even more intrigued…
Reading is such a natural part of our daily lives that some of us can forget that there are plenty of people out there who are illiterate. It’s a luxury to consider what books should or should not be read by our children. ‘Think Impact’ reports that in the United States, 79% of adults are literate. Though this might sound like a big number, it means that a jaw-dropping 21% of all American grownups cannot read. Meanwhile, 54% of adults have literacy below the 6th-grade level.
The World Population Review notes that the 10 least literate countries include Chad (with a 22.31% literacy rate), Guinea (32%), South Sudan (34.52%), Niger (35.05%), Mali (35.47%), the Central African Republic (37.40%), Burkina Faso (41.22%), Benin (42.36%), Afghanistan (43.02%), and Sierra Leone (43.21%).
Poverty and illiteracy are closely linked together. Areas that are deeply affected by poverty offer fewer opportunities for education and, by extension, reading. Meanwhile, instead of going to school, children from poor families might instead find work to help out their families financially. There are around 781 million adults around the globe who cannot read or write, and two-thirds of them are female.
Gone with the Wind. Not because it's offensive (it is) or because it has rape scenes that portray the main character as liking them (it does) or because it depicts slavery from the wrong side of history (it definitely does). No, because it's a 900+ page book that ends and begins without really doing anything, and it doesn't even attempt to show one battle of the Civil War. It's basically Waiting for Godot, but instead of God it's a prissy Southerner who never loved the main character anyways, while the real lover has to rape her to show how much he loves her. It's utter trash.
Margaret Mitchell was born in 1900 in Atlanta, GA, an area in the US still reeling from the Civil War. Her goal was to make a historically accurate depiction of life in the South and the impacts of the War. The book outlines how people were treated, what slavery really was, what it was like to have your property, land completely destroyed because of war, and the attitudes of different plantation owners to slaves. IMO, to judge GWTW by today's standards is to miss the point. The horrors depicted in that book gave me insight to my own prejudices and how to personally combat them.
The Kite Runner....my dad saw me pick that up at a book store when I was in the 7th grade and he said no, I wasn't allowed to read that till I got older. Me being the rebellious little s**t I was convinced my friend to buy it and we took turns reading it. Yeah that book is not for kids....I learnt some things that day :(
i read the book in 6th grade and while it is an awesome book it takes some emotional strength to read.
My mum used to use The Giving Tree to guilt me. That book is too easily weaponized
I love Shel Silverstein and this book but using any book to guilt your child is such crappy parenting
I know it’s weak, but the ending to Of Mice and Men really messed up my 13 year old brain.
I found the ending quite sad- all that work, all the dreams were going to come true, but then it was all ruined.
I read a book about King Arthur, I think it was just called "Arthur The King". I enjoyed royalty, Knights, and historical fiction, so it looked like a great pick for me for this book project. It was in my teacher's classroom on a list of approved options.
Y'all, I was not READY for the amount of rape and sodomy in there. It was absurd. I think the book was actually meant to be an erotic novel, it's the only reason I can think of for that much adult content. I'm positive the teacher had never read it herself.
I'm all for kids being exposed to a variety of topics, and teens can be exposed to sexuality, and I was sixteen or seventeen at the time. But this was just beyond anything.
I read Maia, the main character is sold as a sex slave by her 'mother' after her stepdad seduces her. That book sounds like it has less sexual content and it is 1,000+ pages!
"A Day No Pigs Would Die" was pretty rough in 6th grade. Basically Charlotte's web with HAUNTINGLY graphic depictions of animal husbandry and slaughter. I don't remember getting a lot of value out of it at 11 years old, just pig-blood soaked nightmares lol
Red Badge of Courage was so ungodly boring it almost drove me insane so I would save them that headache
The Scarlett Letter that s**t was a grind. I love to read, but I wanted to claw my eyes out so I could stop reading it.
I'm of the controversial opinion that not many things are truly inappropriate for children if they're capable of actually grasping the subject matter.
But for me, there is one thing I feel was GENUINELY not appropriate and that I regret exposing myself to:
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. In 7th grade I stole that book from my parents room [the cover was cool and I loved reading edgy YA fiction].
And just... yeah, I ABSOLUTELY didn't need to be consuming that novel as a 12 year old. I was easily old enough to grasp drug abuse and rape, but it was just... a f*****g LOT. I don't recall the experience very fondly.
James Frey is a con artist and general POS. None of what happens in this supposed autobiography actually happened.
Les Miserables. Sophomore year. Just too long. I failed English because of it. It was just a basic English class not English Literature.
I read it years later and it is long but, one of the best endings of any novel ever.
I read this for fun when I was 14 and loved it, but it took me months. If I knew it was required reading with a time limit on it I would have freaked.
I was supposed to read Night John in 4th grade. We stopped when parents complained about the vivid description of a slave being ripped apart by dogs. I’d definitely let me kids read it but not in 4th grade.
No, I don't agree with this one. Kids need to know the horror of slavery. They need to know why Black people are so angry, even now.
Heart of Darkness. It's just so f*****g boring and a waste of hours of my life.
The worst part is it has the potential to be exciting and interesting. Cannibals and wild animal attacks. But the God damn main character is more focused on how many bolts and nuts he needs to fix his damn boat.
I tapped out on HoD in high school. That book was so terribly slow. I bought the Cliffs Notes for that book and I was able to pass the quizzes and write a paper. Only time I ever did that.
Was given The Things They Carried in HS and had nightmares for weeks because I had a brother overseas in combat at the time. Part of me never wants my kids to read it because of how much it negatively effected me, which I know isn't a good reason. I do think it is a worthwhile book but it will always, always make me uncomfortable.
This book and "All Quiet on the Western Front" should be required reading for all young men aged 17. There's been too much celebration of war in this country over our history. War is not glorious or adventurous, it is absolute hell. All young men need to know the truth about it before some recruiter comes to them in their foolish young age to capture them with the bullsh*t fantasy of "seeing the world" and "being a warrior." These readings will destroy some of the naivete in many young men.
I read a lot of these books. Some of them are trash, some are really dependent on maturity level. What is appropriate for one 12 year old may not be appropriate for another... In my daughter's kindergarten teacher conference, I was told to read my daughter "more age appropriate books" because she loved The Raven. I used to say "Quoth the raven!" And she would hiss "Nevermore!" I ignored that request.
The Exorcist was released when I was nine or so. Mom wouldn't let me see it. Checked it out of the library. Book is way more intense than the movie. My folks never restricted my reading. I appreciated that.
Great for your parents.mine didn't either and I never restricted my daughters. I think every kid is different and what we enjoy and what we can do at a given age level varies from how we erased and who we became.
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You title is wrong. This one is about books children read that really aren't for children.
Yeah, many of these books are pretty great as long as you don't read them when you're 9.
Load More Replies... I read a lot of these books. Some of them are trash, some are really dependent on maturity level. What is appropriate for one 12 year old may not be appropriate for another... In my daughter's kindergarten teacher conference, I was told to read my daughter "more age appropriate books" because she loved The Raven. I used to say "Quoth the raven!" And she would hiss "Nevermore!" I ignored that request.
The Exorcist was released when I was nine or so. Mom wouldn't let me see it. Checked it out of the library. Book is way more intense than the movie. My folks never restricted my reading. I appreciated that.
Great for your parents.mine didn't either and I never restricted my daughters. I think every kid is different and what we enjoy and what we can do at a given age level varies from how we erased and who we became.
Load More Replies... You title is wrong. This one is about books children read that really aren't for children.
Yeah, many of these books are pretty great as long as you don't read them when you're 9.
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