From: robinsmith59 at comcast.net <robinsmith59>
Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 14:23:37 -0500

Reading patterns I see in my 7th and 8th graders (in a private K-8 school) are interesting. The boys who are big readers tend to read fantasy: Garth Nix, Pullman, Robert Jordan, Artemis Fowl, ... And a few other books have been popular this year with some 8th-grade boys: Jack Gantos's Hole in My Life, Walter Dean Myers's Fallen Angels (they're studying Vietnam in history class) and Monster, The Thief Lord.... My own son, by 8th grade, got hooked on Cormier and had also jumped into adult books: World War II novels, MIchael Crichton, John Grisham, Black Hawk Down, Stephen Ambrose, etc.

The girls tend to read what they themselves call "Girly Girl" books; they started with the Angus, Thongs (Louise Rennison) series, Sones's What My Mother Doesn't Know, Speak, Brashare's Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Second Summer of the Sisterhood, etc. I see these as perfectly good reads -- well written and appropriate for their age. They do not tend to read E. R. Frank, A. M. Jenkins, Alex Flinn, Chris Lynch, and others because I don't think they are aware of their books. I see them as appropriate for slightly older readers and don't have them in my classroom library (which is for grades 6-8), and they don't tend to be very energetic about going to bookstores or libraries (a whole different topic for discussion, sometime...). The girls have come across the more highly promoted (and not in my classroom, either) Gossip Girls series, which ups the ante on references to language, sex, alcohol. My intent for next year is to have more accessible adult books that might appeal to young adults -- Alex Award types of books. (See their website.) Occasionally a student will branch out; the girl who fanned everyone's interest in Gossip Girls also read Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible this year.

Clearly, librarians and teachers play a crucial role here. If I promote a book or series, knowing my students' interests pretty well, those books will be read. If a student liked Rennison's Georgia Nicolson books, I can suggest Brashares, and expect word of mouth to take care of things for a while; I know I'll have kids from other classes coming over for copies of the books their friends are recommending. A boy who loves Artemis Fowl is likely to go on to Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen by Garth Nix if someone is there to guide the way. A girl who has come to trust my suggestions, may try Anderson's Catalyst or Tashjian's The Gospel According to Larry, the latter called "the best book I've ever read" by a couple of my 8th graders this year. Unfortunately, not many parents know what to recommend, and not many towns are blessed with excellent bookstores run by people who know and love books for children and young adults. Yet, many towns have satisfactory bookstores and libraries, if only teachers encouraged their use and parents made trips there a weekly routine. If we can so turn kids onto books that they read up a storm, we may not have to worry about one type of book having undue effects on kids, while still hoping that the best books will inform the hearts and minds of our young people.

Also, listing new young adult books by the problems they deal with -- rape, incest, abuse, sex, racism, etc. -- makes the world of YA literature seem more disturbing than it is. Alex Flinn, A.M. Jenkins, E.R. Frank, Chris Lynch Sonya Sones, Ann Brashares, Laurie Halse Anderson are fine, serious, inventive writers with important things to say, and with an audience out their eager to hear what they have to say. The problem is less with their books than with matching them with appropriate audiences. And series such as Gossip Girls capitalize on young adults' legitimate interests in literature that speaks to them by marketing books that sensationalize and glamorize through inferior literature.

For my students, these are books they are choosing to read for free reading. In 8th grade, we have read Out of the Dust, Of Mice and Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, Gentlehands, Night, Bearing Witness (ed. by Hazel Rochman), The Land, classic short stories and poetry, etc. And next year, I'm adding Jennifer Armstrong's In My Hands to go with Night and Gentlehands. So, they have a fairly ambitious reading and writing program with me, AND they are reading all of these other books. I'm not as concerned with my students' finding their way to Gossip Girls and getting hooked on them for a while, if they have read a lot of other good class novels and free reading books along the way. My 7th graders have read The Road to Memphis, Dangerous Skies, Skellig, Good Night, Mr. Tom, The Giver, The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, The Last Safe Place on Earth, short stories, poetry, and so forth. So they are used to reading and discussing good books, some with strong themes.

One role of adults involved with children ought to be to nudge along their taste in reading. I remember my daughter reading Ellen Wittlinger's Hard Love in 8th grade, with my recommendation. It has some strong content, but it also has an innovative format, likeable characters, and much to say about love and friendship. What my daughter came away with was an interest in zines (experimental, self-made magazines), and she starting creating her own.

There's a big world of literature -- good and bad -- out there, and some difficult issues that are part of that world. At least with literature, as opposed to television and movies and computers, children have to become readers to involve themselves in worlds books offer to them.


Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, TN 37205 schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Sun 18 May 2003 02:23:37 PM CDT