Comments on: Riffs: David Mills/Noel Cordle: What Are Our Kids Reading, Anyway?

By: jordan

jordan — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:53:04 +0000

“I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which ‘Escape’ is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?”
— J.R.R. Tolkien

By: Don’t write what you know about | Carpe Cakem!

Don’t write what you know about | Carpe Cakem! — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:32:31 +0000

[...] topic of children’s reading material was discussed over at Internet Monk a few days ago. I think this could shed some light on that discussion. This is why young adult [...]

By: Savannah

Savannah — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:17:29 +0000

I have not read the “Twilight” books, but my overall impression is that the criticism of them is probably spot-on. However, I would caution too much attempt to exert control in this area, particularly for a teen.

I went through an extremely brief phase when I was a young teen where I read about two or three Harlequin romance novels. This was “out of character” for me, because I had already read enormous amounts of great quality literature, largely considered “far beyond” my years. But all of my girlfriends were reading them and they were the “going thing”. My folks were scandalized that I would even consider reading such drivel and said so in no uncertain terms – repeatedly. However, my curiosity was piqued and at that point, I just had to read one. So I borrowed a few, sneaked them into my bedroom, and read them with a flashlight at night. They were stupid, monotonous, and I very quickly tired of them. I never admitted to my folks, though, that they were right because #1) I didn’t want them to know I had read any, and #2), I did have some self-respect.

I’m not saying that parents don’t have the right to attempt to control their offspring’s reading material; I am just pointing out that making a big fuss can have the unintended consequence of making the “forbidden fruit” all that more interesting. There is just a balance to be struck, that’s all.

By: denise and wesley

denise and wesley — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:14:52 +0000

I am 28 years old and I have been reading this blog for about half an hour. It is interesting, and obviously you all are very gifted writers who are extremely well read – I just wanted to throw this out there: I am the daughter (only child)of two Jewish Athiest school-teachers (if you can conceptualize such a thing). I was taught that education is the most important thing in life, God and Jesus are silly things that silly people talk about, and all sex, violence,drugs, cursing, etc. in books, music, tv, and video games were completely OFF LIMITS BECAUSE THEY SAID SO. by the time i was in high school i was vehemently pursuing any kind of exposure to sex, violence, cursing, drug use, alcohol use, etc that i could find in real life as well as in music, books, and movies – i was purposely screaming as many expletives in my parents faces as i could, deliberately failing school…flash forward to my twenties – I become a coke-head, meth addict, bulimic, adulterer, fornicator, drunk chick dancing on bars karaokeing to Jay-Z ….
LONG STORY SHORT I got saved in Victory Chapel a year ago and my husband and I have been serving God ever since. My parents are astonished, amazed, “proud” even (lol), yet they still feel that they don’t need Jesus, they are successes in life, they don’t need to pray, yada yada. So any way, my point is that no matter what your kids are exposed to in life, God still has the power and the desire to save them and transform their lives.

By: Headless Unicorn Guy

Headless Unicorn Guy — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:30:41 +0000

P.S. re Twilight:

Another kicker:

I’m a member of two Christian genre writers’ lists. Around a month ago, one list had a report from some sort of Christian Publishers’ conference (probably CBA/ECPA). Our informant claimed that buzz at the conference was that The Next Big Thing in CHRISTIAN (TM) Fiction was going to be “Paranormal Romance”.

Note that a common nickname for “Paranormal Romance” among genre writers is “vampire porn” and you can see where this is heading. Add “Christian (TM)” as an adjective and what you get is “Just like Twilight, except CHRISTIAN (TM)!”

I have terrible images of CHRISTIAN (TM) Twilight knockoffs filling Christian (TM) Bookstores for 2010-2011, where the Uber-HAWT Sparkling Vampires pass out Four Spiritual Laws tracts and walk the aisle for the obligatory Altar Call Ending…

By: Aliasmoi

Aliasmoi — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:06:25 +0000

Well, keep in mind that I have a kid who read War and Peace in 7th grade. I kid you all not!! I have never gotten past page 150 of War and Peace, but my kid read the whole thing, and kept a note book of who was who and how they were related in 7th grade. When we lived near Richmond they had a program called Excellerated Reader. Kids read books and took tests on them for points (determined by test score and how hard the book was), and the kid with the most points at the end of the year got $100. My kid won every year we lived there. Would I have a problem with my high school junior or senior reading DH Lawrence? Nope. My 7th grader? Absolutely.

