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What Are Your Kids Reading?
Responsible parenting is very much on everyone’s
mind these days. Everywhere you look there are articles being written about it,
television shows and videos which aim to alert parents to potential dangers
facing their children, and websites and home pages filled with useful and
helpful tips. The concerned parent has never had as many tools or as much
information available to them to protect their children.
But, what are your kids reading?
Yes, that’s right, reading. Ten years ago, I read
an article which said that reading skills in America ranked among the lowest in
the industrialized nations of the world. The printed word was no longer viable,
the interactive game was in, and civilization as we knew it was over. LCD
readout had eplaced ink on paper as far as kids were concerned, and there was
nothing that anybody could do about it.
And then along came J.K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket,
and a number of others and BANG – according to Publishers Weekly, the
Children’s/Young Adult book market is the fastest growing market in publishing!
Tens of millions of books per year are printed for the 6-15 year old market,
encompassing thousands of titles and hundreds of different sorts of subject
matter. Go to any local library and the odds are that you will find that the
Children’s/Young Adult section is one of the largest there is. And, of course,
as children grow older and their reading skills continue to improve, the entire
world of adult literature becomes available to them.
This, of course, is not a bad thing – however,
even though a child has the skills to read something, the responsible parent
needs to ask themselves: But do I really want them reading that yet? Is it, for
example, appropriate for 8 year olds who have the skills to do so to read The
Diary of Anne Frank, even though in many cases the child may not have developed
the emotional maturity to be able to handle some of the more intense and
disturbing aspects of that work?
All too often, parents adopt an attitude that
goes something like: Well, at least they are reading. Whatever it is, it’s
better than them sitting in front of the television! Unfortunately, this is not
always the case. It is important to remember that a child’s imagination is
usually far more vibrant than an adult’s is and, depending on their age, the
line between what is real and what is imaginary is less clear. Children can be
affected by the words they read on a number of different levels, and will often
times emulate the characters they meet in books – both in their attitudes and
their behaviors. As a parent, it is important that the books you allow your
child to read reflect the value system that you have tried to instill in them.
Just as with the monitoring you do of what your child watches on television or
what video games he plays or websites he visits, if you don’t want your child
exposed to (or think that they are too young for) violence, sexual content, drug
use, or anything else a Young Adult or Children’s book may contain, it is up to
you to make sure that they aren’t until you feel they are ready.
As with every other part of the publishing
industry, sales and sales alone drive what is published in the world of
Children/Young Adult literature and the trend recently seems to be towards more
sophisticated storylines which often times outline many of the less positive
aspects of our culture and life. As a responsible parent, it is up to you to
decide when you feel your children have reached the point in their emotional
development where you believe they will be able to process this sort of
information without harm.
The problem then becomes: How can I possibly read
all the books my children want to read before they do? Makes you wish you had an
extra set of eyes, right?
There are some resources out there to help guide
you. But, most of them either give you a synopsis, which frequently lacks enough
details to make a truly educated decision, or, they only do write-ups of the
good books, which would be fine if we lived in a perfect world. But things are
looking up! There is a website, launched in 2005, that reviews books (and
movies) from a parent’s perspective. Each book is critiqued on positive and
negative examples of character traits (i.e. honesty, compassion, responsibility,
etc.); as well as providing specific examples of any negative areas of influence
(i.e. drug usage, sexual content, violence, etc.). All of these examples will
tell a parent, at a glance, if that book is appropriate for their particular
child.
Instilling the love of reading in a child’s life
is one of the most important and positive things you can do for them as a
parent. Watching what your child reads, and allowing them to grow into the books
you choose together, is one way to help ensure that the values you have worked
so hard to teach your children are reinforced by something that they love to do!
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