Monday 20 December 2010

Children cannot understand Enid Blyton


According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, Enid Blyton has fallen out of the top ten list of children's authors for the first time in decades because, supposedly, youngsters cannot relate to her language.

Revised editions of the Famous Five have modernised some of the language and names used in order to attract a new generation of readers. “Mother” and “Daddy” have been replaced with “Mum” and “Dad” and words such as “golly”, “rather” and “awfully” have been removed completely.

Where will such wanton sacrilege end? Will Shakespeare have to get down wiv da kidz?

Rather than dumbing down the language of story telling, perhaps we should consider raising children’s reading standards instead?