Childrens Personalised Books

My 6 year old daughter’s class reading project is Horrid Henry and they were treated to a special visit by him in the school.

On the day of the visit the kids were so excited, worrying about if he was going to throw chairs or spit out chewing gum on the floor, I was more intrigued by what he’d look like- or would it be a she dressed up like a ‘he’. Would it be a costume- with full on prosthetics or just a geezer in a dishevelled shirt and shorts? Well as it turns out Horrid Henry had been extremely naughty and wasn’t allowed out by his Mum!!! 30 heartbroken kids and a mob of peed off teachers and parents struggled to contain the wave of emotion.
So as we whiled away the time reading with the kids and talking about their favourite ‘Horrid’ moments it struck me of the hug difference between the girls take on it and the boys.

The boys think he’s well cool- as he’s always in trouble, eats nothing but rubbish, hates schoolwork and is generally every parents’ nightmare teenager about 5 years too soon. The girls on the other hand see him as rude, disruptive and you certainly wouldn’t want him in your set of friends.

When one of the parents argued that Horrid Henry is a terrible book for children as it leads them down the wrong path and glorifies troublemakers- I argued that on the other hand it shows some children that the opposite of Henry is the right way to be and they then aspire to be everything he’s not- and as all the stories show- Henry always comes a cropper at the end!!

So is it that boys follow the leader- no matter where it takes them- and girls analyse everything and then decide which is the correct path- or just that boys like farty stinkbomb jokes???