"Real" Books

Today while I was working, I observed a parent tell her children to go and pick "real books" to check out. The kids had already selected a reasonable stack of books, largely selections of paperback series, but mom told them in no uncertain terms that their choices were, "junk...like cartoons." The word I would use to describe Mom's tone of voice as she expressed this view is "condescending."

This sort of attitude is disturbing to me for several reasons:

• There is absolutely nothing wrong with paperback series. Kids of this age (these two were ages 8-10 or so) often find comfort in the formula often found in these series, and enjoy being able to follow the adventures of familiar characters. Reading a paperback "Secrets of Droon" or even a "Rainbow Magic" or "Pokemon" book isn't going to kill a kid's brain. At lest they're reading - any exposure to the written word is always better than no exposure.
• If you want your kids to be readers, you first need to teach them to love reading. If reading becomes a chore, or if kids don't enjoy what they read, they won't want to keep doing it. And if they don't want to read, even if they're forced to they won't get nearly as much out of it. Telling your kids that they made poor choices in their reading, especially in a critical, condescending tone, and forcing them to read books they aren't interested in are both sure-fire way to turn kids off to reading.

Yes, there are plenty of amazing stand-alone novels that I really hope that kids will read and enjoy them. And I'll agree with this mother that many of these novels have higher-quality writing than paperback series. And I don't even think that there necessarily anything wrong with encouraging your kids to expand their horizons and explore these great novels. But there's no reason to have this sort of derogatory attitude toward paperbacks. Just because they're somewhat formulaic doesn't mean that they're not "real" books - don't rule them out just yet.