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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

31 Days:::There is Something to be Said for Mainstream:::Young Adult Reads


I'm pretty sure that we have all seen (if not read, or watched the movies) these book covers, right?  They grabbed the media by the horns and made national headlines.  Some of them are still making national headlines. 

And I'm ok with that. 

These are the books that have convinced children to read.  That have convinced teens that even though they are beyond going to an elementary school media center every week that it is still cool to read.

They have become part of our culture.  As a teacher, they are the books that I found to be the ones that I had to read if I was going to have any kind of credibility with my students.  If you are a parent and your child shows interest in these books, read them or read them together, or read them separately but together and talk about them on the way to school or the soccer game or in the drive thru line at McDonald's. 

I strongly believe that parents should take an active role in what their kids are reading and that you are in charge of deciding when they're ready for different mainstream books.

For us, I read the first Harry Potter book out loud to the girls over the summer in between 2nd and 3rd grades.  We snuggled up on the couch together and read.  When they visited my aunt in Chicago for a week that summer, they brought the book and she read to them.  At the end of the summer, after we had finished the book, we watched the movie.

The girls haven't read Twilight and they haven't expressed a huge desire to either.  Three years ago, I had a Twilight book club with a group of 5th grade girls in the library in the morning.  They had parent permission and teacher recommendations - would they be able to stick with a book of that length?  They had all seen the movie and were chomping at the bit to read the book.  So we read and discussed, compared it to the movie. 

Chandler was desperate to read The Hunger Games.  Chris and I had both read it several years ago and felt like she would be fine to read it.  But we saw the movie before granting permission for that - and after our viewing, we decided that she wasn't quite ready to see it live and in person.

Sometimes peer pressure is good.  Peer pressure to participate in underage drinking = bad.  Peer pressure to READ = good.

But, now here's the question...what do you do when you have finished these books?  What do you read next???

{that's coming tomorrow!}


5 comments:

yourfriendrobin said...

The Shadow Children was a pretty cool young adult series, if you liked the Hunger Games. It's probably a lower level...maybe 5th grade level or so, but I got hooked and read the whole thing in a long weekend a few years back.

There was another one that looked intriguing, but I haven't read it yet so I can't say for sure, called Uglies (and I want to say there was a Pretties, too.) I will read that as soon as I get my hands on it.

♥B said...

I've read them all except Lightening Thief. As a teacher I read a lot of YA fiction and I find most of it to be quite good.

♥B
With Love From Michigan

Angie said...

The Shadow Children will be making an appearance in a few days! :)

Kristin said...

I have read The Sisterhood books, but I haven't ready any of the others (even though I read a lot). The problem is 1) the rest of the books don't really appeal to me and since I'm busy with 5 kids, I read what I know I'll like...and 2) I'm a bit of a rebel and if everyone likes it, I tend to stay away. Not a good attitude, I guess. :-) I'm really tempted to read The Hunger Game books, though.

Christy Diaz said...

I adore reading so I look forward to the rest of these posts. I resisted reading the Harry Potter series for years (despite Juli's best efforts) and when I finally did, I loved them. Twilight...not so much. And, Kristin, I don't know you but you should definitely read The Hunger Games.