As the discussion continues concerning the need for parents, and adults in general, to monitor our children, I wish to add my experience to the discourse. Like many parents, my nine-year-old son and I have been reading stories at bedtime. These not only serve to entertain him, but also improve his vocabulary and comprehension skills, while affording us some quality bonding time at the end of a long day.
The books are usually selected from a collection of books geared towards boys in his age group and may come from his school library or from the local bookstores. Well, everything was going fine until a few nights ago when we started to read stories from the Horrid Henry series of books. The title of the books was not an issue for me since we previously read similarly titled books and at the end of the stories the naughty child is normally taught the “right and wrong” of the situation, thus providing a lesson for the reader.
Not so for Horrid Henry! Instead after creating mayhem in the lives of others, including his family members and friends, through lying, stealing and other types of misbehaviour, the stories end with Horrid Henry as the beneficiary of his actions, while the victims are left to suffer the effects of his misdeeds. I was very shocked by the manner in which these stories are written and had to ensure that my son realised that Henry’s actions can never be condoned.
I was grateful that I had the opportunity to read the story with him and was able to immediately point out the problems with the story, but I also thought of the many parents whose little boys are reading these stories on their own and are not aware of the dangers they pose to impressionable young minds. Therefore, while we focus on the negative effects of visual stimulants such as the Internet and television, let us not forget about the power of the written word to shape minds and control actions.
The cultivation of a love for reading is vital in the development of our children but even when they are able to read on their own, we should still check on the quality and content of what they are reading. It was interesting to note that the Horrid Henry series is a large franchise with television shows, movies, books and games, supported by an interactive Web site. It says to me that someone is making a lot of money at the expense of our children, especially boys, the target group for the character.
I end with a description from the Web site Wikipedia of the main characters in this series:
“The general story is a slice-of-life setup, featuring the main character Henry. Henry is selfish, and will typically be faced with a problem and then will attempt to solve it, often in interesting ways that endanger other people. Henry has a brother called Perfect Peter, who is generally the exact opposite to Henry, and chooses to always be respectful of other people.”
The stories my son and I have read, generally end with Perfect Peter suffering from the effects of Henry’s actions while Henry laughs at his brother’s pain and gets whatever he was after.
Sharon Rose,
St Joseph