Comments on: Things I’m Thinking About

By: Liz B

Liz B — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 22:08:34 +0000

Roger, I agree & dislike how often a “kids aren’t reading” argument becomes, instead, “kids aren’t reading and liking in the proper way this book/type of book.”

Sondy, sometimes a valuable story is the one that allows the reader to either a, learn the lesson by seeing what happens to a fictional character or b, figure out on their own the mistakes made by a fictional character and deciding to do things differently. I think that is just as valuable a literary interaction.

By: Sondy

Sondy — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:27:17 +0000

Both my sons are heavy readers. Both have just grown out of the YA demographic. But I sure never would have worried about either of them taking Edward or Jacob for a role model! Yes, they read a lot of YA novels. No, not Twilight.

But I agree with you about the whole “role model” question. My older son loved the book Feed, by M. T. Anderson, but he was definitely smart enough not to take the narrator as a role model. I didn’t recommend books to them to give them role models. And they didn’t have any trouble finding books that suited them. I have a hard time getting worked up about this issue, because I also didn’t have a hard time finding books that suited me in the dark ages 40 years ago.

By: Roger Sutton

Roger Sutton — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:04:54 +0000

I think this is mostly about the books girls wish boys would read.

By: Liz B

Liz B — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:47:20 +0000

Roger, that is a great point, and one of the things I wondered about is also the “type of fiction” being talked about. Let’s, oh, take a look at comic books — or science fiction — or adventure books — There are books that boys are reading (oh, and a nod to the role model possibilities in nonfiction books) so is this more about the boys and one segment of books?

By: Roger Sutton

Roger Sutton — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:23:43 +0000

Is anyone taking up the point that teen boys don’t read as much fiction as do girls? I suppose you could make the argument that more teen boys would read more fiction if there was more fiction aimed at them, but I feel like that’s been tried several times during the thirty years I’ve been paying attention. As a boy, I sometimes get a little skeeved out by girl critics who think they know what’s best for me.