DGD, a rising 7 is a very good reader and up to Stage 11 in the Oxford Reading Scheme. She has just come back from school with a reading book she has chosen. It is on WW2 and the Holocaust.
Her parents and I were a bit surprised that this subject should be covered in a book in a reading scheme for 7 - 8 year olds, but when we read some of the content we were very worried. There was a very explicit description of the Holocaust, saying that Jews, the disabled and gays were killed by poison gas. Elsewhere it quoted an evacuated child saying that the woman they were billeted on 'bashed them about'. Generally the topics covered in the book seemed disjointed and without context.
Now we are not over-protective and if DGD, who loves history, asked us about the Holocaust or the Blitz or anything else we would answer her questions truthfully, but how we said things to her would be tailored for her and we would be watchful of her response, she is a thoughtful and sensitive child and we would not want to cause her distress.
Has anybody else come across a child as young as six being given this book to read. This is a reading book, not a history text book and WW2 has not been taught in her class. She knows about it from the Horrible Historys.
My concern about this book is more general. I can see that this book could be traumatic for a number of children in this country who have fled conflicts like those in Syria and parts of Africa and have seen atrocities, or whose families have been affected by them. If their English is good they could be reading this at the age of 7.
To go through chemo therapy or choose not to?