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Trouble with more modern/current "literature"
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I can be a bit of a book snob. There, I said it. I have always gravitated to classic literature and stuff before…oh, idk, maybe the 1950s.
But one of my older (college) daughters recently challenged me on this and its got me thinking….
To me, there is a small place for light reading. Like the Boxcar Children books — I wouldn’t call that a “classic” but it’s a light, fun read. Like a snack or a sugary dessert in the broad and generous feast set before us.
I’m totally not saying I think it should be all Charles Dickens and Tolstoy (at any age!), but I am…almost phobic about current/modern books.
I certainly do not even know what titles to ask about, but I’m curious to hear what value others see in modern choices, what titles you’d recommend, that kind of thing, moral issues, character issues, etc.
Some titles I’m curious about: all of the Harry Potter books, Series of Unfortunate Events, Hunger Games, Holes, hmmm…that’s off the top of my head.
I guess one reason I’m rethinking this is from a social literacy standpoint. My kids pretty much never read what their peers read, so they can’t talk about books. I still want their main diet to be what it is, but recognize that maybe there is a place for these “snacks”…preferably without ruining their appetite?? Or maybe there are some really beautiful, quality modern reads out there; I’ve just never taken the time to find out and could use some direction.
Oh, this is for 8-10yo. Case in point: at a recent church activity for 8-11yo girls, they were supposed to bring a favorite book and tell about it. 8yo brought the Narnia books (all 7 bound in one volume), and the 10yo wanted to bring The Hobbit but we only have that on the Kindle so she brought this Dictionary of Middle Earth and talked about both. I love that those are favorites, but everyone else brought what seemed like…ugh…just garbage, to my woefully judgmental mind. What do you guys do with these situations? Do your kids connect on books with other kids their age?
I have ready Harry Potter, and Hinger Games. I would say that Harry Potter is much better Literature and tackles a lot of issues such a discrimination, good triumphing over evil, making the right choices even if they aren’t the popular ones, the power/importance of friendship. There are so many more.
Hunger games is less deep but definitely gets you thinking about the things that can happen when the government has total control. I would say that in today’s world it is not a stretch that this could happen. The books are very similar to gladiator times Rome just set in the US.
I was not allowed to read Harry potter as a kid, even though all my friends did, because they had magic. I read them in college and my kids will read them.
MLIP, I really like your snack analogy for modern books. I loved Holes when I taught fourth grade, and will probably read it with my boys in the next few years. For my leisure reading, I gravitate toward juvenile and young adult literature. My boys (6 &8) love older, richer stories, and we read those, too, but I don’t think all modern stuff is to be disregarded. I would wait for the Hunger Games. I enjoyed them, and they’re great for talking about dystopian societies, but a LOT of graphic violence. Kids killing kids.
A snack example for us recently: The Chocolate Touch. Fun, and funny. We had just read about King Midas, and it was really cool to see the boys connect the two stories on their own. We also recently read the Nathaniel Flood: Beastologist series by R.L. Lafevers. It was a fun series about a family that has sworn over time to protect “mythological” beasts.
That said, I totally avoid things like Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, etc.
I found Series of Unfortunate Events depressing. I started to read the first one to my fourth graders, and put it away, because I didn’t like it.
Harry Potter has been huge over time, and are interesting. I read the first couple, and liked the writing and story, but I personally struggle with the glorification of witches and warlocks. We have some dark things in our family’s past, so I avoid the HP books for now. Maybe not forever, but for now.
Oh and about Harry Potter, JK Rowling wrote the books with the idea that the child reading would be the same age as Harry. He is 11 in the first book, and they do get progressivly darker.
Narnia and Tolkein are big around here! Not just with my kids but with others they know though many are homeschoolers too. I thought Holes was okay and my son loved the Harry Potter books. Other series we have loved:
Michael Scott’s The secrets of the immortal Nicholas Flamal
Wing feather saga
The Penderwicks
The Sisters Grimm
The Incorrigibles
Safie’s Angel and its sequels
Mysterious Lady in Pink…it’s funny you should bring this up. I just had a similar conversation with a friend today.
One of our older dd’s read Series of Unfortunate Events and loved them around 3rd/4th grade. However, this was prior to homeschooling and prior to my knowledge of living books. She just graduated from homeschooling after 7 years of being home. After the last few years of great classic literature and living books, she feels sheepish and sees that they were twaddle. We’ve never read Harry Potter or Hunger Games because we don’t care for that genre.
Regarding social literacy, a couple years ago, our younger kids joined a homeschool book club. At the first meeting, everyone was to bring their favorite book and discuss it. One child brought “Dora Goes Potty” or something like that. Our kids were mortified at the thought of never reading a better book than that. When it was our turn to choose a book for the group to read, we chose Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. Unfortunately, we were the only family to finish the book. The others complained of the difficult language and lack of interest. Needless to say, we eventually faded from the group for lack of a good fit.
Since, our dd age 10 joined another homeschool book club. When it was our turn to suggest a book, our dd chose Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Again, very few families finished the book, stating it was too difficult.
Long story short, our kids suffer from so called modern “social literacy”, but none of them seem to care. I feel like they’ve made it their mission to share quality literature whenever they can :)) After reading good books, they have no desire to go back to twaddle regardless of what peers think.
