I'm not NOT a proponent of reading, at all. FWIW, however, I never in my life saw my parents read any book when I was growing up, and I was a voracious reader anyway. But they did buy me a lot of books, so I got the message that as a child I was "supposed" to read.
What I was trying to say was that I'm very much against the line of thought that says a book has merit just because it's readable, and therefore it doesn't matter that a book promotes, say, being a materialistic and shallow person (Gossip Girl, which constantly gets propped up with "at least it gets girls reading" - I'd seriously rather have my kid watch Who Wants To Be A Millionaire than read GG) or that a book is written horribly. What that implies is that you (general you) don't think your kid's actually absorbing anything from what they're reading, which is like the opposite of what reading SHOULD do. So either your kid is getting awful messages, or the writing is so bad it's barely activating your kid's brain cells. Either way: worthless. And I'm talking about bad books here. By far not all children's books, of which there are many I think are good.
Of course, kids will read what they will read. But I think "at least it gets kids reading" is a hollow compliment. Does it make 'em think, is what I want to know. Enid Blyton is another author who's constantly supported by the "at least she gets kids reading" line, but as a kid reading her books (given as presents) she made me violently NOT want to read because I found her depiction of girls and her plots stupid. So yeah, I needed to find an author who did not write like her. Which is to say it does matter what's between the pages.
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What I was trying to say was that I'm very much against the line of thought that says a book has merit just because it's readable, and therefore it doesn't matter that a book promotes, say, being a materialistic and shallow person (Gossip Girl, which constantly gets propped up with "at least it gets girls reading" - I'd seriously rather have my kid watch Who Wants To Be A Millionaire than read GG) or that a book is written horribly. What that implies is that you (general you) don't think your kid's actually absorbing anything from what they're reading, which is like the opposite of what reading SHOULD do. So either your kid is getting awful messages, or the writing is so bad it's barely activating your kid's brain cells. Either way: worthless. And I'm talking about bad books here. By far not all children's books, of which there are many I think are good.
Of course, kids will read what they will read. But I think "at least it gets kids reading" is a hollow compliment. Does it make 'em think, is what I want to know. Enid Blyton is another author who's constantly supported by the "at least she gets kids reading" line, but as a kid reading her books (given as presents) she made me violently NOT want to read because I found her depiction of girls and her plots stupid. So yeah, I needed to find an author who did not write like her. Which is to say it does matter what's between the pages.