If this has to move to CS due to its literature theme, so be it, but since I’m asking for opinions, I put it here.
My daughter, age 10, is a voracious reader. She likes mysteries and finished the Nancy Drew series a few years ago, finished the Harry Potter series last year, and has read some fairly advanced stuff for her age. I suspect she would like the Agatha Christie novels but neither I nor my wife have ever read them. Is there anything- I don’t know- overtly sexual in the books? I assume there isn’t, but don’t really know. We’re just beginning to have the discussions with her about puberty and changes she’ll go through, so I’d rather not have her stumble across some steamy passages of the bodice-ripper variety before she understands what’s going on.
So from a sexual perspective, is Agatha along the lines of a PG, PG-13, or R-rated movie?
Nope. There may be some adultery as a background to the plot, but there is nothing that I can think of as “racy”. They are set in post-war England (both I and II?), and everything is fairly conservative. There are some references to affairs (adulterous or not), out-of-wedlock children, secret marriages, but nothing out and out about sex. No bodice rippers, nothing steamy.
And for a ten year old in this time, even some of the more “romantic oriented” passages may well go over her head, because they deal with adult topics and are from another era.
Granted, I’m talking mainly about the Poirot series. I’m not as familiar with the other characters.
I’ve read a pretty good bit of Agatha Christie (and keep meaning to read more) and can’t think of anything particularly inappropriate. I think aceplace57’s PG rating is about right.
It’s pretty consistent throughout Christie’s work. I’ve read a fair bit of Poirot, a little Miss Marple, a little Tommy and Tuppence and a few without any recurring character, and your appraisale holds for the lot of them.
Agatha Christie’s are completely tame. I read them about that age myself. Considering what is around on tv, on magazine covers, on the news, etc, it is about as mild as you can get.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a good start for Perot. The Murder at the Vicarage is a really good Miss Marple.
Both these books introduce those characters.
I found watching a few episodes of Perot with David Suchet helped me better understand the books. That world of manor houses and servants is pretty far removed from life today. The tv series did a lot to bring it to life.
Very PG and extremely readable. Make sure that the first few you hand her are ones written in the 30s, 40s and 50s though. Agatha really lost her edge later on and the books are torture to read.
And the Mysterious Affair at Styles does have a bit of… well, adultery related to the plot. But no actions, just dialogue and statements to the fact that some married characters may be involved with people other than their spouses.
Christie will be a good vocabulary builder for your daughter. I vaguely recall words that I had to look up. Back then in a dictionary. Now google quickly explains the meaning.
A lot of references to woman will be extremely old fashioned today. Sexism was alive and well in those Manor Houses. But, Miss Marple was an old woman that everybody under estimated. That’s why they answered her questions and got caught.
They say the words “sex appeal” sometimes. That’s really about as racy as it gets. I’d let my 6th grader read them if she wanted to.
In other news, if you can get hold of any old Three Investigators books, those are fun. Also, “Down the Rabbit Hole” and its sequel “Behind the Curtain” (or maybe it’s the other way round) are very good mysteries for the middle-grade set–those are contemporary.
Agatha Christie books were some of the first “adult” books I read, probably right around your daughters age. I’m still reading them - read The Thirteen Problems before going to sleep last night - and I developed a lifelong addiction to British mysteries and police procedurals.
I’d feel completely comfortable letting my almost 9 year old read them.
Seconded, the books written in the 60’s and 70 just ramble on and on. I guess by then no-one dared to edit her anymore.
There are quite a few novels consisting of short stories around Marple or Poirot, and those are good to start with. No introduction necessary, your daughter can dive right in.
I just got an kindle as an early Christmas present and I have been rereading some Christie novels. Highly enjoyable.
I’ve read every Agatha Christie mystery many times, probably starting around age 10, and I can’t recall anything inappropriate in any of them. In addition to those already mentioned, I recommend Tommy and Tuppence (start with The Secret Adversary and just work your way up), and two that particularly resonate with a little girl, The ABC Murders and Crooked House.
If she likes “genre” works, why not try some SF or fantasy? C S Lewis and Tolkien, maybe (start off with Narnia first and see if she likes that, then she can try the Hobbit and LoTR), or maybe Robert Heinlein’s Juveniles (basically, the same as his adult works but with less sex and starker ethical boundaries)?
I can’t tell if you are considering this or not, but all the authors that you mentioned are women. Please don’t pigeonhole “girls books” vs. “boys books”.
Also some casual racism and ethnic stereotyping which may be rather surprising to modern readers. And of course people are being murdered left and right! But I’ve read nearly all of Christie’s mysteries, and agree that there’s nothing particularly racy in them.
