Forget Blyton and Dahl... pupils prefer Harry Potter

Children shun old classics in top books list

IT IS supposed to be the definitive collection of books every primary school child should read.

But the Duchess of Cornwall’s 70th birthday ‘ bookshelves’ do not contain a single title by classic children’s authors such as Enid Blyton and Arthur Ransome.

Instead, the 70 books, which will go to 70 primary schools around the country to mark the Duchess’s birthday, include two books by comedian David Walliams and a child’s recipe book by Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain.

Even the once-adored writer Roald Dahl does not have an entry on the list until number 47 with The Twits.

The books, voted for by primary school children across the country, has been slammed as evidence of ‘massive dumbing down’ and ‘a politically-correct agenda’ in the education system.

To mark the Duchess of Cornwall’s birthday on Monday, 70 schools have been selected to receive the sets of books, dubbed the ‘Duchess’s Bookshelves’. The schools, many of which are in disadvantaged areas, were required to show they were ‘committed to promoting reading for enjoyment’ by a group of six literacy organisations supported by the Duchess, including the National Literacy Trust. But the list, which favours Walliams’s Gangsta Granny and Miss Hussain’s Bake Me a Story over Ransome’s classic Swallows and Amazons and Miss Blyton’s Famous Five, has raised eyebrows. Chris McGovern, from the Cam- paign For Real Education, said children were being fed ‘a junk food diet of poor literature’.

‘It’s clear evidence that these children have been robbed of their cultural heritage,’ he said. ‘From Swallows and Amazons to the Jungle Book and the Railway Children, these books define the identity of childhood in this country. But they also make some demand on children’s grasp of vocabulary.

‘There is nothing wrong with David Walliams’s stuff but the vocabulary is shallow. There’s a massive dumbing down.’

Margaret Morrissey, of pressure

‘Robbed of their cultural heritage’

group Parents Outloud, said: ‘I think they are trying to be really politically correct and as usual it doesn’t work. Many of the classic authors are considered old-fashioned and fuddy- duddy, when really they are better than many of today’s authors.’

÷ Sales of ebooks are predicted to fall for the first time as readers revive their love for print. Sales had risen from £216million in 2012 to £339million last year but this is expected to slide to £337million this year – a 1 per cent fall – according to retail analysts Mintel.