A grandma was left blushing after she attempted to buy a book as a lovely present for her young granddaughter that turned out to be an X-rated read.
Sue Mackay just wanted to get an Enid Blyton book for her seven-year-old granddaughter Skyla-Rae Muttram, and decided that Five Get Gran Online sounded like a nice title to start with.
Sue and her own daughter had enjoyed reading Enid Blyton books when she was a girl, and she just wanted to carry on the family reading tradition.
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In the front cover, she lovingly wrote: “When I was a little girl these were my favourite books, I hope you enjoy.”
However, she wasn’t prepared for the fact that the book contained a number of swear words.
Worse still, she didn’t find out the truth until after her granddaughter had taken the book into school.
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Skyla-Rae’s mum Jade received a note from the teacher saying that the book she’d brought in to school was ‘inappropriate for children’ and contained words such as ‘b***ocks’ and ‘b***ard’.
In truth, it’s not by Enid Blyton at all, but is from a series called Enid Blyton for Grown Ups written by Bruno Vincent.
Jade, from Devon, explained: "My mum's mum, my nana, got my mum into Enid Blyton books when she was a young girl.
"Then my mum got me and my sister into Enid Blyton books. She thought she'd do the same for Skyla-Rae and it would be a tradition [to continue] – and even wrote a lovely little message.
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"I was obsessed with the Famous Five as there was always some kind of adventure.
"She's had the book since Christmas and I was saying to her 'make sure you read it, you don't want to let your nana down'.
"They often take books into school and she took it in on Tuesday to share with her friends in class but it didn't go to plan."
It certainly did not.
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Jade continued: "Skyla-Rae ran home with the book [in her hand] and she was waving it in my face and said 'Mum, this looks like an old book but it's not, it's a new one and it's inappropriate'.
"The teacher had said it had got swearing in it and my daughter, who is older than her years, bless her heart, came in telling me off and gave me a good what for [over it].
"I said 'no it's not, what are you talking about?' I still didn't see anything wrong with it until the teacher messaged me that night and I thought I'd better have a look at it."
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Obviously, Jade was very apologetic once she realised the mistake, and rang her mother.
Both were utterly mortified.
Jade added: "I didn't look through it, I just didn't think. It's a literal case of 'don't judge a book by its cover' because you never know.
"Luckily she hadn't read that page [pictured], it's mid-book.
"When I read this and realised what it was I just thought 'oh my goodness, I can't believe I've allowed her to have it so long'.
"I was absolutely mortified. You try and shelter your kids from these things and make sure they're protected [and then this happens].
"I rang my mum straight away and she was completely mortified. She rang me and said 'what have I done now Jade? I don't get it' so I explained and she was like 'oh my', bless her heart.
"I'm going to have a little sit-down talk with Skyla-Rae just to see if she has seen any pages and what they said.
"I've definitely learnt not to judge a book by its cover, and I'll definitely be more aware of what I'm buying or what my children are receiving."
Sue said: "I was and still am absolutely mortified.
"When I was a little girl I got an Enid Blyton book for Christmas. I didn't have very good handwriting and I would copy it in a notebook for nicer handwriting.
"My mum did it for me, I did it for Jade and her sister so I thought I'd do it for my granddaughter and pass the tradition on.
"I just saw 'Famous Five' and 'Enid Blyton' I didn't think for one minute [it was a parody]. I wrote what I did in it and I said 'I'll buy you one every Christmas'.
"Jade FaceTimed me and I was like 'oh my god what have I done?'
"I wouldn't mind [but] I kept asking Skyla-Rae 'have you started it yet?'.
"I'll stick to David Walliams in future."
Tom Wood