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June 21, 2006
For the "Incorrigibly Bookish".......
.....a review on Michael Dirda's Book by Book in Books and Culture.
A paragraph I liked:
Dirda encourages us not to read authors just so we can cross them off a list, but to read what actually stimulates us. Adults should heed this advice not only when it comes to themselves but also for their children—especially today, when video games consume more and more of many a child's free time. In a chapter on encouraging children to read, Dirda urges parents to foster any reading interest their child has, no matter how silly or uninspiring the topic might be. (This reviewer remembers her parents, including a mother who worked in a children's bookstore, along with many parents at the time, tolerantly cringing all the way through the Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High series phases.) "The child who reads The Hardy Boys will read Agatha Christie tomorrow and Crime and Punishment a few years after… The worst thing you can do is ignore or denigrate a child's taste," Dirda writes.
This strikes me as true. We've let Zman read what he likes, and we shuddered through the Goosebumps series. And it really DID turn into Sherlock Holmes and then into Father Brown....
Posted by MamaT at June 21, 2006 12:19 AM
Comments
Kevin went through a time when ALL he would read was Calvin and Hobbes comics. My mom would say "at least he is reading something!"
J-bear loves to read, i'm not sure what the others will be like. K should be learning in Kindergarden this year so we'll see what happens from there.
Posted by: aisling at June 21, 2006 12:33 AM