These comics and posts show why you should never shame kids for reading whatever they like, or try and stop them from reading the “wrong” things. You should never shame anyone for reading really. If you force kids to only read things you want them to read and take away their comic books or kids books you will just end up turning them off from reading altogether. Let kids read whatever they like (as long as it’s appropriate for children of course). You can always try and encourage them to try reading new things, but don’t be like this overbearing mom:
Comic by: oddeyesarcpendulumdragon
(via: Fangoddesses)
I’m 62 and I still read stuff from my childhood! I still love the series “The Boxcar Children” ,”Pippi Longstockings”, and stuff I read with and to my Kids such as Harry Potter. And I have over 3,000 books in my very own library which is mostly stuff for older people, but I still have some of those great books from years ago! I had to shake down my sons when they moved out, so that I could keep my books. Cause they wanted them to!
I am a little younger than you, 52, and enjoy rereading Dragonriders of Pern, and Witch World series that I enjoyed when I was much younger. Both were considered taboo in the small southern town I went to school in and were loaned to me by my English teacher when the school library removed them and the public library would not let me check them out because I was too young.
Some of my favorite books are kids books, and I’m well over the half century mark. In fact, I have two whole shelves of kid/YA books that I bought just for myself. Give me a Bad Kitty or a Bunnicula book, and I’m one happy reader. And don’t even get me started on my Harry Potter lit addiction. (So much fanfiction, so thick bifocals…)
4 words. A Wrinkle In Time.
My reading journey as a child was Dr Seuss, to Ramona Quimby, to Sweet Valley High, to Stephen King((and other hard core horror)), to sci-fi & fantasy in general. I was never shamed or made fun of for what I read until I got to the fantasy stuff as a teenager, but by then my family was shaming me in general for anything i liked and that made me happy. But I was at least never told to not read things because of age or appropriateness.
I have a son who prefers nonfiction, and generally prefers quite a narrow field of books about transport. However, they’re books aimed at adult readers and he’s been inhaling them since he was eight or so. He has always had an excellent vocabulary and been a good writer. And he does like to listen to stories. So it clearly works for him… I wouldn’t mess with it.
A parent definitely can censor their child’s reading if they deem it to be necessary. Children are impressionable and might be drawn into really bad stuff, but instead cultivate a diverse palate of good things to find what the child likes.