"...at least it gets them reading" Is that a good thing?

[MaryMcDonald]

I've been trawling the KB archives of threads on popular books, and I'm struck by the number of times somebody will say - "OK, its a rotten book, but at least it gets the kids reading."

But...is reading a valuable activity all on its own, no matter what you are reading?  Or is the idea that books like these are like "gateway drugs" - will read the user to reading other, better books?  And - does it actually work that way? 

I think it does lead to reading more and more. At least, it shows kids that reading isn't work and something to be dreaded. Not every kid who reads a crappy book will go on to become an avid reader, but many others will get hooked on reading. When they run out of whatever books are in the series that caught their eye, they'll seek out other books like it, and in doing so, will stumble across something else in the same category that catches their eye. Or they'll tell someone about the awesome book they are reading and that person will say, Oh yeah! I loved those! If you like them, you'll really like this other book...

Even if they never read another book for pleasure, at least they'll understand why others do.

[Masha du Toit]

Even if they never read another book for pleasure, at least they'll understand why others do.

That's a good point!

[dgaughran]

Anything that gets them reading gets my vote. I don't care if it's cereal boxes or the "articles" in Playboy.

EDIT: Assuming they are the requisite age of course 

[Tamara Rose Blodgett]

That was part of my "sly parenting" that I applied to my boys. I'd read a great book that had all the elements I thought they'd like and I hand-fed it to them. By selecting "can't put it down books," it seemed to (4 voracious readers later) set the hook, and I would keep them coming. Then, when the next son would get to the right age...they'd get that book to read. It had a domino-effect. The younger boys would see the older one reading and ask about it! "Rotten" books are rotten. No feeding the chicks spoiled fruit!

As an aside: I loved reading so much that I was back-reading all their books or reading them before they would and we would discuss plots and details later. Before I knew it, they were telling me when the next book was[coming] out, or (super-exciting) recommending books!

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

This was an endless discussion/argument we had when I belonged to the Children's Book Forum.
I think it's a love of reading that needs encouragement, and if that means beginning with comics that's ok as once children develop the habit of reading they can then be steered towards books. 

[MichelleR]

I've been trawling the KB archives of threads on popular books, and I'm struck by the number of times somebody will say - "OK, its a rotten book, but at least it gets the kids reading."

But...is reading a valuable activity all on its own, no matter what you are reading?  Or is the idea that books like these are like "gateway drugs" - will read the user to reading other, better books?  And - does it actually work that way?  

I was raised in a house of readers -- my mother and grandmother -- but they weren't reading the highbrow stuff. Books obtained from the grocery store. Stephen King, John Saul, Barbara Michaels, Catherine Cookson, romance novels. I'm not saying that these weren't intelligently written, but they weren't literary fiction and they are to this day frowned on by others. As a child, I read some of the expected stuff -- Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louisa May Alcott, etc. -- but mostly I read the adult books available to me. Oh, my mother read me Jaws as a bedtime story.

When I started picking out my own books I went the romance novel route. You know how I found Wuthering Heights? A cross between a Kate Bush/Pat Benatar song and an episode of fantasy island where some woman wanted to be Cathy. That lead me, I believe, to Jane Eyre. I read Gone With The Wind because I was staying at my grandfather's cottage and I was too scared to sleep, since I didn't have my own bedroom at home until I was 13. I stayed up reading.

So, yeah, I think "as long as they're reading" is a thing, because seeing other people read made me value it, being able to read well through reading a lot of books made me comfortable enough to pick up a classic when Mr. Roarke suggested it   or take one off a bookshelf if I had an inkling it had romance in it.

I don't believe in book snobbery. I say people/kids should read what they want and it'll foster curiosity in their leisure reading and the skills needed for the mandatory stuff. I think my mother and grandmother gave me a gift on that score.

I'll confess something that I usually don't mention. I never went to college. It wasn't valued in my immediate family and I only found out well into adulthood that my grandfather would have paid for it. So, I've never HAD to read classics or explore any number of my interests through books -- that was all a choice because I was raised to read something, anything and it made me skilled enough to read whatever caught my fancy.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH-oiBAubg4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH-oiBAubg4</a>

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I think this sums it up.

BOOKS HAVE IT ALL

At home everybody read. My mother, my father and my grandparents. As I looked at their faces bending over their books I noticed that sometimes they smiled, sometimes they looked grave, sometimes they turned the page with excitement, and I wondered what was happening to them while they read. They didn’t seem to hear if I spoke to them and if they eventually did listen to me it was as if they had come back from somewhere. Why didn’t they take me with them? What was in the books? What was that secret they didn’t share with me?
Then I learnt to read. I learnt the secret of the books. That they have everything in them. Not just fairies, goblins, princesses and wicked witches, but you and me too, our joys, our worries, our hopes, our sorrows; good and bad, true and false, nature and the universe – it’s all there in the books. Open your books! Let them share all their secrets with you.

