Hi, by telling your kid that what they’re reading isn’t a real book and forcing them to read something they have zero interest in, you’re going to make them not want to read and you look like a hypocritical dick for doing so.
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It’s so silly! Most libraries and bookstores have sections (or knowledgeable staff!) specifically to guide parents to books/graphic novels/etc to appeal to reluctant readers. Because the important thing is to get them something that they WANT to read!!
Right? It’s so dumb and judgmental. It’s just snooty adults thinking books with pictures aren’t real books but I bet they’ve not read a single thing in years.
Yes! I used to teach high school English and told my students they could read whatever they want as long as it was appropriate for the school setting, even a car manual if that's what they wanted to because it was the reading itself that mattered.
Rule in my house - don’t care what you read (within reason), as long as you are reading. I am here if you want to talk about it or want suggestions. Introduce your kids to non-superhero Graphic Novels and watch your bank account dwindle…
My parents read to me when I was little and encouraged me to do it on my own as soon as they knew I'd figured it out. Dad did try steering me away from a couple things he thought I wasn't ready for yet, but he also shared things he enjoyed.
During my days in school, we had silent reading time before lessons. Kind of 'enforced reading' though we were given the freedom of choosing our preferred books. Didn't have much money and kept reading the same few books by Enid Blyton and then Roald Dahl.
Agreed. As I raised my kids, I found out pretty quickly that kids want to be given choices. Works everytime! And they both grew up to be amazing humans.
When I was a kid my parents let me read their books. My teacher said I had a reading problem didn’t believe my parents. Got tested. I was reading at a grade 11 level I was in grade 5. I was bored reading the school books.
Our old man loved, loved, loved driving on fam vacations. Our mom would take us kids to Waldenbooks before the trips and each of us got to pick out a book for the ride.
I still have the well-worn paperback of "Lost Horizon" from when I was, like, 13 or something.
My mom was smart.
I get parents in my bookstore all the time that won’t buy their kids graphic novels because it’s not really reading. I try to calmly explain that it in fact is, and it promotes them to challenge themselves further. But nope they would rather their kid hate reading all together
Which is wild bc if they looked at the graphic novels they’d see how incredible they are PLUS, nearly all big worlds have side novels too if they want them to read pages of prose. But nope, that’s too ‘silly’ for them. What they really want is their kid to read and recite dickens so they look fancy
Exactly I had one the other day that wouldn’t buy her daughter Percy Jackson because she needed to read the classics first. Percy Jackson is the new classics!
All reading is good. One of the greatest things to read as a child are the Asterix books. Fun to read, you learn a little bit about geography and history, there is normally some sort of moral lesson in them and working out what all the names really mean adds another dimension to the stories.
I wonder if some people have this assumption that traditional literature (such as works by Dickens or Poe) would be the only type that qualifies as “legitimate,” which is a silly assumption to make.
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I still have the well-worn paperback of "Lost Horizon" from when I was, like, 13 or something.
My mom was smart.
Then I decided to seek out science fiction and fantasy, and that changed everything.