Sorry if I’m rambling, it’s late and I need sleep :0
Blessings,
Melissa
My kids have had a mix of experiences so far. My oldest (13yo) actually has had positive experiences connecting with others around books, but there have been very many occasions where she’s not read something her peers have (ex: the Twilight Saga, The Fault in our Stars, etc). She has a few friends at church that DO discuss books and recommend titles to one another. With that said, she has no trouble telling them why we’ve NOT read certain books, and we look for reviews on titles that are recommended to her before adding something they suggest to her to read shelf.
I think the biggest positives for us have been two-fold and not peer group dependent.
1. We have cousins living out of state and homeschooling who do read some of the same books we have read and they talk about them together. For example, usually by email, but this week those cousins are visiting and the kids have all discussed books they love, characters they love/hate, what they would have written for the story, etc. All of this has just naturally happened for the cousins.
2. We have our homeschool book club that I started several years ago. Unlike Melissa, ours has been a good fit, probably because we went into it setting the ground rules and with an eye toward living books. The moms select books together as a group for several months at a time and it is rare for a family not to finish a book. It has happened a few times when a book really didn’t fit the family due to the sensitivity of a child.
Is there a place for lighter reading? Sure. Not a steady diet of it, but an occasional snack. We’re pretty picky on what comes in the house to read. We simply set family standards that are as true for the kids as they are for the parents. So while a light read may come in an objectionable content read will not.
I completely don’t think you should change your kids reading choices to match their peers. But there are some good books written more recently. I wanted to add to my list above the Rick Riordan books and my son also likes Cornelia Funke. These both might be things other kids have read if your kids are anxious to be able to talk books with their friends. Oh and my kids never took to them but there is Redwall too.
Nebby
Your responses are all very interesting to me. I really appreciate the descriptions and other suggestions offered. I am not looking to completely change my children’s diet of books, but considering the value of introducing these snacks…admittedly wondering if the possibility exists that they will develop such a taste for those that the books offering more sustenance will then be less desirable??
And as my 8yo finished reading Bambi today, refusing to go outside to play with sibs until she finished the last chapter, I also considered if I should bother with any of this at all. Granted, she read the book over a week as free reading, so that wasn’t exactly savoring it. 😉
And I guess as a follow-up, for those who do incorporate modern readings, what are your expectations or standards? Is it more about it NOT conflicting with your moral standards, or is it about actively seeking portray positive decision making and character development? What about the beauty of the language…does that factor in at all, or do you just expect nothing?
I’m just thinking of how often I’ve heard patents talk about modern books being “classics” and…when I’m not wincing in pain from that designation…I’m wondering what that even means to them.
Well, I allow my kids to read everything and anything. They go through periods of reading “snack books” but usually after something fairly heavy and full of ideas. Right now my daugher (12) is reading Parvana’s Journey which she is really enjoying. My son (14) is reading The Pickwick Papers (for fun!). Daughter (10) who I was told would never be able to read is gobbling up the Ramona Quimby books. Son (5) can’t get enough of Narnia and asks me to read it every chance he gets. Son (2) walks around with his Curious Geoge book all day! That said, daughter 12 also devours the Warrior books, Son (14) enjoys Dean Koonz, Daughter 10 enjoys all the Pony Pal books, Son (5) loves the lego easy readers…Our selves are full of all kinds of books and comics. All my children loves to read and to be read to and they never shy away from “feasting” books.
I should add though that we talk about books, why others are reading what they are and what might attract them to those books. Twilight comes to mind. I never said they couldn’t read them but we talked about why they seemed appealing to people and in the end none of my children had any desire to read them…same goes for The Fault in Our Stars and others. Sort of like eating at fast food restaurants i suppose. It’s not that I say we can’t eat there but we talk about all our other options and those seem much more appealing. (Had to laugh when the 5 year old saw that one fast food restaurant had some sort of lego toy offered and he begged to go and eat there. I didn’t have to say a word. My 12 year old told him all about the food and offered to use her own money to purchase some new lego if that was what was important to him.)
I’m not much help on your specific question because I let dd read what she likes, with me checking on it first. No vampires, witches etc. But they aren’t classics, unfortunately. We do get those ‘in’ once in a while but some we just don’t like. We tried Bambi recently and she isn’t into the personification of Bambi and friends and the very descriptive writing of the outdoors. If after a good go at books and she just isn’t into them, I don’t push it. We also didn’t like Pinocchio 🙂 We listened to it but we just weren’t hooked…can’t remember why. However! She did like a book, whose title I can’t recall now, and it was set in the early 1900’s. I must say, though, I have decided to include more classes in our learning year come fall. I just know which she most likely won’t like and will stay away from those 🙂
Here is why I piped in!…I wonder if you’ve read, ‘Deconstructing Penguins’ on how to read a book for all it’s worth? The Goldstones go indepth into a handful of books and a couple of poems. They talk about how they see books as mysteries with much more to unravel beyond what you read. And it shows how to deconstruct a book and be able to judge it’s merits in doing so. So, I thought if your kids read this book and then have some ‘dessert’ books, a talk can ensue between you all and see if it was worthwhile to put their time into reading these dessert books.
Deconstructing Penguins…love it!
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