      ~ from the message for 2001 International Children’s Book Day by Eva Janikovszky.

[drenfrow]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH-oiBAubg4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH-oiBAubg4</a>

I was a huge Pat Benatar fan back in the day and absolutely loved this song.  I thought the fact that it was about Wuthering Heights was so cool and it totally captures the passion of that relationship.  I love that the song lead you to the book.

I am definitely of the "reading anything is better than reading nothing" persuasion myself. 

[KerylR]

I'll be a dissenting voice here.  Though to start with, I don't think any action is inherently good, everything needs a context.  

And, though I love to read, and hope to raise boys who love to read, if the stuff they're reading is total crap, I might rather they spent some time watching good television, or playing an educational video game, or if I'm feeling really frisky, playing outside in the fresh air and getting some sunshine.

See, while it's true that reading can improve vocabulary, it has to have words they haven't run into before to do that.  And it can improve mental cognition, but so do good video games these days.  And no book on earth does a better job of burning calories than running around kicking a ball.

Now, my definition of total crap is probably not nearly as exacting as most people's, but if it's a matter of say, reading Captain Underpants, or going out for a walk, I'll push my kids toward the walk.

[Skate]

As a school library officer, I have to say that there are books in our library that I consider to be very over-rated (to put it politely), yet they are extremely popular and sometimes the only books certain children will read. I don't discourage them from reading them, but if a child asks me for a good book to read, I definitely don't bring those ones off the shelf.

As a mother, though, I do encourage my own kids to read more than potty humour, rehashed plots and stories that they could have written themselves.

[Masha du Toit]

I'll be a dissenting voice here.  Though to start with, I don't think any action is inherently good, everything needs a context.  

And, though I love to read, and hope to raise boys who love to read, if the stuff they're reading is total crap, I might rather they spent some time watching good television, or playing an educational video game, or if I'm feeling really frisky, playing outside in the fresh air and getting some sunshine.

See, while it's true that reading can improve vocabulary, it has to have words they haven't run into before to do that.  And it can improve mental cognition, but so do good video games these days.  And no book on earth does a better job of burning calories than running around kicking a ball.

Now, my definition of total crap is probably not nearly as exacting as most people's, but if it's a matter of say, reading Captain Underpants, or going out for a walk, I'll push my kids toward the walk.

That is sort of what I was thinking.

For the record, I was not asking this question because I think we should police young people's reading and ensure they only read certain books.  Or because I don't think reading itself is a worthwhile activity.

It is tough (or even impossible!) to define what a rubbish book is, and I certainly do not believe that popular books, or any particular genre is more likely to be rubbish than the "classics" or what is supposed to be "literature". 

Also - as I said somewhere earlier in this thread, I think there is some value in reading rubbish, but that is dependent on also reading not-rubbish and so learning to make up your own mind which you like better . 

And while I'm certain that reading helps build vocabulary and all those good things - so do a lot of other activities.  And in any case, those skills and qualities are really quite far down on my list for what is valuable about reading a lot.  I'm much more interesting in things like developing the ability to put yourself in somebody else's skin and see the world from their point of view,  realising that there are many subtle ways to experience and describe the world, having the ability to find intense joy and sorrow by immersing yourself in a story.  All of which are not only to be found in reading, though!

On the other hand, there have been some other points made in this thread.  I particularly like Mary's point of the fact that even enjoying only one book can help a child understand the allure that reading has for others.  And many people have made a convincing case that enjoying one book - no matter how weak - can and does lead on to reading other books as well.

[mooshie78]

On the other hand, there have been some other points made in this thread.  I particularly like Mary's point of the fact that even enjoying only one book can help a child understand the allure that reading has for others.  And many people have made a convincing case that enjoying one book - no matter how weak - can and does lead on to reading other books as well.

That point I think is largely indisputable.  No one will ever become an avid reader if they don't start to enjoy reading at some point.  Not every kid that reads say Harry Potter will go on to be avid readers, but more of them will than the kids who never read anything other than the books their forced to read in school.  One is much more likely to learn to love a hobby if they enjoy it on their own, by reading and loving a book that they weren't forced to read for school etc.


Anyway, I do agree with Keryl on the value of other things as well.  Too many people on here are diehard readers who can sometimes be a bit snooty about other mediums (same thing with diehard movie buffs on movie forums etc.)  Personally, I think there's just as much value in a great film (for one example) as a great book.  I think it's mentally limiting to only be obsessively into one hobby like many are, and find such people tend to be bores.  It's ideal, IMO, to really try to be well rounded in the arts, entertainment and hobbies and not focus entirely on any one thing like books, movies, music, sports etc. like many seem to do.

[crimescribe]

I think it is a good thing. I can remember getting my little sister hooked on the Belgariad fantasy series by David Eddings when I was a teenager and she's been a voracious reader ever since. Of course her reading tends to trend more toward sci-fi and vampires than it does to Hemingway but it does improve one's verbal IQ as an earlier post mentioned. I'm all for it.