Of course this makes me think of the time we ran into a former literature professor of mine, and my son was standing there talking to him about all the books he’d read. I was standing there thinking, “When did you read THAT?” My professor said to me, “Well done!”

By: Monika

Monika — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:55:00 +0000

I’m sixteen and a huge reader. Mostly fantasy, but I do try out other genres (whatever my mom might say). I definitely think that the usual books for teen girls are absolute trash. Although the extent of my reading them was middle school when I started the “clique” series, and I finally just refused to continue, I read them because it was what my friends were reading. When I go to Borders I skip about 2/3 of the entire young adult section, which is pretty frustrating.

Vampire books pretty much qualify as trash to me too. I did read Twilight, and yes I liked it, but had no desire to try out the other stuff in that category. I look at Twilight as not being perfect, or even great, but it’s way better than some of the other stuff.

My parents don’t censor what I read, but they aren’t completely oblivious either. I talked with my mom a lot about Twilight, both the good and bad. Then ironically when I asked my older sister (21) to read them for her mature opinion, she became obsessed just like most high school girls. My dad read the Chronicles of Narnia to me and my brother and sister when we were little. I don’t remember that at all, but I’m pretty sure it affected the way I read now.

Some of my favorites are The Pellinor series, the Darkangel trilogy, the Snow walker, The Obernewtyn Chronicles, Wildwood Dancing, The Chanters of Tremaris Trilogy, Treasure at the heart of the tanglewood, Diana Wynne Jones (author), Robin McKinley (author) as well as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Till we have faces, and anything Jane Austen. That’s only a little.

I’ve come across plenty of trash, but personally can take the good from a book and leave the bad.

By: Headless Unicorn Guy

Headless Unicorn Guy — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:08:34 +0000

The Twilight series are dreadful, dreadful, dreadful books and every parent should try to persaude their daughters not to read them. They portray downright evil behaviour as being something to aspire to. Edward stalks Bella, denies her the right to make her own choices of who she sees, kills her, dominates her life and he is the Good Guy of the series. — Donalbain

I second that. Twilight/Sparklepire bashing is common on several blogs I read, and here’s a short synopsis:

BELLA: “OOOOO! EDWARD! YOU’RE SO *HAWT*!!!!!!!”
EDWARD: (sparkle sparkle sparkle)
Repeat for 400+ pages in each volume.
Repeat for each volume.

The reviewer over at Hollywood Jesus described it as “Porn for Women” (with Edward as a male version of The Perfect Porn Star) and felt sorry for all the teenage boys who now have to compete with Perfect HAWT Edward (sparkle sparkle sparkle).

One (secular) friend described it as “Bored Mormon Housewife’s Wank Fantasy”, an opinion shared by the actor who played Edward in the movie (and has had to fight off Twihards since). Another LiveJournal type (who I can’t find now) did an analysis as to how closely Edward (sparkle sparkle) resembles a certain Joseph Smith. (The accompanying picture of a Joseph Smith statue from a Mormon Temple Visitor Center with animated bishie-sparkles makes that entire LJ.)

Twihard: Drooling Twilight fangirl, Bella wannabe.
Twimom: 50+ year-old Twihard.

The RL Washington town where the novel (and its never-ending bestseller sequels) are set is getting pretty sick of Twihards making pilgrimages. (Kind of like that town where they filmed The Blair Witch Project.)

Plus there are apocrphyal stories of Twihards reacting violently to any dissing of Twilight or Edward — including baseball-bat beatdowns, shank-across-throat, and acid-into-face attacks. (”EDWARD! I’M DOING THIS FOR YOUUUUUU!!!”)

Now for the real kicker:

A lot of Christians recommended Twilight because “Edward and Bella Save Themselves for Marriage”. Completely ignoring the creepy stalking behavior.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:16:19 +0000

The Odyssey should be a natural for kids – I’d argue it’s the first ever work of science fiction. I think the two problems with getting kids to read it are is imposing length and the fact that most translations are poetry. The Samuel Butler translation is my favorite, and is in prose so it’s much less of a chore to read. If someone would do an abridged version of the Butler translation for pre-high school, I think they’d be on to something.

By: Donalbain

Donalbain — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:28:13 +0000

*gets down off high horse*