Summer Reading
Gosh, and you wonder why kids hate reading. I remember some of the required school reading I had to do. It wasn’t until I was out of school that I discovered that not all books were stupid. But “Summer of the Monkeys” will always, always be complete garbage.
I can’t count how many kids have come into the store with a list of books they have to read for school, ask me where they can find them, then ask me how long they are. It’s rare to see a kid excited about a book that’s over 200 pages. Say what you will about the Harry Potters or the Twilights but those books got kids (and adults) excited. They liked the fact that they were 300+ pages deep. It got them reading and for a good group of them, it got them to read other books too.
Having the choice between failing a class or reading a book takes the pleasure out of the whole thing. My father had to read “Red Badge of Courage” when he was in school and he HATED it. Later on, on a whim, he picked it up, finished it, and found that on his own, on his leisure time, the book wasn’t half bad.
I wonder, if kids were required to watch TV or play video games like they were required to read school selected books, would they enjoy television or Xbox less?
